But the next year my mother got me a kelly green winter coat with a hood lined in red material. I was the happiest girl alive, I can remember standing in front of my room mirror putting the hood up and then putting it down and admiring myself in my new kelly green winter coat.

Jean, about 1945     

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I talked my Mother into letting my cousin Peggy Wilson who had beauty parlor in New Town a small residential street in Larimer. New Town had probably been added on a few years after the Larimer coal mine had been in operation. The coal mine had been closed some years after my birth, 1932. Peggy had her little beauty shop in the front part of her cottage; it must have been at one time her living room. The house was small; maybe four rooms but very cozy and well kept. 

It was late June or early July of 1943; we were out of school so I could go anytime my Mother decided to let me. The day she made the appointment was in the middle of the week, probably on a Wednesday, the time of the
appointment was 10:30 a.m., I had to wear a dress and I must have really wanted that permanent to wear a dress when it wasn’t a school day or for Sunday School. My usual dress of the day was a shirt and coveralls. With
bare feet or sneakers.

Mom gave me the money for Peggy in an envelope told me not to lose it. I started to walk about 9:30 so I would have plenty of time to make the appointment at 10:30. I took my usual way through the woods and down the railroad tracks, followed the road through Larimer. There was no way I could get lost, Larimer consisted of one road that came to a v, with Shoup’s Meat and Grocery, next to the Post Office, next to the Pool Hall, the opposite of the street was Charlie Watson’s little store across from Charlie’s was May McKay's confectionery store. She even had a soda fountain in her store. But she really didn’t like kids. We didn’t go there unless we wanted a Cho Cho, which was malted Milk in a Dixie cup frozen and cost three cents. The street that lead to New Town and Peggy’s Beauty Shop was to the right of the Pool Hall, turn up a small grade and her house was the third house on the right.

Of course I was a bit early but Peggy was waiting for me. The fist thing she did was unplait my hair then wash it, I didn’t know how my Mother would like that, she might think Peggy though my hair wasn’t clean but it was, My mother saw to that the night before my appointment. I decided not to tell my Mother about the hair washing bit. She then trimmed my hair all over, then wrapped each section of hair in some kind of paper, then sat me in this chair she pumped up with a lever at the base of the chair, so my head was level with the wires hanging down with clips on the end of each wire and there must have been at least twenty or so. It looked just like Medusa’s head of snakes. She clipped each section of the wrapped hairpieces to the clips, then turned the machine to heat the clips.

Peggy told me that it would take fifteen minutes to a half-hour for the heat to make curls, in the mean time she would fix lunch for us. Boy, I was getting lunch with my hair curl appointment. What a luxury. About ten minutes into this the contraption heating the curls started to feel really hat just at the base of one of the curl clips. I thought that was the way it was suppose to feel, It really started to hurt and Peggy came back in the room from fixing our lunch and Shrieked!! On my God!! Your curl is smoking!! Immediately turned the machine off and unclipped the curls. She kept saying you should have said something about it hurting, but this was my first time with anything on my head I had no idea how it was suppose to feel. Gee, I was only eleven years old!!

It wasn’t really that bad, she put some cream on the burn on my head washed by hair again and wrapped it in a towel. Then we had lunch, it was a sandwich made with store bought bread and real lunch meat, with potato salad, We only had homemade bread and our lunchmeat was always Spam, My Mother made better potato salad, but I guess it’s what you get use to. She also served a glass of pop I can’t remember what flavor, I just know it was a treat having lunch at someones house.

After lunch she combed my hair out, set it with bobby pins and put me under the dryer for a while. She combed it out again and sprayed it with hair spray that really smelled good. She then Let me look into a mirror, Gee I looked just like
Shirley Temple!!. I gave her the envelope my Mother had given me, thanked her for the permanent and the lunch. I started home praying the whole time that I would not meet a freight train when I had to walk along the railroad tracks and ruin my hairdo, I didn’t meet a train and made it home in due time. I wouldn't wish the burn on anyone but the lunch was the highlight of my day.

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Summer was spent outside almost until deep dark. We played hide and seek, kick the can, made stilts, rubber gum band guns, made out of strips of inert out of old tires then stretched over a twelve inch board with a small stick on one end, then you put another strip folded in half. stretch it to the end of the board, then you have a gum band gum, sure smarts when the gum band hits you. This was Ord’s invention.  My sister Mae and cousin Nancy played house incessantly. Ord and I played camping all over our side of Barner Hill. 

