The winters were long and the roads often drifted full of snow.  There were no snow plows for opening the roads in those days after a snowstorm.  The only time we were late for school was a November snowstorm, when my father and neighborhood men had to shovel the snow along the main highway, so the horses and sleigh could get through to Mt. Hope.

    There were no cars or electric power in those first years we were living in the Mt. Hope area;  there were no hard surfaced roads.  The spring time was a muddy season until the frost was all out of the ground.

    One of the long ago events that was interesting was a 4th of July celebration in town.  At this time, a town band had been organized which played at this event.  It was a home talent program in which many people took part.  I can't remember the date.

    While I was in high school, a program of Negro songs and readings was given at Kaschkee Hall.  My part was to give the biography of Booker T. Washington.  The story of his life fascinated me.

     My father served as town chairman for a number of years. One of his duties with other town officers was to look after welfare families of that period in the Township.  They also posted quarantine signs on homes where contagious diseases had developed.

      I graduated from Mt. Hope High School on May 29, 1913 with Roy Plimpton and the late Walter Koschkee.  At that time, we had class day exercises in the afternoon and commencement program in the evening at Koschkee Hall.  My dress "special for the day" was a white embroidered material.

    That summer our home on the farm was remodeled.  The carpenters came on Monday and stayed until Saturday night.  Mother had to cook all the meals.  It was a busy summer.  We moved into our finished home at Thanksgiving time.  It was a great event.  I was home for that year helping my mother. 

     The following summer I attended summer school at the Platteville Normal School.  That fall I went to teach in our country school at Pleasant Valley.  The next year I taught in the Mt. Hope grades 4th, 5th and 6th.  The fall of 1916 I came to Platteville Normal.  It was the "golden jubilee" year of the school.  That fall there were many special events.

     One of the first graduates from the Pioneer School stayed at our boarding house, Mrs. Cliftons.  She was a doctor's wife from Viroqua, WI.  She told us students how her father brought her to the Normal School in the fall of 1866 in a lumber wagon from Barneveld, WI and we were all fascinated by the stories she told us.

      Lester Graves and I had our first date that fall.  Gladys Arnold, my friend, came to room with me the last semester of that year.  I did my practice teaching in the 5th and 7th grade of the training school the second year.  I also entered the public speaking contest and wrote my own essay.
 
     During our second year, World War I was declared.  Many of the boys left school to join the company formed in Platteville.  We had school parades depicting Red Cross units and other historical units.  While teaching in Columbus an epidemic of flu broke out.  The school nurse came every day to check the children.  Our school was closed for two months.

    Lester A. Graves and I were married February 22, 1921 at the home of my parents on the farm.  We came to live on a farm near Platteville.  We retired in 1962 and have lived at 565 North Second Street since that time.

   Our family consists of three children:  Arnold who farms east of Platteville; Virginia who lives with her husband and three children in Deerfield, Illinois; and Barbara who is a counselor in one of the hi-rise dorms at the University of Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin.