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My name is Beverley Young; I was born at the Heaton Hospital
in Montpelier on May 29, 1949. I am the daughter of Roland Morse
and Betty (Gavin) Morse (My Dad is now deceased and my Mother
has remarried Wilford West of Moretown). My grandparents on
my Dad's side were Byron and Keziah Morse, residents of Moretown.
I grew up in Moretown, on US Route Two. I went to school at
the Rock Bridge School, a one room school that had all grades
together for the school activities. My father and all of his
brothers and sister went to the same school. During my adult
life I had the pleasure of meeting an elderly lady, Clara Ridley,
who had bought the school house and turned it into her home.
It was really fun and interesting to visit her home and remember
my days as a child there.
While I attended the Rock Bridge School I believe I had a wonderful
education and have many wonderful memories. Mrs. Bea Eastman
was the lady who cooked the hot lunches we got. She lived just
up the street and delivered the lunch to us. I remember it
as being very good. I guess I have always liked to eat. I also
remember Mrs. Coolbeth who was the school nurse. She came in
regularly to make sure we were healthy. I remember having to
take awful cod liver oil vitamins and if you bit into one it
was horrible! It was also a common practice to check us for
head lice and there were some cases of it!! I don't remember
having it, as I wore braids in my hair and then as I began to
get older my mother and Mrs. Duprey, a neighbor and friend,
used to give us permanents, that means they made our hair curly
by putting these nasty smelling chemicals in our hair and putting
these silly looking "curlers". At the time, it was
"the style" I have pictures of myself in braids and
the curls (I was missing some teeth in lots of the pictures).
We had one teacher that I will always remember. Her name was
Mrs. Wiltshire. She was a very kind, loving lady and she took
very good care of us and taught us so many wonderful things.
Each Spring we had wild flower contests. We would have to go
out into the woods and see how many wild flowers we could find.
We were not supposed to pick them but I remember picking them
because they were so pretty -- I always wanted to bring them
to her and my Mother. We also had a special party for May Day.
She used crepe paper and put it around the flag pole and we
danced around the pole weaving the crepe paper, all pretty
colors. Another big event with Mrs. Wiltshire was the square dance festival
at Norwich University. It was an event that several schools
in the area attended and did square dancing. I am not sure
if we competed or just learned the "art" of square dancing.
Back then, lots of families around here didn't have a lot of
money, often they had a lot of children and just couldn't do
"extras". To go to this festival, each group needed
to have square dance outfits -the boys wore white shirts and
dark pants and the girls wore white blouses and matching skirts.
Mrs. Wiltshire made all of the girls in my class skirts out
of green calico so we had our outfits. I am not sure if she
got paid for them or not, but she did make them for all of
us.
I think that's pretty remarkable. As you might realize from
these stories, we were like a big family. It was truly very
nice. Rock Bridge School has a reunion each fall, it used to
be the 1st or 2nd Sunday in October but I'm not sure if that
is still the date. I attended a couple of these reunions. It
was always fun. I was usually the youngest alumni attending.
I always think about going again, but I am often away or busy
when it is going on. I have two uncles and an aunt who still
attend, as well as friends of my Dad.
After you did your five years of school in the local one room
schools, you would go to Moretown to the Town Hall for grade
6, 7 and 8 and then go to high school. You had a choice of Montpelier,
Waterbury or Waitsfield, I think. Well, the year I would have
been in 6th grade was the first year that Moretown Elementary
was opened. We traveled by school bus to this beautiful new
school. There all classes were taught in different classrooms.
I really can't remember how our grades were set up. I do remember
Mr. James Izor as being my favorite teacher! He was great! We
also had a gymnasium, a great play ground and a hot lunch room
-lunches were served by Mrs. Eunice Ferris and Mrs. Hurdle.
Again, very good and the best part was you could smell them
while they were being cooked. I remember meeting lots of new
friends and there were lots of new and better opportunities
for us in this school.
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I remember that we started each day, in both schools, with
the Pledge of Allegiance. It was also okay to celebrate all
of the holidays and each one was special, we always studied
about the presidents who were having birthdays and Columbus
Day, etc. Every lesson was done in such a simple manner. I remember
sliding down the bank at the back of the school during recess
on cardboard. I rode my bike from our home to Moretown Village
to visit with the Ferris family and Brenda Partridge. We had
lots of friends that I still regard as dear friends and special
parts of my life, such as the Grandfield family, the Farnsworths,
Farnahams. . . The simple things seemed so important. It all
ended with our graduation from 8th grade and we had to be separated
from our friends, as we chose different high schools to go on
to.
I went to Waterbury High School and the year I was going to
be a 12th grader they opened up the new Harwood Union High School
so l was in the first graduating class from Harwood in 1967.
During our senior year we had hoped to be back with some of
our old friends from Moretown School but most of the people
who started in Montpelier High School stayed there.
As a kid, I was average. I loved being with my friends. I liked
music, I used to play the flute. I sang in grade school but
not in high school. I did skits in Moretown School but did not
do any in high school. I joined lots of clubs and did as much
as I could. I I played softball at Harwood arid field hockey
and I was the basketball and softball manager all through high
school. I had four sisters so I guess I was pretty out going,
as the 2nd oldest. My mother and father both worked and being
one of the older girls in the family I had lots of responsibilities
and I took them seriously. Overall, I had lots of fun and remember
my childhood as pretty nice. We didn't have a lot of money but
I had a great family and have lots of great memories.
My family still lives in Moretown. My mother is still alive,
she is 68. My father was 73 when he died and had always lived
in Moretown from his school days until he died. One of my sisters,
Linda Emery, lived in Moretown and her children were educated
at Moretown Elementary and Harwood Union High School. My daughters
both graduated from Harwood. My oldest, Julie, graduated 25
years after I did --Harwood's 25th year.
I did not go to college, as we could not afford it. I did, however,
take my high school business courses and make a fairly good
career for myself. I have always had pretty good jobs, for Vermont
and this area. I did not work when my daughters were young and
was very active in their school careers and enjoyed it very
much. I led girl scout troops and volunteered at school all
of the time.
I now live very close, in Waterbury with my husband, Alan. Our
daughters have both graduated from college and live and work
in Waterbury.
I worked at General Electric in cost accounting, and other departments
as a clerical person. I left there after 5 years and worked
for the State. Then I had our daughters and stayed home until
they were older. I drove school bus for Harwood for 6 years
and then decided they were grown and I needed to get a job in
an office. I worked in Moretown for many years, as an office
manager at the Palisades Landfill (9 years). I now work as an
office manager for Galaxy Maintenance and Management a property
management company in Waterbury and have been at that job for
six and one half years.
I will always have a special place in my heart for my home and
youth in Moretown, Vermont.
There have been lots of changes in my 50 years on this earth.
It is good that we have lots of good people with much interest
in our past so that we can record and preserve how our lives
used to be and keep the memories available for our families
in the future.
--March 23, 2000
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