The winter months were spent listening to the radio programs, Jack Armstrong the All American boy,Inner Sanctum, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, Fibber McGee and Mollie, the list is unending, We had a player piano which we all learned to play at least one piece. My Mother played and read music, Mae took piano lessons, Ord made up things to play. I just messed around. Ord also hocked up the Electrolux vacuum cleaner to the bellows of the player piano put a piano roll in the part that plays the rolls and we had an automatic player piano.

Ord 

We also had an old movie projector with two old films, Andy Gump, and Popeye. We would set the projector up in the hall between the two bedroom and the bathroom which was at end of the hall. Close all the doors. Watch these two old no talk films for hours.The films had been played so often that they were held together with paper clips. Every once in awhile, (just about every foot of film)they would catch on the lens. This caused that particular piece of film to ignite.Eventually the films kept getting shorter. We still loved them.

Other entertainment was playing in the attic. The attic was unfinished so we were allowed to play in it. That is if my Mother didn't have the wash hanging up there. We would have plays and different versions of playing doctor, nurse reenactment of one of the radio programs,  I also entertained Mae while we were suppose to be sleeping in the double bed we shared. I told her ghost stories, about the Bogeyman that lived under our bed. That he was just waiting for her arm to appear over the edge of the bed. then I would grab her arm and hang it over the edge. when my Mother got tired of the screaming she would come in and beat the tar out of me. Then we would go to sleep.

James R Forsyth's house about 1970
From left: Hansel, Mike (or Craig), Jean, Fannie, Marc (at grandpap's knee), James Russell Forsyth

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We had pancakes and sausages for breakfast if there was enough time. We were washed, combed, and put in our Sunday best, then marched off to Sunday school - down to the Evangelical and Reformed Church in Larimer - dragged along by our big brother Jim and next in line brother Ord, then me then my little sister Mae. The Reformed Church became the United Church of Christ when we were teenagers.

After Sunday school we walked home to dinner, our big meal of the day at 12:30. It was always either roast chicken or chuck roast, with all the fixens. The afternoon consisted of cleaning up the dishes and redding up the table and washing the dishes. All in anticipation of my Mother walking into the living room and sitting in the big old over stuffed chair.

We waited with baited breath, and with a great sign, she would reach down and pick up the Sunday funnies. Once she did that we knew she was going to say, are you ready for me to read the funnies?? What pandemonium! Out to the porch and yelling for everyone. Mom is ready to read the funnies!!

From every direction kids would come running, My cousin Nancy, cousin Tom Woomer, Larry Kovac, Brother Ord. Mae my sister and of Course me, we would all crowd around the back of mom’s chair. Over her shoulder we would see, Andy Gump, Terry and the Pirates, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye the Sailor, Prince Valiant, Dagwood Bumpstead, and a host of wonderful others. It was Haven. She would chuckle and laugh just before she would read each caption.

Oh, what bliss, to be read the Sunday Funnies.

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Well this had to be the scariest movie I have ever seen!!(or want to see)We caught the bus home about 8:15,arrived at the bottom of Barner Hill about 8:45. Black as pitch, We started across the bridge that spans the railroad tracks and followed the road down and up Barner Hill road. I took off running and let me tell you I was a pretty fast runner, (let Mae and Nancy find their own way home) They breezed past me like I was standing still. They were home and in bed before I got there. Huh, Mae wasn't half as scared as I was; she went right to sleep.  I was terrified.   I sneaked over to my brother Ord's room and begged him to let me sleep with him.   I'll bet I slept in his bed on and off for weeks.  I had to promise him on my last breath that I wouldn't tell anyone I did that.  To this day I will not ever look at that Movie.

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The Larimer School

The Larimer School was two floors. Four rooms on each floor. With staircases on each end. The first floor had first grade through fourth. The second floor fifth through eighth. Each room was the homeroom for that grade. The higher grades, fourth through eighth changed rooms for different studies. English, History, Geography, arithmetic. First and second grades stayed in their rooms and were taught by that teacher.

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Hart. We got to write with a big fat blue pencil on tablet paper with three lines. You made each letter on the three lines by tracing each letter that was already on the paper. You learned to read with Jane and Dick and a dog named Spot. We learned the alphabet by reciting it over and over. First grade wasn’t heavy on arithmetic just learned to write the numbers.

