School came first in our family. Education was very, very important. And I loved school, especially elementary school because I could sit there and listen while the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were reciting. It was great. I learned a lot in elementary school. I hardly made the honor roll, but I enjoyed it. I don't think I had a favorite subject unless it was arithmetic. I was never excellent at that either. I enjoyed school, always seemed to like school. We were taught truthfulness and honesty and being polite. We started the day with Bible reading and prayer.

At school you walked up the steps onto a porch into the front door, and there was a cloakroom on each side. Right there was where you pulled the rope down and rang the bell that was up on top of the school. I guess all of us took part in it. The one-room school did not have an inside bathroom. It had a coal stove in the corner of the room. I often went up to the school before it opened and crawled in and got the room warmed up. We just lived at the bottom of the hill. It was maybe a quarter of a mile. I could run up that hill and get that room warmed up and run back home. I just liked that. I got bawled out a couple of times by the teacher. She didn't think I should do that, but I just wanted to be helpful. Cold or heat never bothered me.

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