My girls are in Girl Scouts this year. The 5 year old is in Daisy's and my 8 year old is a Brownie. My Brownie Girl is earning a patch called "Her Story". She was supposed to bring in something written by a woman. She asked her 95 year old great-grandmother (who lives just over the hill from us) to write about her childhood. Here is what she wrote:

Dear J,

Here are a few things you might want to know about my childhood in the country.

I started to school at six years old. A few years later, my sister who was ten years older than me, was my teacher for two years. The school house was only two blocks from my house and some kids walked pass my house on their way to school and I would join them. It was fun being with the crowd.

Everyone carried their lunch to school and enjoyed eating together. It was like a picnic. We would swap biscuits and sandwiches. We played jump rope, hop scotch, tag and ball.

I got to spend the night with my cousins. There were five of us and we wanted to sleep together, so we put quilts and pillows on the floor. We talked and giggled long into the night. Then came a knock on the door from my uncle saying it's time to be quiet and go to sleep...it was fun.

My friend came over to play sometime in the afternoon. My dad had a buggy with no top that we played with. We all would get in and down the hill we went, flying into the woods. Some fell out and got hurt, but we would do it again.

Everything wasn't just fun. We had chores, too. Sometimes my brother and I had to wash and dry the dishes and sometimes we had to do them over.

I liked to spend the night with Grand Ma and Grand Pa Jacks. They lived in a small town and Grand Pa would take me to the store and buy me some candy. One night I got a toothache. The mail carrier went out by our house the next morning and Grand Pa asked him to tell my dad to come pick me up. He did and off to the dentist I went.

My mother, your great - great grandmother, Mamie Jackson Jacks, liked all the school activities. She always carried my brother and me to all the plays and ballgames, but fishing was her hobby. She would get a sack of cookies and ham biscuits and ask all the kids to go fishing. I caught my first fish, but fell in the lake. No more fishing for me!

Country life...oh, I could write a book. We had our ups and downs but we enjoyed each other and all our friends.

Love you,
Nana, your great - grandmother
(Ouida Jacks Hutchens - 95 years old)