Moving to Arden

In 1923, Mother and I moved to Arden, in Tom Green County, 20 miles west of San Angelo. There was no public transportation, then, and we had no car.

I guess salaries were better in West Texas. Teachers were more respected there and treated better, I think. Mother said that people in West Texas respected their children more than parents in East Texas as a rule. Many people in East Texas needed farm hands to work their cotton, and had so many children for that reason.

In Arden, there were only three or four children in each grade. With more than one grade in the same room. Some children drove in 30 miles from ranches and some rode horseback to get to school. Very little farming was done at that area.

I guess I was welcomed in the West Texas schools where I attended. I remember being lonely, though, since there were so few of us in one grade.

I learned to like the mesquite trees, the sheep and cows outside the fence of the school yard. I think I came to love West Texas then.

Uncle Dan found Mother a position at Arden a year after he went there. We went out on the train— sat up all night. We lived in a teacherage on the school ground.

Uncle Dan and family lived in a teacherage in Mertzon. His was new and nice, though tiny.

When we moved to Arden I had to give up my piano lessons. Couldn’t move a piano with us on the train.