In the Fall of 1931 or 1932 Clara Mai Watlington was named to teach school at Adee Schoolhouse, about 5 miles from our home on Parkburg Road (at Roy Davis Road). Adee was a one-teacher school, and Clara Mai now had about three years of experience in teaching. This meant that she would have students from first to eighth grade in one class room and would have to teach all eight grades as best she could. She would also have to supervise water, heat and sanitary facilities for the rural school.
I believe that the first year she taught there she boarded with the Byrd family near the school (Miss Annie Mae). The Byrd home was the nearest home that had a well. The school carried water from their home for washing and drinking purposes, except in wet weather (when it came off the roof.)
Came the time for adventure. Clara Mai bought a used Chevrolet (Cabriolet) roadster with a ``rumble seat''--an open up, close down seat outside the roof of the car. It wasn't a new car but for the family it was a joy--a grand car. She went through the trauma of learning to drive it with supervision of Mack, Sam and Kenneth--all experts.
John William Watlington seemed to have some difficulty adjusting to the confines of a classroom so it was decided that John would accompany Clara Mai to and from Adee School and do his year of study with her. He had one year as co-pilot and co-janitor at Adee in what was probably the fifth grade for him, school year 1932-33.
Came Fall of 1933, whatever the reason, John William went back to Malesus School and I was elected to accompany Clara Mai where I would be in Third grade studies. I thought it would be O.K.; I was going to have to go to a new teacher anyway after two good years with Miss Della Murchison. We were doing O.K. until Clara Mai crossed Highway 45 from Watlington Road early one morning and was struck by a fast moving Ford sedan. I was supposed to have told her that a car was coming on my side. There went the year's salary, buying another car, a Ford sedan this time. That's where I started learning about cars. In winter we had no anti-freeze, so we had to drain the radiator twice a day in freezing weather, once at school, again at night. Since we had no water at school we had to catch all the water and be careful not to spill any as we refilled the radiator to drive home.
Building fires, carrying water from a deep well, a quarter of a mile away at the Byrds, firing the wood stove, going ``bathroom'' in the woods (only the girls had a privy). There were advantages in learning though. I could listen to all the lessons and learn from them--and my sister was a good teacher. She didn't put up with foolishness though, at least not from her little brother. But she was always good to answer questions and I had a lot. I also got to use the books borrowed from the county school library first and last.
Friends at Adee were Jernigans, Frank Butler, Hartleys, Nanneys, Johnnie Brown and many others. There were friends along the road we would visit also--Hartons, Robleys, Hunt, Barnes and Seavers. The Seavers Road was not a through road at that time so we had to go Watlington Rd. (Old Mill Road) to the Parkburg Rd.; and the Watlington Rd. was not graveled, so we usually went to the Old Malesus Road, then to the Parkburg Rd. and up Seaver's Hill to Adee. Seaver's Hill was often a challenge as the gravel wouldn't stay on it--it washed so badly in rain and winter weather. But we didn't have any more accidents. I learned to watch out for my side of the car.
The arrangement proved satisfactory to me and Clara Mai was patient so I continued to accompany her and enjoy the instruction and life style of the one-teacher school through three school terms and began a fourth year there before the school was closed and students transported to Pinson or Malesus in the fall of 1937. One of these school terms was only a 6 1/2 month term because the County School Board ran out of funds. I remember other years when Clara Mai's salary check (warrant) was hard to cash and school board members or others would discount ten percent of the check to cash it for her. That got hard, when her monthly salary was only $60, and even she complained.
In the Fall of 1936 when Franklin Roosevelt was running for re-election I also made a political discovery. There were some confessed (or confused) Republicans around Parkburg. I had never met or heard of anyone who was not a Democrat. To learn that Tom and Jess Garrett were professing Republicans cast doubt on their citizenship and even that doubt passed on to their daughters. But I had heard my father say that he ``would vote for an honest Republican, if you can show me an honest Republican.'' Years later I learned that he did vote for a Republican when Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for President.