MAPLE CREEK MEMORIES IV
SARAH
When young love was wasted on the young, or, as the song said, "If some folks would leave us alone."
When I was the ripe old age of five, I took a major step in life--I entered first grade. The world was too young then to have kindergarten, so we entered what was called "Primer." But since we could all read and count to ten by the time the first week was over, the teacher began the regular first grade lessons.
And just what was first grade all about? Well, I tell you what I remember about it in a few short sentences. You had to keep quiet. You had to ask to get a drink of water. You had to wait on the higher grades before you got something to eat. The older boys wouldn't let you play with them. The older girls liked to make fun of you. You couldn't just get up and go to the privy when you need to. You had to hold up your hand, announce to the whole three grades what you needed to do, and then go. And the pain could get pretty bad when the teacher was working with the third grade and didn't look up and see you pretty quick. But, mostly, I remember the teasing.
There was this girl. Her name was Sarah, but everybody called her Sallie. I don't know why, but they did. I always liked the name Sarah best. And that is what I called her when others weren't around. If I slipped up when others were around she always acted like she was mad at me for calling her Sarah. She was from up the hollow that went up Finney Creek and had about a dozen or so brothers and sisters, but I only knew her and her older sister, who was in the third grade. Anyhow, I had this friend named Jake and he was the only one who didn't tease me about Sarah. He lived up Finney Creek too.
Jake and I loved to play marbles. As long as Jake supplied the marbles because I didn't have any and my father was laid off so there was no money to buy them. Jake had brought a couple of sackfuls back from Michigan where his Dad worked before he got laid off at the car plant and came back home to live until he was called back. We played out beside the school building under and old cedar tree. It was nice and shady there and the tree wouldn't let the grass grow under it. It was nice and flat and Jake and I cleared all the rocks out so we could play marbles every morning before school took up. Sarah liked to watch us play and sometimes we let her play too because she was real good at it. And she was smart. And kind of pretty too.
Sometimes when it rained we couldn't play marbles and we'd sit on the porch of the school and Jake and I would talk about all kinds of things. Like how we would have like to have been old enough to be in the war and maybe there would be another one when we grew old enough to join up together. And then we'd have to get get up and go in and listen to the teacher for a few hours before we got out for recess. We both hoped it would stop raining, we had things to do. We'd go in and Jake would sit in the front seat with me behind him, Lizzie behind me and Sam behind her and Sarah sitting in the back seat.
I liked lunchtime because then we ate our sandwiches and got to play for almost an hour. It didn't take long to eat because we didn't bring much with us.We couldn't afford to eat in the cafeteria because it cost fifteen cents and my father was out of work. He said it took all he could scrape together just to run up a bill at the grocery store. But every now and then I'd sneak back to the side door of the school and Flo would give me an apple or a banana or orange. She liked me. I still don't know why. Sometimes she'd let me empty the trash into the big cans Henry took out after school. That was fun. And then I'd go and hunt up Jake and Sarah and split whatever Flo had given me and then we'd play marbles or swing or just sit and talk.
After school was out for the day we'd all walk back up the hard road to Maple Creek Hollow and then up it to where Jake and Jennie left to go up Finney Creek. All the way we were watched by my three older brothers and Jennie's older sister. They teased all three of us but mostly it was me and Sarah about us being sweethearts, whatever that meant. And it wasn't just them either. Mom and Gramma and Hootie picked it up. Henry did too. And so did Sarah's family. They all teased too, and that hurt worse than anything the kids could dish out.
When school ended that year, Jake moved back to Michigan with his family and I never saw Sarah but once or twice that summer. Jake and his family moved back later on and we were still close but not as close as we were to begin with. His family did a shuttle back and forth all through grade school, finally moving to Michigan to stay when we were in the sixth grade. I haven't seen him since, although I did see where his father had died a few years ago. Jake was living in Lincoln County at the time and I thought I might look him up. But I never did.
Sarah and I grew apart each year as the teasing kept up for two or three more years. We never talked about it with each other but I think we both knew that we were never going to be that couple that everyone seemed to think we would be. A few years later when we were in the eighth or ninth grade, Sarah and her sisters came around to our house on Halloween and she and I walked and talked. But I left her at the bridge spanning Maple Creek that leads up Finney Creek and did walk her on home. She and I went through high school together and then she married some guy I never heard of. They later got a divorce, I heard.
When young love was wasted on the young, or, as the song said, "If some folks would leave us alone."
When I was the ripe old age of five, I took a major step in life--I entered first grade. The world was too young then to have kindergarten, so we entered what was called "Primer." But since we could all read and count to ten by the time the first week was over, the teacher began the regular first grade lessons.
And just what was first grade all about? Well, I tell you what I remember about it in a few short sentences. You had to keep quiet. You had to ask to get a drink of water. You had to wait on the higher grades before you got something to eat. The older boys wouldn't let you play with them. The older girls liked to make fun of you. You couldn't just get up and go to the privy when you need to. You had to hold up your hand, announce to the whole three grades what you needed to do, and then go. And the pain could get pretty bad when the teacher was working with the third grade and didn't look up and see you pretty quick. But, mostly, I remember the teasing.
