n September 1, 1931, we moved to Pratt. It was hot that day, well over one hundred degrees. It was even hotter inside our 1927 Chevy. My kitten riding on my lap went limp and glassy-eyed. I thought he was dying so I was quite relieved when he perked up after getting a drink of water when we reached our new home on south Main Street.

wo days later I entered the sixth grade at the old Central School. I went timidly into my new environment---new town, new school, new teachers, and, worst of all, new classmates. Mother sent me to school that day in my prettiest yellow dress, knowing it would be hard for her shy child to adjust among all the strangers. She need not have worried. The first day I met Norma Neal, a red-headed fireball who was also new in school. Norma was a natural leader, and I was a good follower. When she suggested we go to Jetts' basement after school, I went right along. We had fun going up and down the aisles just looking at the pretty wares. I was about an hour late getting home from school. Mother greeted me with, "Where on earth have you been?" I grinned, "Oh, I went up town with my new friend." And so the transition to Central School was made quite painlessly.

orma was just the first of many new friends. Sixth grade was a good year; the lasting friendships I formed would bolster my courage when I entered junior high school the following year. I had lived in fivetowns and gone to three different schools, but I was in Pratt to stay.

  will end my Childhood Memories now that I am twelve years old. Ahead of me are my teenage years, the struggling days of the Great Depression, and the trying Dust Bowl days---but that is another story.