THE NEW AGE--ARTICLE--JULY 1990--ARTBRYAN.JUL

                  My Little School and the Masons

                         TRUMAN BRYAN, 32
               912 E. Winkler, Kermit, Texas  79745


     My little school in the deep backwoods of Northeast Arkansas
burned 70 years ago.  Now dense woods tell nothing of it. The
records are in my memory.  And among those memories are Masons--
from where I do not know.
     The road to the 20' x 25' school was little more than a path. 
But it could be traveled by wagon and team in good weather.  We all
walked.  An effort was made to have three months of school in
summer and three in winter.  We usually had less--sometimes none. 
They tried to get a mature teacher who had completed her education,
that is one who had finished the eighth grade.  This was hard
because if a girl was not married by twenty, she was an old maid. 
And, of course, she could not teach if she were ever married.
     Pay was $20 per month less $5 for room and board with a school
board member.  The teacher was expected to help with chores like
milking, cutting wood, and cleaning house.  Some said that if she
cut wood for the school, she should not have to cut wood where she
boarded.  But this was debated.
     Just under the hill was a beautiful spring where the girls
went with a lard bucket for drinking water.  We had a gourd for the
girls to drink out of and a separate one for the boys.  But only
one bucket.  Girls sat on the benches on the north side of school,
boys on the south side.  We had no furnished books of any kind. 
None.
     We had an oil lamp mounted on the north wall and one on the
south wall.  But the one-gallon coal oil can was empty, even though
the potato was still over the spout.  Some accused the Teacher of
using the oil to light fires on cold mornings.
     Teacher taught us it was not nice to spit on the floor or out
the window or even on the outside of the box heater.  Some boys
claimed they could spit through the floor cracks.  But Teacher said
to open the stove door and spit in the stove or carry a bucket for
that purpose.  So the Teacher and the girls who dipped snuff and
the boys who chewed were to carry a bucket.  This made quite a
clutter and did not always work anyway.  Really it bothered Teacher
less than most because she usually wore shoes.
     Chalk was one cent per stick available from Teacher.  I had
no money, but worked out a deal to keep rag erasers and black-board
clean in exchange for a few pieces of broken chalk.
     I missed the first two years of school because I could work
some at home and for others.  I hired out away from home by myself
the first time when I was almost seven.  This was to pick cotton
for a family whose kids were in school.  The farmer had a first-
grade reader and a sixth-grade arithmetic which he traded to me in
exchange for my getting up before daylight to milk and feed so that
he could sleep a little longer.
     These were the most wonderful books I ever saw, even though
one had no front or back.  I memorized them.  I slept in the hay
loft and learned to get under the hay on the cold nights of late
November 1914.  They fed me at the house after they had eaten.
     I started school when about nine.  They had a spelling bee or
a ciphering match each Friday.  The first Friday was ciphering and
I was eager.  They named two leaders and they chose up sides.  But
when the choosing was completed, I was unchosen.  They thought I
knew nothing.  And besides they thought I had no chalk to use at
the blackboard.  So Teacher assigned me to a side.  Being last
"chosen" I was first up.  And I turned down the whole other side. 
That sixth grade arithmetic paid off.
     For unknown reasons Teacher became pregnant.  Her folks came
for her in an old unpainted wagon pulled by a small horse and a
sick looking mule.  Her mother sat on a quilt on the floor and
cried.  Teacher sat on the spring seat with her father and cried. 
The father looked grim.  They drove off under the trees and were
soon gone.  We watched and waved and cried.  We loved her.  Finally
Effie closed the school door and tied it shut with the wire.  We
wandered off home.  No adults came.
     That ended school for many, especially the girls.  Most people
wanted to stop having school.  "It's ruining our kids."  "Why
should they learn to read anyway?"  "All this schooling is wrong."
     After about a year, three men on horseback came.  They said
they were Masons--whatever that was.  They said they were working
for better schools.  We had no idea where they came from.  They
wanted to help us get started again.  But no money was available. 
After about a month they came again, five of them.  One drove a
wagon loaded with treasures.  There was new chalk, erasers and
books--lots of books.  All were used and some had no backs, but
that was fine.  There was Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island and
more.  A complete set of encyclopedias and more.  They said they
were donated.  They got the board member to remove the hay and pigs
he had in the school, and they helped clean up.
     Next they brought our old Teacher (now age eighteen) and said
if we would cooperate, they would double her wages and pay it in
full for at least the next year.  They said they would send her to
get more education.  And that she should not cut wood anymore.
     I know not where the Masons came from or where they went.  But
the fact that I can read and write I owe to them.  They enabled me
to have a better life.  I could never repay.

_______________________________________________________________
The Teacher and the girls who dipped snuff and the boys who chewed
were to carry a bucket.  This made quite a clutter and did not
always work anyway.  Really it bothered Teacher less than most
because she usually wore shoes.

After about a year, three men on horseback came.  They said they
were Masons--whatever that was.  They said they were working for
better schools.

Brother Truman Bryan, a member of the El Paso, Texas, Scottish Rite
Bodies, is also Past Master of Kermit Lodge No. 1258 of Kermit,
Texas, and served as Deputy District Grand Master of the 183rd
Masonic District of Texas in 1977.  A four-term Worthy Ptron of
Eastern Star, he retired in 1973 after 38 years with Mobil Oil
Company.





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