Can you read this pls

[Just Lou]

Clay County? Wow! My Mom grew up in Flora, and I naturally visited there a lot, even worked there for a summer. Just wondering which town you were near, Lou.

Larry, I lived just up the hard road (mostly oiled gravel in those days) a piece.  I lived three miles outside of Edgewood.  Edgewood was in Effingham county so we couldn't attend their schools.  I started high school in Louisville, Ill. (closer to Flora) since it was our closest high school.

We didn't go to large towns like Flora (less than 3K pop. back then) unless we needed something with more than two moving parts that we couldn't make for ourselves or a new pair of 'gum boots'.

If you had a good horse, and knew all the 'cricks' and 'hollers', you could just about cover the county in a day.

I last visited the area in '07 while on a family reunion trip.  Some things have changed drastically, and some, not at all.

Again, thanks for the memories. lou

[Jim Godward]

Jim,

---------SNIP--------------
I think I went into education so I could erase chalkboards, now they have smart boards and don't even use chalk.  Sighhhhhhhh  for the good old days and writing spelling words  10x each for homework.   Using the  sight method which is why it is easy to  read Home SweetRV's post.
Betty

I learned to read the old fashioned way, phonics, and had no problem with Home Sweet's post.     I think that both ways work but my first wife taught 2nd grade here in MT and phonics was in.  This was in the late 50s while I was gong to the University here in Bozeman.  I was her guinea pig on all the new material every year.   

[Larry N.]

...I lived three miles outside of Edgewood.  Edgewood was in Effingham county so we couldn't attend their schools.  I started high school in Louisville, Ill. (closer to Flora) since it was our closest high school.

We didn't go to large towns like Flora (less than 3K pop. back then) unless we needed something with more than two moving parts that we couldn't make for ourselves or a new pair of 'gum boots'.

If you had a good horse, and knew all the 'cricks' and 'hollers', you could just about cover the county in a day.

I last visited the area in '07 while on a family reunion trip.  Some things have changed drastically, and some, not at all.

Again, thanks for the memories. lou

When I worked there in '61 I think Flora's population was about 5K. Halliburton had me all over the southern part of the state (I drove a bulk truck -- cement or sand), and I remember when the first small part of I-70 hit just west of Effingham.

I have fine memories of Charlie Brown Park, with the train and the pool and the lake (canoes), and the county fair. As a little kid, loved the railroad going through town (grandparents were two short blocks south).

Anyway, thanks for mentioning Clay County -- wonderful memories over many years.

[Larry N.]

I learned to read the old fashioned way, phonics, and had no problem with Home Sweet's post. ...

I learned phonics, too, and I've always been glad that I did. My wife's first job after we were married was in a psychiatrist's office -- she was always picking out big, obscure words for me to spell, mostly ones I'd not heard before (knowing greek roots helps, too), and I always got them right.