We have memories tied in with sounds and smells. When I smell lilacs or sweeping compound or honey, I get feelings that are associated with days in Happy Hollow school. One May morning, Teacher took the whole school, with the exception of two girls, on a hike and flower hunt along the creek that ran alongside of the one-room schoolhouse and wandered through our pasture. When we returned to the school with our little bits of violets and buffalo peas, the entire schoolroom was filled with the scent of lilacs. And on every desk was a bouquet and a little basket of candies and lilacs – May baskets.
Another time, because a swarm of bees had made our school walls their hiding place, two young men agreed with the School Board that they would “get rid of those bees for good.” So they removed a bit of the foundation and ran a hose from their exhaust pipe under the schoolhouse and started up the motor on their 1928 Model T Ford and blew the building partly off the foundation! It cost more to replace the building properly than it would have to hire exterminators. And the bees were still living there when we moved in 1932!
Lola Gilbert
Mohave Valley, Arizona
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.
