The Old Farwell School in North Charlestown, New Hampshire

All of us over thirteen have a foot in two centuries, though some of our foot prints are further back than others.

Far enough back to remember this old two room schoolhouse that still stands beside the main road in the little town of North Charlestown, New Hampshire. I was a student there for a few years in the early 60's, after our father moved us from suburban Connecticut to a hill farmhouse above the Little Sugar River in North Charlestown.

Behind the school, and beside it were apple orchards that went all the way back to the Connecticut River. Looking out the school windows we could look west towards the hills of Vermont, and on the playground, in spring ,we played for keeps for precious marbles.

I doubt each classroom had more than 15 children. First through third in one room, and fifth and sixth grade in the other.

Our house was miles from school, and every weekday a red van came to collect me and other children out from town. In later years it would drop us off at Farwell, and then off on buses we would go again, south to the junior high school in Charlestown.

The village of Charlestown was once an outpost on the New England frontier. Old Fort Number 4 still stands there, for the Abnaki Indians threatened. Indeed one day many decades ago, my sisters and I found an old Abnaki axe in a cornfield torn into by outgoing ice on the Connecticut River.

What bucolic, innocent days those were!