The first graders spent the same amount of time in school as everyone else. Mostly so the older kids could take their younger brothers and sisters home with them. I took care of my sister Mae and cousin Nancy. Until they got older, then I walked my cousin Tommy Woomer and Larry Kovac to school and back home.

We all walked from Barner Hill through the woods to the railroad tracks up the tracks to the fence through the fence hole, across the bridge over the Sulfur Creek. Pass the stores and post office. Up the steep hill to the school. The school sat on top of the hill. The same process was in reverse going home. We didn’t get a school bus until I was in eight grade.

I just remember our Principle George Koelsch walking around caring a wicket paddle. That’s a two-foot long strip of wood, three inches wide with a four-inch handle. He used this like a baton on most occasions to direct people changing classes. But the one incident that has stayed in my mind to this day, is the time he beat Dickey Lewis with the paddle.

I have no idea why he was so angry with Dickey. Dickey’s desk was one row to the right of mine and his seat was right across from me. The Principal came charging down the aisle and started hitting Dickey around the shoulders and head with the paddle until Dickey fell out of his seat and onto the aisle right next to me. If any teacher would do this now he would be in jail charged with child abuse.

Now discipline at home was my Mother. If she started to draw her mouth up into a tight rosebud you were in trouble. This lead to her directing you to go to the back yard and cut yourself a switch. God help the kid who brought back a tiny wienie switch, you got switched with that and had to go get another one. If you really messed up, you got switched and then sent to your room to meditate on your sins. This happened quite often with me.

When she shut my bedroom door, I would wait until I heard her walk down the hall. And then I would climb out the bedroom window next to the outside steps. She finally caught on to this and was at the bottom of the steps when I crawled out one day. I can't tell you how I repented on that occasion.

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The change was the most dramatic of my life. I never knew that the leaves on trees were separate from the whole tree. I could read everything the teacher wrote on the black board now. Before that I had to sit practically by the teacher.

The teacher wrote a note to my mother stating that my eyes needed to be examined. I could not see the black board. There was no optometrist in Irwin, my mother and I took the street car to Irwin, The Street car was still running when I was in third grade, From Trafford, pass The Barner Hill road then to Irwin. We then took a bus to Greensburg. I was so excited, I didn’t know that something could be done to make me see better. I just never thought about it.

We had to wait a week for my glasses to be made and then I had my glasses. I looked out the window to the tree by the street and couldn’t believe that there were branches on the tree and individual leaves on each branch. I could see faces from across the room, and could read signs in the street. Cars were different on the street. They were not just big shapes. I can imagine how someone who has been blind and then had his or her sight restored.

No one knows what it’s like until it happened to him or her. I didn’t know that there was anything wrong. I had been like this for so long. And how would my Mother know?? I never told her anything about not seeing. I thought that’s the way things were.

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I was baptized in this church, also my brother Jim, and my other brother Ord, my sister Mae, all my sons, Michael, Craig, (who are twins,) Kirk, and Marc, my son Michael's daughter Chelsea, and my son Marc, daughter Chloe,

I was married in this church, raised my sons in this church, they all were acolytes when they became eleven or twelve, so the church had a ready supply of boys for quite a few years, when it came time for them to begin catechism, which was about 14 years old, they went through the process actually, Kirk went through it twice because one summer we sent him to Fort Lauderdale , to a swim camp run by an Olympic coach, Jack Nelson, so he had to go back through the lessons again., finally they became a members of our church., At that time whether they went to church or not was entirely up to them, I didn't like it very much when they didn't go but I had made the rule and I had to live with it.

George was active in the Church at the beginning of our marriage, he was an elder and the communion elder for some time, it entailed getting the bread and grape juice.prepared the night before the communion, preparing the table cloth for the altar and setting it all up., Then we had to clean all the glasses, wash the table clothes, iron the cloth and put everything away. He also had been superintendent for the Sunday day school, for awhile, He fell out of going to this Church when our Minister came involved in the Church's role in the Marches down South, after that he quit going, I tried to get him to go to another Church but he wasn't interested in doing that. From then on I went with my sons or with my sister Mae and My Friend Joan Spada., or by myself., I still go there when I'm home, with my sister Mae and my friend Joan, Joan and I have been friend since we were three years old in Sunday school, we have been friends all through High School, and we palled around after high school, going to clubs and double dating, We still do things together like going to lunch.

