Schafer Road/44th have been there ever since Dad was a child.

44th used to be called

Dad and friends used 44th as a speedway. They would fly down the road and catch air over the bumps. Then one guy wrecked and broke himself all up and they slowed down after that. He was the mechanic from Ford Motors. He had just overhauled a 1935-'36 Ford and was test driving it. He smashed up right by the graveyard (across from where the fire station is now). He rolled the car and broke his leg. He laid there suffering because someone had to drive to the nearest phone and call for the ambulance. Dad, Isaac and Martha were walking home from Chester School and happened to come by before the ambulance arrived. We just stood there and starred at him. We were just kids. Then the ambulance and cops came and told us to go on home. I was 11 or 12.

The graveyard was where a lot of "parking" was done. "There were a lot of nude bodies around the graveyard."

Dad walked to and from Chester School everyday, starting in the first grade. Snow or rain, hot or cold. This is were the stories about "walking to school in 3 feet of snow uphill both ways" originate from. Delbert Cox would ride a horse to school.

Chester school
Dad couldn't speak English when he started school. The teacher had to teach him English. "I was so embarrassed because the kids all laughed so I wouldn't speak Welsh anywhere after that."

Grades 1-4 teacher Ruth Berkey. Her folks ran the original Chester store. It was a general store and had a hitching rail all the way around it.

Mr. Rae was teacher one year. Then the teacher was Ms. Hammer. "Boy she was pretty. I had a crush on her and she had a crush on me. We would talk to each other and we sat together at the picnic. I really liked her. I was nice to her and she was nice to me. She was a first year teacher so she was probably 19 or so. The only teachers who taught in small schools like Chester were first year teachers. We had one teacher in 5th or 6th grade that looked Katie Couric. God she was a nasty thing! She was a small lady with a pointed face. She was quite attractive but boy she was mean. She didn't put up with any foolishness. Zero. Zilch. She just had no time for us. She was just there for the job. Her name was Ms. Schillings or Schillinger."

Between Chester store and Chester church was a winter campground for the Indians. They'd set up their wigwams and dig up some sort of roots in Pleasant Prarie. (Bigelow Gulch road). Indians came from the reservation in Worley, ID. They'd stay a day or two at the camp ground and then move on to Pleasant Prairie. We were told to leave the Indians alone so we'd run on by and get the hell out of there.

"Walking home on Dishman Mica was further but sometimes we walked home that way. A crazy man lived in the woods/brush on 44th just East of Schafer. We called him the "Wild crazy man" He lived in a hut there. (Dad's parents owned the land from 44th all the way down to the railroad tracks.) He wasn't hurting anything so they let him stay. Our parents didn't want us walking by there because they feared he'd get us. That's one reason we had to walk home on Dishman Mica until the crazy man was gone - then we could go the back way again. When we got bicycles we'd always come home on Dishman Mica because there were too many hills the back way (44th)." Dad cleared the area 1956. It was sold to Glenn Williams in the 60s and he put a horse ranch on it. Now it's houses (S Pondra Drive loop just off 44th)

Chester School was torn down around 1960.

"I used to hang on Elva Marshall when she'd let me. She lived in a shack with her family near where Ericksons later lived."