There was this girl. Her name was Sarah, but everybody called her Sallie. I don't know why, but they did. I always liked the name Sarah best. And that is what I called her when others weren't around. If I slipped up when others were around she always acted like she was mad at me for calling her Sarah. She was from up the hollow that went up Finney Creek and had about a dozen or so brothers and sisters, but I only knew her and her older sister, who was in the third grade. Anyhow, I had this friend named Jake and he was the only one who didn't tease me about Sarah. He lived up Finney Creek too.
Jake and I loved to play marbles. As long as Jake supplied the marbles because I didn't have any and my father was laid off so there was no money to buy them. Jake had brought a couple of sackfuls back from Michigan where his Dad worked before he got laid off at the car plant and came back home to live until he was called back. We played out beside the school building under and old cedar tree. It was nice and shady there and the tree wouldn't let the grass grow under it. It was nice and flat and Jake and I cleared all the rocks out so we could play marbles every morning before school took up. Sarah liked to watch us play and sometimes we let her play too because she was real good at it. And she was smart. And kind of pretty too.
Sometimes when it rained we couldn't play marbles and we'd sit on the porch of the school and Jake and I would talk about all kinds of things. Like how we would have like to have been old enough to be in the war and maybe there would be another one when we grew old enough to join up together. And then we'd have to get get up and go in and listen to the teacher for a few hours before we got out for recess. We both hoped it would stop raining, we had things to do. We'd go in and Jake would sit in the front seat with me behind him, Lizzie behind me and Sam behind her and Sarah sitting in the back seat.
I liked lunchtime because then we ate our sandwiches and got to play for almost an hour. It didn't take long to eat because we didn't bring much with us.We couldn't afford to eat in the cafeteria because it cost fifteen cents and my father was out of work. He said it took all he could scrape together just to run up a bill at the grocery store. But every now and then I'd sneak back to the side door of the school and Flo would give me an apple or a banana or orange. She liked me. I still don't know why. Sometimes she'd let me empty the trash into the big cans Henry took out after school. That was fun. And then I'd go and hunt up Jake and Sarah and split whatever Flo had given me and then we'd play marbles or swing or just sit and talk.
After school was out for the day we'd all walk back up the hard road to Maple Creek Hollow and then up it to where Jake and Jennie left to go up Finney Creek. All the way we were watched by my three older brothers and Jennie's older sister. They teased all three of us but mostly it was me and Sarah about us being sweethearts, whatever that meant. And it wasn't just them either. Mom and Gramma and Hootie picked it up. Henry did too. And so did Sarah's family. They all teased too, and that hurt worse than anything the kids could dish out.
When school ended that year, Jake moved back to Michigan with his family and I never saw Sarah but once or twice that summer. Jake and his family moved back later on and we were still close but not as close as we were to begin with. His family did a shuttle back and forth all through grade school, finally moving to Michigan to stay when we were in the sixth grade. I haven't seen him since, although I did see where his father had died a few years ago. Jake was living in Lincoln County at the time and I thought I might look him up. But I never did.
Sarah and I grew apart each year as the teasing kept up for two or three more years. We never talked about it with each other but I think we both knew that we were never going to be that couple that everyone seemed to think we would be. A few years later when we were in the eighth or ninth grade, Sarah and her sisters came around to our house on Halloween and she and I walked and talked. But I left her at the bridge spanning Maple Creek that leads up Finney Creek and did walk her on home. She and I went through high school together and then she married some guy I never heard of. They later got a divorce, I heard.
posted by tanstaafl | 4:13 PM
2 Comments:
OK so far. Jake and Sarah will be back sometime in the future. just to clarify, Hootie is my uncle, passed away about 34 years ago, Mom died 24 years ago and Gramma has been gone for 35 years. My father left us 26 years ago. Henry was the janitor of the school and also my uncle. Flo was the cook at school and had a granddaughter who lived with her named Julia, and boy was she a knockout after she got a little older and took off her glasses. I think everyone except Flo and Julia appear later on somewhere.
The last time I saw the old cabin was in the late 1970's and there wasn't much left. The road now is blacktopped and much narrower than back in the early to mid-fifties when most of this occurs. They moved the school from down on the hard road to a piece of land bounded by Finney Creek Road and Maple Creek Road. From the front porch of our old house you could just see the corner of it in the new location. We had to walk about a mile to get to the old location. The new location would be about a quarter-mile or less, probably less.
The old lady who lived in the shack during the flood also will be along, in both prose and poetry.
Have fun.
you've got yourself a project going, don't ya? Fun to read, though I am trying to get straight in my head how it all lays out.
By the way, sis you see the blurb at the top of the screen today about MaryAnn from "Gilligan's Island" being caught with drugs?
At lest it is not another Britney headline.......
Post a Comment
<< Home