Jean's Mom and Dad in Front of St. John's on Jean and George's Wedding Day 1957.

Joan Spada and Nancy - regulars on Barner Hill

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When she asked if I would like to wipe up her kitchen floor. While she went to the store for something for supper. I said O.K., not that I wanted to do it. But I didn't know how to say no. After supper she said, why don't we give Shirley a bath and ready for bed. At 6:00 o'clock? Uh ohh, She Said Uncle Dick and Harold and I want to go out for a little while. We won't be gone long. You just get ready for bed after a while and then we will be home. So I did, I played around with Shirley. Then put her to bed. Went my self about 9:30.

I was fast a sleep when I heard someone arguing outside. Then I heard my Aunt Josephine coming in the front door then my Uncle Dick. Harold was just out side the front door, which was half glass. Uncle Dick was trying to close the door so Harold couldn't come in. was saying you can't come in you're drunk.

I was standing on the steps leading to the upstairs bedrooms and I could see in the hall way Uncle Dick trying to hold the door shut so Harold couldn't open it, Just then Harold put his fist through the glass part of the door. Glass and blood flew everywhere. Uncle Dick step back with glass and blood all over him and Harold step into the hall holding his arm, blood was spurting out of his wrist like an open Faucet.

Thank God I read everything I get my hands on. I remembered reading about if there is profuse bleeding to put a tourniquet above the elbow so I got a dishtowel and a clothes pin from the kitchen and warped it around Harold’s upper arm and turned it has hard as I could. Finally the bleeding stops. Harold slumped down in the hall and I told Uncle Dick to call a Doctor, Uncle Dick did. Then went up to bed.

I sat with Harold for about fifteen minutes I knew the Clothespin had to be loosened but I didn't know when. I finally just tried anyhow. The doctor didn't show up. So somehow I found the Doctor’s number and called him again, Thank God I did Uncle Dick didn't tell him where to come. So Harold relayed the address to him through me and finally the Doctor came. In the mean time I tried to clean up the Glass and Blood. The Doctor couldn't fix Harold’s arm and told me he had to take Harold to the hospital, Which I was very glad about.

I went to bed and prayed that I could go home in the Morning., But that wasn't to be they didn't want me going home and telling my Dad what happened. So they packed me off to my Aunt Betty and Uncle Neg’s. That’s another brother of my Dad’s. They lived in Monroeville just up the road from East McKeesport. I stayed at my Aunt Betty’s for about a week. They were very nice to me. But I would have just as soon gone home.

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The little village of Larimer was where we got our mail and went to school, They also had a fire truck, which they paraded around a bit before they took off for Irwin where the big Fourth of July parade would be held,

The street car at this time in my life, 1941, or so went the whole way from Irwin, or even maybe the whole way to Greensburg, which was way beyond my imagination, then in the opposite direction it went to Pittsburgh.  I'm talking about the street car line, this particular car just went from Irwin to Larimer, or Trafford.  I remember this because my sister and I were very young and had been to the show in Irwin.  We got the street car to Hell Town Road and all most missed our stop.  The street car Went on to Dirling Road, which meant crossing a big trestle.   We were too scared to tell the conductor that we missed our stop.  It left us off on this hill.  Mae and I had to crawl down this hill on a path to the main road and cross the road to the Barner Hill Road.  We were soo scared.  I must have been ten and Mae was eight.  I don't think my mother would have let us go if we had been younger.  The cost from Irwin to Larimer was four cents. The Street car was our transportation to see the Parade in Irwin also.

Getting back to the big parade - after the parade, the Firemen had a fair setup out at the end of Main Street and intersecting with Pennsylvania Ave., in a bowl shaped area directly off Main street, they always had booths set up for chance games, hit the balloons with a dart, put the penny in a milk bottle that's a (quart bottle that had a wide mouth) sort of.  Then they had hot dogs and sauerkraut, pop and popcorn.  And the the rides!! Usually a Ferris Wheel, also something that would go a round for the really young children.  I can't remember riding on anything just standing around and watching everyone.  About 9:30 or so, they would announce that the fireworks would be starting.  I just loved that and I still do.  Right after the fireworks everyone would start for home.  I can remember getting the street car right at the Pa. Ave. and Main street crossing.  Then it would go into Irwin and between the Five and Ten it would cross over a big trestle to Larimer.  From there, we would walk a mile and a half to Barner Hill.  That's how I remember celebrating the Fourth of July.

