Excerpt

Paperback, 342 pgs.
ISBN 0-89716-610-8
Elton-Wolf Publishing
1-800-555-6771

I dedicate this book to my mother Anna Elvera Backstrom Brown (called Vera) who started her teaching career in the country schools of Iowa and who gave me the background information which made this book possible.

Chapter One

It was the last week of August 1922, in the state of Iowa. The weather was oppressively hot and humid. For six weeks there had been no let-up; the corn was growing spendidly; the people were wilting. Women dabbed at their faces with a handkerchief or the skirt of their apron, many of them standing over a hot cook stove canning the garden's produce. Men walked slowly from the fields, sweat running down their necks and face, anxious to get in for a cool drink.

Anna Swenson waited with her mother and sister Else on the station platform in Fort Dodge. She was twenty years old and embarking on her first job as a school teacher. Though she was rather old to be starting as a teacher, circumstances had not been easy after her father died, leaving her mother with the two girls. They had managed to eke out a living, but just barely. Now that Elsa was through high school she could take Anna's place and help full time with her mother's dressmaking and alterations business. Anna always wanted to be a teacher, saving every penny to attend the Cedar Falls Normal College. This summer she was fortunate enough to be able to do it, and completed the twelve-week course. A week ago the news came that she had passed the state boards. Now the job in Grabney was hers.

Mrs. Swenson took a clean white handkerchief from her purse and patted the perspiration from her face. Anna fidgeted with the ruffles on the bodice of her dress as she looked anxiously around the platform.

"What's the matter Anna? Is something wrong?" her mother asked.

"I don't see my trunk. Do you think they forgot about it? It should be on the platform by this time. The train will be coming in a few minutes. Shall I go look for it?"

"No, you stay here. Elsa, hurry into the station and see if Anna's trunk is there."

As Elsa disappeared into the station, Mrs. Swenson looked with some degree of uneasiness at her daughter. "Anna, be sure to keep your valise with you. When the train pulls in, grab it, because the porters will want to help you up into the train and then you will have to pay them a tip. I don't know how much a tip is, but we can't afford to pay it. The valise is not so heavy."

"Oh, no. I can manage fine."

"And when you get into the car, you can put it beside you on the seat. There should be plenty of room."

"Yes, I think so. It doesn't look like many people are traveling in this weather. Oh, I see my trunk. A man is pushing it on a cart. Now where is Elsa?"

"Here she comes."

Elsa appeared to look rather worried. "I can't find her trunk anywhere. Oh, there it is, just in time too. Isn't that the train whistle?"

"I think so," replied Anna. "It seems to be coming from the east." She quickly checked her purse for her ticket, found it and kept it in her right hand, closing the purse.

"Put your ticket back, Anna," Mrs. Swenson advised. "You won't need it until the conductor comes by to check them after the train starts. Make sure he understands you are to get off at Grabney. It doesn't always stop there you know."

"Yes mother, and I hope that they remember to take my trunk off there too."

"You be sure to check when you get off, and if they don't have your trunk tell them to get it. I don't want your trunk to get lost."

Anna put her ticket back into her purse and carefully shut it. This was the moment of suspenseful waiting. It was only the second time she had left her family. The first was earlier in the year when she had taken the bus to Cedar Falls to stay with Mrs. Phipps who ran a rooming house for girls attending the normal school. She knew more or less what to expect at the college, but this time everything was unknown. The situation had come up at the last minute when the Grabney teacher had quit to get married, and Anna wouldn't have been offered the position if her Uncle Lars had not known the superintendent of the country schools.

"Oh, Anna, here comes the train," called Elsa. "I hope you have nice people to live with, and that they have nice children, and that you don't have to walk too far to school, and that. . ."

"Hush, hush Elsa," scolded her mother. "Now look Anna, if there are any problems you write and tell me, and Uncle Lars will do something about it I am sure. You have the two cent stamped envelopes I bought you?"

"Yes, they are in my purse."

"Don't look for them now. Grab your valise. We can't get on the train with you because it doesn't stop long enough."

With that remark the locomotive thundered past them, rendering conversation impossible. The train slowed and halted. It was a walk of about twenty paces to the door of the coach. The three women hurried with Mrs. Swenson in the lead, followed by Else, and last by Anna, lugging her valise which was slightly overweight with several books.

"Help you with your case ma'am," called the red cap.

"No thank you," replied Anna panting, "I can manage." She dragged it up the steps taking them slowly, resting the case on each one, and feeling quite uncomfortable as the porter eyed her every movement.

"Get a seat now Anna, in there, " called her mother, pointing to the coach.

Anna trudged through the doorway and into the aisle. Fortunately the first seat was unocupied, and it was also on the depot side, so she heaved her valise onto it. Her mother and sister were watching through the grimy window, which she now attempted to open by pulling up on the handles. It was stuck and wouldn't budge even though she exerted as much strength as she could muster.

"Hurry up," yelled Elsa. "The train will be leaving."

"I can't!" Anna called back frantically.

At that moment another voice was heard, "Here, let me help you with that ma'am." A young man pushed past her and with a mighty heave, forced open the window. "Hot weather does that, plus all this humidity," he nodded to her before returning to his seat on the other side of the aisle.

After Anna had recovered from her surprise at this assistance, she noticed Elsa giggling into her hand.

"Tell him thank you Anna," remonstrated her mother.

She turned to the stranger, "Thank you very much," which he acknowledged with another nod.

"Do you have a good seat?"

"Yes, mother. it is fine."

"Before you sit down check to see if it is dirty. You don't want to arrive with your new dress soiled. And before you get there, straighten your hair, and see that your hat is not crooked. Let me see your gloves. Are they still clean?"

"Yes," Anna replied as she held out her hands for her mother's inspection.

"When will you be coming back?" ventured Elsa.

"At Christmas. That's the first vacation."

"What about the fall harvesting vacation?" queried Elsa.

"I don't know if they have one."

"They all have one."

"But maybe they have young children who don't harvest," Anna nervously responded. "I don't know, probably not until Christmas."

"How long will that be?" Anna counted on her fingers, September, October, November, December. "Four months."

"Oh, Anna!" called Mrs. Swenson. "You must not count on your fingers. Teachers don't do that. Remember now! You are a teacher."

Slowly the train chugged away from the depot. Else ran along the platform until it ended. Anna could hear the goodbyes from both of them and remembered she had forgotten to give them a hug. In all the excitement there were no farewell embraces. How terrible! What a beginning to this new life. She had also neglected to thank her mother again for the beautiful new dress she had stitched for her, and all the help that Else had been in getting ready. But she also knew that if she had hugged them, she might have cried, and the last words of her mother were still ringing in her ears. "Remember now! You are a teacher." It would never do for a teacher to cry.