Recollections:

Munderf school:

I don’t remember a water pump either inside or outside the building, but there must have been one somewhere. We had what we called a water “fountain,” but it was really only a water dispenser, with a tap to draw water – room temperature, naturally. We used to make paper cups out of notebook paper. I can remember during a severe drought going next door to Ambrose Davis’s, and dipping water out of the reservoir supplied by his windmill. Some of us disdained to take the water out of the reservoir, and held our buckets under the spout, which was giving little more than a dribble.

I can remember the old house near the school – across the “Egypt” road – that was eventually torn down to make way for a new house built by Bob Armstrong, where he brought his new bride, the former Dorothy Beck. I don’t distinctly remember the tearing down and building, and I don’t know how close – before or after – it was to Bob & Dorothy’s marriage. I had the understanding once that my father had gone to school in that old house many years ago, but I have been told since that there was actually another school building across the road from our school. I’m not sure whether they meant across the main road or across the Egypt road.

I remember an old apple tree in the field behind the barn across from Bob Armstrong’s, where we would occasionally make a trail in the fall – during recess or lunch break – and appropriate some apples (it was an “abandoned” tree, so the apples were free for the taking). I think Herb Allshouse eventually took it down. I think he at first leased the land for farming and eventually bought it. He was known as “The Professor” because he used to teach the 2 years of high school in the Munderf school.

I remember when the first grade (maybe second grade, too) used to get out early – half an hour early, I think – and we would play in the school yard unsupervised until the rest of the students got out.

I remember Ellis “Jerry” Dixon’s mule-drawn school bus. In the winter time, he would have one of those little kerosene stoves – similar to some that you can get even today (I think) in it. We weren’t “bus” students; we had to walk to school, but sometimes in the winter, Jerry, out of the goodness of his heart, would stop for us and give us a ride.

I can remember one day when a bunch of us were walking home together – some of whom would normally have ridden the bus – and we were staying a good distance from the road, because we heard that Clayton Updyke was driving around, and he was noted for being “wild” behind the wheel, and we feared for our lives!

I remember when Jim Wingard’s bull got loose, and we all walked in fear that we might encounter him. He probably never got anywhere near close to our area.

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Non-school recollections:

We used to spend a lot of time tramping through “Thompson’s Woods” on “Thompson’s Hill.” I distinctly remember once when 3 or 4 of us Harriff girls were rambling around the woods in late fall, and Bessie Davis was with us. There were a few wild grapes growing there. Did I say a few? We came across a mass of vines, loaded with grapes – and they were just at their peak of ripeness. At the same time, we heard the dinner bell ringing (ours). We just stood there for a few moments saying, “Grapes! Grapes! Grapes!” We couldn’t pass them up! We took time to load ourselves down with grapes before we started home. I don’t remember that Mom scolded us for not starting back immediately. She may have thought we were further away than we were when she rang the bell. In any case, we explained – and showed – why we didn’t start home immediately.

When my half-brother Paul Campbell was in high school in Brookville (his senior year), his bedroom was the attic. It wasn’t easy for Mom to call him to get him up early enough in the morning since he was so far away from the main floor, so he rigged up an “alarm clock.” It consisted of a bunch of discs from an old cream separator, strung on a string along the attic stairs, with a string dropping down through the “heater” (vent) from the room below into the kitchen. When it was time for Paul to get up, Mom would pull and shake the string, and the discs banging together made an effective wake-up tool. I remember watching him set it up; I guess I was about 7 years old at the time.

This incident happened when I was in first grade, Mildred in fourth, and Leora in sixth. We were on our way to school; it must have been early spring. We were taking our usual shortcut, instead of going out the lane, we would take the path to the “other barn” on the hill nearer the road (there was no road frontage on our property), and then go across Dick Schaffner’s property. This particular day, we decided to make it even shorter, by cutting diagonally across what had been a corn field the previous year. We took a few steps and sunk about ankle deep in mud. We were stuck! Pull one foot out, and you couldn’t move the other – put the other down, and it was stuck. I don’t know how long it took us to get out of there, and we weren’t all that far from solid ground, either. At one point, I was sitting down on top of the mud. Needless to say, we went back home. Mom met us at the door, and started laughing. Leora said, “It’s not funny!” We changed our clothes and headed back to school – avoided the cornfield! and arrived about the time of the first recess.

