AT SEVEN, TWINS WERE OFF TO TRINITY

School days for my twin sister and me began just before we turned seven. We were very small for our age. In those days children were not pre-enrolled like they are now, nor did they go to a nursery school. We started right in the first grade. We attended a small, German school house located on the grounds of our present Trinity Lutheran church, with the first three grades being held in the downstairs and the remaining five upstairs. It was a very old fashioned school house with wooden steps leading to the upstairs with a large pot-bellied stove that stood at the top of the stairs, which kept the teacher filling it with coal and wood on wintry days.

As I reflect on it now it reminds me of the days we read about in some of Charles Dickens' stories.

A male instructor took care of the upstairs grades, and his daughter taught the first three grades downstairs. The older German instructors were very strict once you reached the upper grades. Severe punishment such as hard whippings with a strap and hard pinching of the ears was given for only a minor misdemeanor, such as talking in class or throwing a paper wad.

The seats were the old-fashioned school-room type with a full length desk on top and a shelf underneath to keep our books in. When you wished to be excused you would raise either one or two fingers. Only outhouses were in existence so long ago and they demanded a little distance to walk. It was expected of everyone to bring a folding cut, and when you wanted a drink you had to go outside and get it from an old-fashioned pump cistern, which also was a little distance from the door. The winter's snow and ice caused us some difficulty but we had no choice.

There were no school buses in those days and everyone walked to school no matter how far it was. We often cut through alleys and would break long icicles off of low sheds to eat. What fun. We liked it when the bell rang for recess and we could run out and play. There were swings, the slide, and a jiney stride, a pole with ropes that you held to and swung in the air, a little daring but fun.

The end of the school day found us skipping off to home with our books, tablets and pencils as fresh as the morning dew when we skipped off to school once more. Homework was done at night and then off to bed.

Such beautiful memories of our early childhood will never, never leave me, but always remain another precious reminder of my home sweet home with my beloved family and my dear twin sister, and leaving me with the sad thought once again that I am all alone, so much alone and weary and waiting for our blessed reunion in eternity.