CHAPTER XIII
I took the county examination which determined by fitness to graduate from the 8th grade.
My plans definitely included entering high school, although, at that time, an 8th grade education was considered adequate, the common opinion being that only lazy and no accounts continued in high school. I was the object of derision and ridicule by my classmates for my decision to go to high school.
Two others from my class entered high school but dropped out after a few weeks. I did quite well in high school with the exception of Latin, which was very difficult for me. I did not take Latin in my Junior year, and made perfect grades in every subject, and I really excelled in history.
I was some times ridiculed by my dude city classmates for having muddy shoes. It was impossible to walk one and one half miles on muddy country roads without gathering mud on ones shoes. I accepted their slurs without being adversely affected.
The Spring of 1913 was the flood year which brought destruction to Dayton and Marion. I was living with my father in the home place and commuted to school on the old M.B.&E inter-urban line. On the evening of the flood, water covered the inter-urban bridge, and it could not operate. I found the cloverleaf railroad was still running trains, and I could ride to Landesville, which was one half mile further from home than my destination on the interurban, but I was anxious to go home, which was a mistake, because by morning, the trains couldn't run.
My father took me to town in a buggy and drove to the waters edge. I then climbed on the railroad bridge which was being held down against the surging waters by cars loaded with coal. I walked across the loaded cars to the other side where I had to walk a considerable distance in water a foot deep before I could get to dry land.
I finally reached school to report my tardiness. It was a foolhardy undertaking, and I am surprised by Father allowed me to take the chance I took, because a missed step as I leaped from car to car, and I would have fallen into the swollen river.
During my second year in high school, I lived with my sister Ruth, and her husband Floyd who had married in the summer and were living with his parents whose home was only a few hundred feet from the traction stop. I helped care for their extensive herds of stock before and after I went to school.
The first and only winter I lived with them there was a heavy snowfall, so great in fact that all roads were closed as well as the traction line. I insisted on going to school and walked along the railroad tracks four miles in snow above my knees.
I reached the edge of town where by that time the trolley cars were running, so I took a trolley to school.
I reported to the principals office because I was tardy, and he was so impressed by my feat that he called several teachers to his office to tell them what I had done. A classmate much larger and stronger than me lived across the street from the school and missed classes because he claimed he couldn't cross the street.
To be continued
