“Dear reader, I am happy to share one of my stories about school days with you. It’s a tale that is both nostalgic and entertaining, filled with moments of laughter, friendship, and mischief. So sit back, relax, and let me take you on a journey through my memories. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed living it.”

The old one room school house was warm that morning.  Laura and Reg, the folks that I lived with, also looked after the school, but today they were busy on the farm and couldn’t make it.   Usually they had all the windows open and the building swept out before anyone got there.  The oldest boys soon fixed the problem by opening the windows, while the girls swept the floors, in no time at all, things were ready to go. 
     Miss Jameson, had just started teaching at our school a few months ago.  Most of us kids treated her pretty good, but there were a few that liked to pull the odd prank once in a while.  They wouldn’t ever do anything that would hurt her or anyone, but scare, now that was a different story.  Only thing was, though, her being so nice, most of us didn’t want to play any tricks on her.  I kind of figured she had been lucky so far as no one attempted anything, but I knew that was about to change. There were two older fellows in grade eight, that usually came up with the ideas and then made the younger fellows do the dirty work.
     Well, on this day the two older fellows arrived at school earlier, and they picked up a Garter snake along the way.  They cornered this young fellow new to the school and told him to put the snake in the teachers top desk drawer.  The younger boy didn’t really want too, but in fear of getting picked on for the rest of the day, he said he would.  The snake was put in the drawer and pretty well the whole class knew about it, other than a few girls that were real friendly with the teacher.  If they had found out, for sure, they would have said something.
     We all opened our books and were sitting there waiting for her to open her desk. To our dismay, though, she never even went near the drawer, till around noon. Then it happened.
    “Lunchtime,” she said and started to put her things away.  We all sat there holding our breath. Thinking, now she will scream, jump from her chair and run to the other side of the room, maybe even out the door, like all the other teachers had done before.  The girls  that knew what was going on, were holding their hands over their mouth. The guys were on the edge of their seats, the teacher, well, she slowly reached down and opened the drawer.  But to our surprise, she just reached in, took the snake in her hand and laid it on her desk.
    “Well, she said, it looks to me like a few here in the class are interested in snakes.  So right after lunch we will get our science books out, and I will go over the different kinds. I am very happy you brought it to my attention.” 
     Every one that knew about it, just kind of sat there with a look of disappointment on their face.  The laugh, this time, was on us.
    No matter what they came up with, through the year, they just couldn’t scare her. Spiders, mice, more snakes, nothing seemed to bother her. She took them all in stride. 
     Later on we found she was raised in the country and while growing up she was kind of a tomboy.  I will say this, she was the best teacher that I ever had.  She taught all eight grades and never once complained.  Eventually, the older boys found other girls to bother, and the teacher was left alone to do her job.
    So there you have it, a day in the life of a country school teacher.

Click on image to enlarge! Nature’s finest hour.

Good Morning!

So how you all doing on this fine looking Saturday? Good I hope. For my wife and i we are doing okay these days. We have also been taking the time to enjoy the nice weather that has been upon us for the past week. Pretty well all of our snow has left us and as hard as it to believe the grass is turning green quite rapidly. We have also noticed a lot of our summer song birds have returned. Including the Robbins. The proverb states that if the first Robbin you see at the start of the year is sitting on the ground, the year will be successful. And I found that to be true over the years. As long as there are a few of us old timers around, old beliefs will always exist. Some people, however, believe that a good year will come if the first Robbin you see is sitting up high, but the truth is … that belief has fallen out of favour over time, for a number of reasons that I won’t get into this morning.

On another note, my lovely wife and I have been real busy working outside, cleaning things up around our property for the past few days, and today we will do the same, but not as much, as I kind of think we overdid it yesterday a wee bit. The weather has sure been nice, and no one can complain about that.

So with that I am off for some pancakes with a touch of Maple Syrup and will then …. hmm maybe, I will roll our lawn this morning before the ground gets too hard. It sure helps, especially for walking, not to forget that the rolling pushes all the roots back in place where they should be, which in turn makes for a really nice looking lawn all summer long. And it also makes it nicer to mow.

Have a great day and stay safe. GW

“Don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild and take risks with your writing. The most memorable and powerful stories often come from authors who are unafraid to explore new ideas and push the boundaries of what is considered conventional or safe. So, don’t be afraid to take chances with your characters, your plot, and your writing style. Embrace your creativity, trust your instincts, and have confidence in your unique voice as a writer.”

Here is a phrase that has helped me when writing my books.

Basically, a ‘Good Old Boy,’ knows he’s got all he can handle to run his own life, and doesn’t try to run anybody else’s.

The older one gets, the faster and faster changes seem to come.