rayban ariela: A Time For Everything: Home {Dad's Journal II}

I went to Fountain School ... where our dad also went as a little boy.? We have a picture of the school and of the students standing on the front steps, dad was in second grade.? I went to Fountain for 6-1/2 years.? In January 1945 the wood stove overheated and burned the school to the ground.? I then went to Apple Creek to finish 8th grade.

I probably had woodworking skills in my blood early in my life.? Back then all farm boys carried pocket knives.? I used mine for something that wasn't very smart.? While we were supposed to be studying, I was boring a hole through the front of my desk.? I managed somehow to finish it in a couple of weeks.? The reason for the hole was to take my pencil and tease the girl in front of me.? Well it worked, but I got caught.? The teacher, which was a man at the time, told me to stay after school.? When the rest of the students had all left, he told me to go to the front where his desk was.? When I got there, he told me to bend over his desk.? He didn't use the yard stick, he pulled off his belt and gave me the worst whipping of my life.? (worse than dad's)? Then he sent me home.? Of course I was late and dad asked where I had been.? I told him the teacher had asked me to stay.? He asked why ...and well you should know the rest.? I got another whipping.

The next day the teacher told me I was grounded for first recess, but had to take my knife and go find a tree branch to fit the hole.? I did and the hole got closed up.? It wasn't very pretty but he let it pass.? Then he moved me to the front so he could watch me better.? I still like woodworking!

My younger years were happy years, our dad was strict, but caring.? Mother was very loving and kind.? I really liked to help her, especially with the flowers, planting and the bulbs.? In the fall she would reverse it, and dig them all back up to store in the basement over winter.? I look back on those years and will never regret any of them.

?~ Uncovering our centuries-old family crest ~
(Dad enjoyed genealogy, keeping journals and detailed records)?

Meaning of our family crest (as told by Gottfried & family, Switzerland, Nov 2011)

*Hard workers and persistent (holding firmly to a purpose or undertaking despite obstacles, to see it through to the end), perfectionists, strong-willed,
noted for having large families.