Memories of the one-room school are pleasant and vivid in my mind. My first encounter with school was for eight years as a student in the one-room school.
Later I taught nine years in the one-room school. Life was simple and pleasant. I was visiting with a former schoolmate last evening and we agreed that we really received a good education in the old school. We cited how well we learned our math, reading and geography. Also the successes of former students in later life. Many have become wealthy in worldly possessions. Many have become inventors, shown talents in our modern society. We see doctors, nurses, ministers, aviators and many useful positions in our world. We learned to become skaters, mud waders and athletes on our way to school. We received our physical education on our way to school by sliding, trudging through snow, mud and cold. We fell, picked ourselves up and learned to go on. I remember seeing the sunrise in the Eastern sky in the morning and saw it set in the West from the schoolroom when I taught.
Once we had a terrible blizzard during the day. The snow was deep. One frail boy had to walk across the field over fences to his home. I was afraid he couldn’t find his way through the blowing snow so I took him by the hand and took him home before I went to my abode. Love and concern was abundant in those days.
Ida Marie Jones
Mountain View, Missouri
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.
