Back to School

It's back to school for many (really all) of us.  I say all of us because we're directly impacted by the increased traffic to and from anywhere.  Three of my immediate family members are starting back to school tomorrow.  My dad, Joe Denny Wills, is in his last year of his PhD work at the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida in Gainesville.  My nephew, Jack Ryan Wills, my brother Jeff's youngest, starts high school and my nephew, James Orion Eddy, my sister Julie's youngest, starts middle school, also tomorrow.  We all got to spend good quality time together a few weekends ago in South Carolina.

The picture below is of a young Joe Summers Wills at Hickory Grove School in Saluda County, South Carolina.  It was taken in 1913 so Summers, as he was called, would've been 10 years old.  I scanned it from The Family History of Saluda County, 1895-1980.  There he is on the back row, fourth from the right - his head is circled.

I expect Grandaddy Wills went to school on foot with his books tied together and thrown over his shoulder.  It was both a quieter and slower time when automobile traffic hadn't penetrated the quiet backwoods roads off the Old Cherokee Highway.  An eighth grade education was all the compulsory education Summers would receive.  He was a class spelling bee champion and had an astute memory.  I remember him quizzing me on the spelling of gnat, "Mark, how do you spell, hat?  How do you spell, cat?..."  My most vivid spelling challenge was always his, "How do you spell, caoutchouc?"  It's pronounced something like, ka-tchook and it's a real word http://www.thefreedictionary.com/caoutchouc .  I never stopped being amazed at Granddaddy Wills' recitation of words from his Hickory Grove Spelling Bee days. 

Have a great school year, everybody!

Mark