Once Upon A Time...

...there was teacher named Mrs. Isenhour. She taught the 1st Grade at Rockwell School in Rockwell NC. This was a long, long time ago, and I have the picture to prove it.

Now I ask you, were we not adorable? (Click on the photo to see it full size.) Little did I know, when I stood between Victor and Tommy on the first row--in what was easily the ugliest dress I owned, with the one pocket stuffed full of who-knows-what--that I would one day be the school nurse at that same school. Needless to say, I never thought I'd be a romance writer. (A WHAT?)

And what a quirky thing one's memory can be. Some of these children, I remember well. Some, I remember their faces, but not their names. Some--even though I know who they are--I have no memory of their having been in my same class that year, when clearly they were because they're right there in the photograph. I remember a lot of personality traits, whom I liked and whom I didn't, who was a bully, who cried all the time, who colored beautifully, who ate paste, who couldn't read no matter what, who got smacked on the legs for talking in the reading circle (a-hem).

Some of them are dead now. Some became teachers like Mrs. Isenhour, some became nurses, secretaries, business men, a banker, farmers, textile workers, housewives. Some went to Vietnam.

Anyway, I found this yesterday--I'd been looking for it for YEARS--and I thought I'd share it with you. Truth be told, I miss The Good Old Days...

even with the ugly dress.

The Round House in Rockwell NC

I came across this clipping of "The Round House," as it was known in the small town where I grew up. The photo isn't all that clear, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. Actually, I may be sharing it with you again. I can't remember if I've blogged about this structure before not.

The house was located on US Highway 52, and it was unusual not just because of the round architecture, but also because the kitchen was separate from the main house. My fey mother tells me it was not haunted. (The haunted house was the "Heilig House," several doors down.) The entire structure was demolished, I believe, in the 1960s.

The house was actually in the family for a number of years (which is why Mom is sure there were no ghosts), and it's the backdrop for a number of old sepia family photos. My great grandfather (Wagner) lived there for a time, and according to the family oral history, he used to sit on the porch and play his fiddle for the assorted children in the neighborhood -- when he wasn't feuding with one of his daughters. The house later belonged to a great uncle (Beaver), but he "lost" it. Details are sketchy as to how that came about, but it's said that he took the loss very hard. It so happened that the subsequent house he and my great aunt and their children moved to afterward had a clear view of "The Round House" from a certain point in the side yard. My great uncle would often sit there in the late afternoon, facing in that direction, pining for the house, the women in the family opined.

I have a very dim memory of having been inside it, but I remember well the box camera "picture-taking" that placed it so often in the background. In one I was posed with a dog I didn't want to be posed with -- because it had very bad breath. I think it may have been my dog, but I'm not sure about that detail. I am sure, however, that it needed a Tic-Tac.

So. That's all for this time...