Commuter Student

I finished the 7th grade in Tankersly in 1932, and had to go to San Angelo for high school since Mother’s country school in Tankersly was not qualified to teach “high school,” though in fact, in San Angelo, the 8th grade was in the junior high building with the 7th grade.

Lots of students drove in to San Angelo to high school from ranches all around. There was one family who sent their children to school in a horse-drawn buggy. But when I began the 8th grade—freshman in high school (there were only eleven grades in school at that time)—I drove our Model A 15 miles into San Angelo and one of my classmates rode with me.

Ethel taught me how to drive. She was teaching in Sagerton, in the Panhandle, I think. School began, and after a week or so they closed it, so that the children could pick cotton for about three or four weeks. She came to Tankersly and lived with us.

She was a delightful companion to me, and we spent many hours in the car. She was very patient with me.

It was when I began driving to San Angelo to school in the 8th grade, that I met Nelle Taylor. Nelle would be the top student in my class for all four years in high school.