During the War years, it was probably not so great but I can't remember much else.  I know old Larimer had a Fair. It probably wasn't on the Fourth, but I can remember going there.  It was held right beside our Church in a field, right next to the pond that was beside our church. Why there was a pond there I don't know, because there is no pond there now.

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There was always a Big Thanksgiving parade in Pittsburgh, so George would take all the boy, except maybe Marc, who would be one or two, and Chris who would be a year or two older than Marc, into his office in the Frick Building, in downtown Pittsburgh, the parade always past right under his office windows so they watched the parade from the comfort of his office windows.

The dinners were always remembered with fond memories, my Mom and Dad attended them until my Dad retired from Westinghouse, about 1967, he stayed on Barner Hill until he was 70, about 1972, and found he couldn’t stand the Pa. winters, so he bought an Air stream trailer and he and Mom moved to the west coast of Fl., to the Sun and Fun Trailer park, near Sarasota, In the summer months he and Mom came back to their house on Barner Hill until 1987, the house burned down to the ground that year, right after Christmas, Dec, 28th 1987,or so. It’s really a traumatic feeling to see your childhood home go up in flames and there was nothing that could be done, the only water on Barner Hill is well water, and the tanker fire truck ran out without no replacement truck available.

Christmas was always low key. We always had a tree with all the ornaments saved from year to year, it was nice, and Mom made cookies and lots of other goodies, Dad always got a half gallon of wine, ( God knows what kind,) and some whiskey (which when he wasn’t home we sampled, the wine that is) We always filled up the jug to where he had drank before with water, I can still hear him complain that they sure weren’t making wines with much kick, now a days, On well,

We never got a lot of toys, but what we got we really appreciated, Times were hard and as my Dad repeatedly told us we were lucky to have food on the table and a roof over our heads. My Dad had a very bad childhood and had never for one minute forgot it.

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Our job, my brother Ord, sister Mae and myself, was to wipe the wallpapered walls down with a putty like substance called wall paper cleaner. It looked like play dough, it could be kneaded into a baseball size ball for cleaning . To keep us from becoming bored we were allowed to draw pictures and all kinds of things on the wall using this play dough cleaner. Of course the pictures had to disappear with the final cleaning process. My Mother was a
disiciplinarian not a sadist.

Spring cleaning also entailed wiping the painted pine floors and the wood work, all the living room, dining room furniture, and
the bedrooms. The kitchen and bathroom were always cleaned every week, by Mae and I, her willing slaves, the floors scrubed and everything and I mean everything, cleaned off. Mae’s job if I remember correctly was to wipe the bottom of the dining room table and all the chairs, then the living room couch, big chair, radio and end tables. 

In the meantime I was in the kitchen taking all the dishes out of the kitchen cabinets and washing them in soapy water, drying them and then putting them all back in the cupboards. The whole time I was dreaming about taking them down to the basement doorway, piling them up and using them as clay pidgeons, shooting them with a twelve gage shot gun. I could see them sailing up in the air before shattering to a million pieces after being blasted with a shot gun shell.

Helping Mom with Spring Cleaning was a ritual until, 1957, when I married and no longer lived at home . I was the last one to leave home. I guess my mother did this by herself after then. About 1960 an oil furnace replaced the old coal fired, labor intensive furnace. 

I still hate that ritual of Spring Cleaning. And I won’t do it.

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By spring of 1948 he broke down and we got the black box to the outside world delivered to our house. I was fascinated by this square looking thing, to think you could communicate with anyone all over the place. I could even imagine that you could call all over the world, now that was a thought.

The phone had a circular dial in the middle with ten holes in it; each hole had three letters and one number the whole way around the dial. the use of this was a mystery, because the first few years we had it, you just picked up the phone and the operator asked you what number you wanted., Our phone was a party line and our number was J2 8279, We had our Uncle Jim and I think our Aunt Edna on the line.

