I just recently measured the distance form where we lived to the school on Lick Ridge and it was almost exactly 2 miles. Some children walked farther than this and I don't remember them ever closing the school due to weather.

It was a one room school with double desks. If you were acting up you were made to sit with a person of the opposite sex. I think they stopped this "punishment" about the third grade.

I have told you all of this to talk about rolling hoops to school. This morning The Roanoke Times has a picture of a person rolling a hoop with a wire. I rolled one of these to school many times. The hoop came from the hub of a wagon wheel and the wire from the rod that came with roll roofing. which brings more memories.

Roll roofing or rubber roofing as some called it came with a saucer shaped ;piece of metal on each end with a rod of about 3/16" running through the roll to hold the whole thing together. In side of the roll was one or two, I can't remember which, cans of coal tar to seal the roofing when it was installed. The rods were used for several things but I used one to make the hoop roller. This wire had to be bent just right and held on the hoop just right to make it go. You pushed it up hill with the wire behind the hoop and
when going down hill you hooked the wire inside the hoop to keep it from rolling too fast. I thought it was a lot of fun but in todays world it wouldn't be anything.

One more thing and then I will quit remembering for awhile, my memories can get boring to others.

My daddy showed me a type of bumble bee that didn't have a stinger. They were usually on old fence rails, Maybe they were drones, I don't know. I do know they were larger than usual and had a white head.

I thought I knew exactly what they were untill I caught the wrong kind and got stung. That ended my bumble bee catching and this ends my memories for now.

jist ole clyde