May 8, 2008: News item from Aunt Liz's "readreed"

News from Liz

Sunday I went to a baby shower for Emily(Dianes daughter). It was at Diane & Daves new house in Blaine.Their house is really,really nice .Has lots of windows so gets lots of light-they have a screened in deck(very smart for Mn.& allthe mosquitos)& that looks out over a pond & some woods & a cornfield. Diane said the farmer planted the corn for the wild life & they reallyhave it. They have seen deer ,wild turkeys, beaver in the pond just in back of their house & sandhill cranes. We saw the cranes on Sun. Janet came on Sat & spent time with with Donna before she left on Sun for the Ukraine. Emily got a lot of nice baby things at the shower. There were 3 babies there--one was only 10 days old!! Janet is in a Sweet Adelines concert on May 17th & Diane & Dave are going -they are going to pick me up.Pat will be in Hayward Wis. so I didn't think I would be able to go but this will work out fine. Fri. I am going to Jamie Lorch's School for Grandparents Day. We were to write a letter & tell what it was like when we started school. I think mine might be a litte different as I started school in a one room schoolhouse.YES we had to walk to school-rain,snow or shine. We were on a farm which was only about a mile from school. The teacher had all 8 grades-there were aout 12 or 15 students altogether. There were little desks in front & then medium size ones & then large ones for big kids.I carried my lunch in a little tin pail with a cover.Lunch was usually a peanut butter sandwich, a cookie or piece of cake & some fruit like an apple or raisins. When I was in 4th grade the country school closed & then I went to school in town & a school bus picked us up. At the country schoolwe had to carry water from the neighboring farm .We had to take turns to get the water --we had a pailto carry the water. The toilets were outside toilets -one for boys & one for girls. In winter ther was a big old heating stove that burned coal & wood. The teacher would get there early in winter to start the fire so it would be warm when the kids got there. Interesting times !!