As more families came and settled in the forest, the men got together and decided that we needed a school. So when a project was decided upon, each and everyone did his part. I can still remember that school. It was built near our place and was named "The Nims School". Of course it too was built of logs and a shake roof. It had homemade seats that would hold two or three children. The roll call was: Harry and Mary Saar, Katie Stewart and her sisters, Maude and Sydney, Ada, Eugene and Rae Roberts, Louise, Harry, Mable and Francis Buell, Walter Stell and his sisters, Edith and Laura Hickman and three from our family.
I wasn't old enough for school yet, but I was learning. I could turn pancakes and I could stir country gravy almost as good as my sister. I just loved to help Mama cook. Papa's pet name for me was Puss. When he would ask what's for dinner Puss, I would feel so important.
When I turned six years old I did start school. I had new bought shoes. We never had had shoes before, except in winter. My oldest brother Leon would go out hunting for something, almost anything, that he could kill and skin to make us a pair of Indian moccasins. He would put the fur on the inside to help keep our feet warm. Leon could just never stand to see us smaller children outside barefoot in winter. Mother was a dressmaker and could sew beautifully, so she made me two new dresses for school.
The schoolhouse was drafty and cold although there was a big wood stove on one end. I was the smallest child and the larger ones would push me back away from the stove. My teacher was Mr. Lucious Jones. He would often pick me up and carry me to the stove and sit and hold me until I warmed up. If any of my yellow curls got out of line, he would do a repair job. It seemed to me that he was the only friend I had in school that first year.