Stories from my Father - School Days

At the age of 93, my father set out to write down some of the things that he remembered over a long and active life. My brother transcribed these recollections, and I share some of them with you now.

The Possum

On his way to the rural school one morning Eddy Sims saw a half grown possum run out from a culvert that crossed the road.  He gave chase and caught the fleeing varmint.  He planned to put the animal in one of his mother's chicken coops and make a pet out of it.  But what to do with the pet until school turned out that afternoon?  He did not have time to return home and then back to school before being tardy.  When remodeling the schoolhouse the summer before, the workmen had stacked some extra windows in a corner of the school room.  Eddy thought of the space behind the windows.  He hurried to the school and before anyone entered he ran and placed his pet behind the windows.  Of course the young possum slunk back into the a narrow space to feel secure. 

About mid-morning, when the classes were underway, the little possum grew curious and began to peek from the hiding place.  Before long a pupil saw the animal and gave a snigger.  That attracted the attention of the other pupils.  Before long all of the pupils except the ones who were reciting before the teacher's desk were watching the possum and giggling behind their hands.  That of course caught the attention of the teacher.  She looked in the direction the pupils were looking and saw the young animal student.  "Who brought that wild animal in here? She said sternly."  No one replied.  She repeated the question.  No reply.  She then told Herman Wallace to take the animal outside and release it. 

Seeing his pet about to go, Eddy spoke up and claimed the animal.  He begged the teacher to let his pet stay there until evening but she would have none of that plan but told him to take the thing promptly out and release it.  Reluctantly Eddy had to comply and his dream of a pet possum floated away. 

The Airplane

The year was the fall of 1918.  The two room rural school house was located in the Northwest area of Johnson County, Texas, about on the divide between the rivers Trinity and Brazos.  Surrounding was the gently rolling prairie of the community of Bruce, so named from an early pioneer.  The official identification of the school was No. 46 of Johnson County.  I was a fifth grader of the six grade school. 

On a mild afternoon the quiet of the pupils was startled by an airplane swooping low over the school house.  In a few moments the same plane dived low over the school house.  When the plane had made the third pass the pupils ran out of the schoolhouse as if they had been poured out. The plane had landed in a nearby field and was taxiing up to the fence by the school.  It stopped and a young man in uniform and helmet and goggles crawled out of the plane and came to the fence. 

He introduced himself to our young lady teacher.  That was the purpose of his antics over the school - to meet the one he was sure would be a young lady.  We pupils were told to remain on the outside of the fence because he had not turned the engine off.  The propeller was still ticking over on the biplane trainer.  The lone pilot could not start the engine by himself because it was cranked by spinning the propeller. 

After flirting with our teacher a few minutes and exchanging addresses with her, the pilot returned to his plane and taxied to the back of the field and turned in a take off round that carried him over our heads. With a wave to us, he continued on his way back to the training field at Everman. 

The teacher finally got us all back in the schoolroom but we were too excited to resume classes.  She finished the afternoon off with a spelling bee.  Then we scattered to our homes to tell our parents of the adventure of our first close-up look at the planes that flew over the area  every day. 

High School Play

It was the custom for the senior class to put on the "senior play" at the end of school.  The play our teacher selected called for one character to play the part of a black maid.  There were six girls in our class and four boys.  Not one of the six girls wanted to take the part of the black maid; didn't like blacking up face and hands with burnt cork.  We did not have real stage paint available.  So I volunteered to be the black maid, most of whose lines were comedy anyway.  Night of the play I dressed in my mother's clothes, which were a little large for me but that only added color to my part.  Alas, I lost my petticoat smack on the middle of the stage.  The audience applauded because they felt I did it on purpose.  Saved my embarrassment over the accident. 

Undressed by a Horse

When about 12 years old I went to the back of our pasture to drive a few horses and mules to the barn lot.  One of the animals was a gentle old mare that I easily caught and started riding bareback without a bridle.  We were going along very well when a young horse started running and jumping in play.  When he came by the mare and she jumped and began running also.  That was when I lost my perch on her back and hit the grass sliding.  That slide shucked me out of overalls as slick as if I had pulled them off.  By the time I got back in my overalls the horses were already at the barn lot.

Robert Bernard Anderson

Robert Bernard Anderson [a child-hood friend; no relation], suffered polio as a young child and therefore could not run, but he was a very good batter at baseball.  I could not hit a baseball with a tennis racket.  So it took the two Anderson boys to make one ball player.  He would bat the ball out and I would run the bases for him.  Because he was crippled, the other boys did not object to our collaboration.  We never got a home run out of the arrangement.  His sister, Velma, was one grade ahead of me and Bernard was one grade behind me.  He was always tops in debating.  Made up in intelligence what he lacked in the physical.

The Sling Shot

Judges 20:16 reads “among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth and not miss.”  I never did attain to that skill with a sling.  In fact if I came within  20 feet of my target I was pleased.  At about the age of 10 I made a sling.  Trying to hit a cardboard box in the yard,  I missed and hit a chicken hen that had a brood of chicks.   Broke the hen’s leg.  My mother took corrective action with me and also destroyed my sling.  But we did have chicken and dumplings for supper that day.

Thespian Endeavors

I often played various parts in school plays and social groups which are now identified as community theater.  Listing some: a black maid, black slapstick comedian, an Indian chief, a young farm worker named Curly, with the curly hair, courting the fair young lady of the neighborhood.  Also a lead whitewashing a fence as in Tom Sawyer, or was it Huckleberry Finn?  Anyway, I got careless with the whitewash brush and got some on the assistant principal that no one liked any way.

My College

It may not be evident in my writing, but I did go to college.  I stayed one whole semester.  Ran out of money so went back home to help my dad.  The college was Thorp Springs Junior, located 4 miles from Granbury.  To help pay tuition  I worked part-time at the school.  First job was milking the cows that supplied milk and butter for the kitchen.  Did that job only a few weeks and was put in charge of the light plant that powered the whole campus. 

Dormitory life was about like it would be at any small college with one very startling experience.  My bed had old-fashioned bedbugs in it.  Wow! That was new to me.  As I was running the kerosene powered electric generator, I had access to plenty of kerosene.  On a clear day I put that mattress in the yard and applied kerosene to all the cracks in the rolled edge.  Let the sun dry the coal oil out and presto, no more bugs.  The bed frame was metal so no bugs there.  So I did get a little education there, how to become an exterminator. 

The school that became TCU of Fort Worth had its beginning at Thorp Springs years before I went there.  It was first called Add-Ran College, named after two educators, Mr. Addison and Mr. Randolph.  In 1928, Thorp Spring Christian College was moved to Terrell, Texas, and became a school for black students.