(above) This picture was taken from the pavilion near the Corner Store in 2006 on the occasion of family/school friends reunion. It’s difficult to discern in this picture, but there’s a low, wide-spread valley between where the picture was taken, and the location of our home.

1.. “Thompson’s Hill/Woods”

2.. “Orville’s Hill” – The line of trees just over the crest of the hill indicate the line with Clarence Smith’s farm. There were no trees there when I was growing up, in fact, the fence along which the trees grew was not there in my earliest memories.

3.. Approximate (former) location of our house

4.. The pine tree mentioned Paul in his story (See recollections, Paul Campbell, or BIOS, Paul Campbell’s Story, Chapter III, “A House on the Hill”), the one they climbed and got pitch on their hands and clothes (been there, done that).

Just on this side of the pine tree was the barbed wire fence mentioned in Paul’s Story (same chapter), where Lois rolled under and over a fresh cow pile. Just to the right of the pine tree, there is a slight dip in the land, and that is probably where the incident occurred. The property inside the fence then belonged to someone named Glenn Riggs. It’s now part of Neal Davis’s property.

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About Paul Campbell’s Story, Chapter X, "Shewbread:

I don't remember that incident at all; I must have been pretty young. Paul is nine years and a few months older than me. Paul mentioned the 40-acre farm; what he didn’t say was that much of the land was untillable, and some of it was not even good grazing land. I can tell you who the neighbor he mentioned was – it couldn’t have been anyone but Dick Schaffner. He kind-of took Paul under his wing, and he was the one who taught him to shoot. And I know he won't get into any trouble with the game warden - he went to be with the Lord in 1986.

Here's a little story about Dick and his brother Fulton. I heard Dick relate this more than once. Back in the old days - even when I was growing up - they didn't close the schools for the first day of deer season, like they do now. When Dick & his brother Fulton were young, one year they begged their father (Frank Schaffner) to let them take the day off and go hunting. Eventually he succumbed and took them hunting with him. Well, who should they come upon in the woods, but the school superintendent? Frank had to write the boys an excuse, and what he wrote was "Please excuse Dick and Fulton from school as they had buck fever."

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(above) This picture is brother Gale on the horse (John aka Tex) leading a cow with a rope. I thought at first the cow was the one we called Blackie, but this appears to be a young one, and it has white legs; Blackie was all black, and she was a full grown cow when we got her.

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(above) This is one of my brothers - Tommy or Gale - plowing the garden (the picture is too indistinct for accurate identification).

Here, too, the horse is John, aka Tex. The big pine tree in the back ground is the same one Paul mentioned climbing when he was young. The barbed wire fence behind the tree was the one he mentioned that Lois rolled under - and over a cow pile. It would have been slightly to the left of the picture where it was the easiest to go under the fence. (See Paul Campbell’s story, chapter III, “A House on the Hill”).

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(above) This picture is my Daddy mowing hay with the old sickle bar mower and the horse he called John:

Taken probably around 1958

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Some of you may remember Wayne Plotner. He lived a short distance from the Richardsville Road, on Plotner road (wonder why it was called that?! at one time the only other family living on that road was that of Cecil Plotner) with his mother and his brother Steele. Steele eventually married Esther Clarke, but Wayne never married. All the same, he was called “Daddy Plotner” to everyone around there. Maybe someone knows the origin of that nickname. What I have written so far has just been to introduce him. The mention of the Richardsville bridge on the Long pictures brought this to my mind. Those of you who remember the old Richardsville bridge remember that there was a very sharp turn on to the bridge. Once when Wayne was driving down the road there, he didn’t negotiate the turn properly, and hit the side of the bridge structure. Someone came along and said to him, “Whatsa matter, Daddy, did you miss the bridge?”

“Daddy” replied, “No, I hit it.”

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These pictures could easily go with Paul Campbell’s story – with Chapter II (Early Memories) and Chapter III (A House on the Hill).

(above) Paul on his mother’s lap flanked by sister Lois and brother LeRoy – taken shortly after the death of his father, Roy Campbell – probably 1927]

 (above) Front: LeRoy, Lois, Paul; Back: George Harriff (new Daddy), Rena Harriff (Mama) – probably 1931]