kids, not mean but ornery. I was in the lower grades when he was there. Our classroom doors had a glass transom above the door and you never knew when you looked up Mr Morgan was looking in that little window. I shrunk down in my seat until I was 2 inches high. But he cared about us and so did the teacher. If you were brave enough to ask for help most of them would sit with you at your desk and help you. These were the old wide desks 2 people could sit in them, open on both sides.
“One mile east of the school was what we called the pea vinery. The peas grew on vines which were cut and windrowed with a mower pulled by 2 horses. The peas were cut in the morning and hopefully harvested the same day to keep them fresh. One year I helped a neighbor work all night to get theirs in because of rain. We started at six at night, dinner at midnight and supper at six in the morning. We worked in the field by moonlight and kerosene lanterns. The vinery had electricity to run the machinery. The vines were stacked outside, then the farmers who had peas would haul them home to feed the livestock as they needed. The vines, with the pods, were pitched by fork into the hulling machine which shelled the peas. The peas went through different size screens to make each batch the same large, medium or small. They were boxed and hauled to the Canning factory 6 miles north to the small town of Roland. The factory there provided jobs for a lot of people in the area. It was a short season so the factory worked up to 20 hours a day. Shutting down to clean, then go again.
“For entertainment in the summer we had Dayton's Park. It was a Dance Hall 3 miles west of the School at a "T" intersection. It was pretty wide open as far as the law was concerned. The County Sheriff was the only one who had jurisdiction there, and unless things got too wild they stayed away. We didn't go there until we were a Jr or a Senior and we had people from all the town around there, so there were disagreements about boys and girls, but usually it was settled with fists- not knives and guns.
“Our big entertainment except sports was PTA. Everyone participated in PTA night once a month. All the parents, teachers, and students attended. The entertainment was spread around. We had plays, bands, etc, from 1st grade to Seniors. The parents also put on plays which were very entertaining. One time the adults play was about school kids and teacher. My Father was 6'4" tall, he played the Schoolmarm in the play, because he was taller than the kids. My Mom made a skirt for him that went to the floor. I still have a picture of him that looks so real my descendents don't believe that was Grandpa "Cap" Casper Egland. See page 246.
“Another thing going back to the 1930s was the buses. I never had to walk to school through rain, Snow and sleet and hail and heat. I rode the bus. The buses were pulled by a team of horses at first, and driven by High School boys who lived as far from the school as their age could handle the team. When I started people who had a truck would take their box off and put a bus on their chassis for the school year. High School Boys drove the busses all twelve years for me. I don't remember any accidents except sliding off the road occasionally. This still happens The old busses were different- a row of seats on each side facing each other. Then in the middle was a long narrow bench which the younger kids had to straddle. The older ones would torment them sometimes by kicking them in the feet and legs. Boy, was I glad when I got old enough to sit on the side. Picture of bus interior on page 338.
“When I think back it was a great life at good old Milford University (see page 288), as we later called it after it was closed.”
From the Paper of 5 Sept 1944: Lieut.. Wm L. "Bill" Sharpe, graduate of the Milford Consolidated School, who had been returned from England for Officers Training is expected in Nevada today for a visit at the James Curtis home and with other relatives and friends. He will be here but a few days. Lieut. Sharpe has been at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. Camp Seibert Ala, Camp Robert, Calif and Camp Carson, Colo., during his period of a year and a half since coming back from England. He is again expecting overseas duty. After his military experiences Bill worked for Keating Lumber and Coal and became President before he retired.
It took a true artist to stack a pile of straw in this manner as it was coming from the blower of a threshing machine. Chances are high that someone had to be up on the stack,in the dust and chaff, stacking all the time. Most times the straw was not stacked in this manner but simply in a pile. Note the free-range chickens cleaning up the spilled oats and bugs. The wagon gives a good porportional size. Picture from mid forties in southern Milford Twp.
Ted Molde and Iva Manley have lived the longest known lives of all Milfordites.
1888-1988
5 Aug 1905- April 2008