Other than calling my girlfriend’s Clara Halva and Shirley Antis, I didn’t get many calls. A couple boys I was dating called. My Mother used the phone to order groceries from the Acme Super Market; they were the only store that would deliver to Barner Hill. My brother Ord used it to call his girlfriend Sally Jo McCune . We never got call from my Brother
Jim, who was in the Marines stationed on the West Coast, San Diego. Ca., this was a luxury as far as my Father was concerned and you did not abuse the phone.

Come to think about it, I can’t remember him making a phone call. I know when he answered the phone and if it was a boy he told them we weren't home.

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When I was very little maybe four or five, we shopped in the town of Irwin. The grocery store as called Acme. It was right next to the Aladdin Movie Theater going south heading toward Pennsylvania Avenue.

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All our big dances were dress-up dances. Girls wear gowns the boys wear their best suits. The daces were held in our gym with the bleacher seats folded up against the walls. 

The Prom committee and the art class always decorated the gym. Since I was in the art class I got to help decorate.  Big pieces of brown paper were painted with the theme of the Prom. This one was the Christmas Hop so it was winter scenes. Then the paper was taped to the bleacher walls. Crepe paper was strung from the sides of the gym to the center, then a big bell was attached to the center.

The first big dance I went to was the Christmas Hop of my sophomore year went to this one with Jimmy Jacobs, He was a junior at Irwin High School,

There were two High schools in Irwin. North Huntingdon High. Which was at the end of Main street and Pennsylvania and Irwin High school located on Sixth Street. At the other end of Irwin. This was because after the Norwin High School burned partly down, the existing school board had a knock down drag-out fight and split the school in half. All Township kids went to what was established as North Huntingdon Twp High School and all Irwin Kids went to Irwin High School.

I met Jimmy Jacobs along with a bunch of other boys at the High School dances held in our gym. On Saturday nights. The girls all congregated at one doorway leading to the hall and lockers and the boys at the other doorway. If a boy wanted to ask a girl for a dance he slid over to the girl’s doorway and asked her to dance. That’s how I met Jimmy. He asked me to dance, then asked if I had a way home that he had his Father’s car and would be glad to ride me home. The thought of walking home from the bus stop at Barner Hill was enough to make anyone with a car look like Sir Lancelot.

We went to a few movies. Then he asked if I would go to Our Christmas Hop with him and I didn't even hesitate I really wanted to go, since no one else had asked me, and it was getting on to the middle of November, I jumped at the chance. The Christmas Hop was held the Saturday night before The Christmas break December 21st.

My Mother and I took the bus to Braddock, one of the towns that make up what was called the Steel Valley, In the Valley were Pitcairn, Wilmerding, East Pittsburgh,Wall and Trafford, along with Braddock. Most men in Western Pennsylvania worked for the steel mills or Westinghouse.That’s how things were when I was growing up. All the towns had their street that was all shops, Men’s stores, Ladies stories, Five and Tens, and a few restaurants and Drug stores.

I can't remember the name of the Ladies store we shopped in but I do remember my first grown., It was light Nile green with a petticoat made of a stiff material that held it out. The dress itself was thin material like very fine cotton.  Short sleeves with a scope neck line. One button at the back of the neck. I thought I was the cat’s meow. I’m sure I wore light green plumps plus My Sunday Church coat.  Jimmy gave me a corsage of one large lavender orchid. That was the rage back in my day. I thought it was a great night even if I wasn't thrilled with Jimmy.

The hop was held from 8:00 PM to 11:30 PM. Then we all piled in cars to go to Healey's a Hamburg place on Route 30, then we went to the Allegheny Airport to watch the planes land.  After that we went to the Allegheny County Morgue. Why there I have no idea, everyone said that was a tradition. That was one visit I could have done without, my idea of fun is not looking at dead bodies.  By this time it was getting late, 2:00 am or so. Jimmy took me home. I can't remember if the weather was good or bad, but it must have been pretty good, we had no trouble getting up to Barner Hill. I said Good night to Jimmy and told him I had a really good time. I can remember going to another Prom with him the next year. Also He had asked me to a fraternity dance when he was going to Carnage Mellon. After we graduated he from Irwin, a year ahead of me and then Me the next year. I didn't go to the fraternity dance with him, but that’s another story.

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To go to ninth grade you had to take a State Examine to see if you were ready for high school. I had no idea what my score was on the test. Our principal Mr. Hallfort told the class that I was second behind Andy Seikerka. I couldn't believe that, it was sort of scary. There were four girls that I thought were smarter than me. 

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