by Georgie Bright Kunkel

In the summer of 1938 I applied to teach in the little town of Vader Washington. I ended up teaching a combination first and second grade classroom. What a traumatic time for me setting up housekeeping for the very first time. In that year Vader was only a little spot in the road and not the bedroom community that it is today. I lived in a former so-called mother-in-law apartment attached to a big, older family home near the school. Even though it was called an apartment it consisted only of a large living-dining-kitchen area and a small bathroom which contained the only sink.

My family cooperated in helping me to set up by securing a hotplate for cooking and constructing a kitchen cupboard. The only water available was from the sink in the room with the toilet. I remember that I bought a dishpan from the Vader General Store (run by the head of the school board) so that I could bring water into my makeshift kitchen cupboard to wash dishes in after heating water in my teakettle on my hotplate.

Since I was the only outsider in the town for the first few months after I came, people would watch my every move and even watch to see when my lights went out at night.  Once some young boys stole my bicycle which I used to ride around town and dumped it through the broken out windows of the abandoned bank. I had to get help to get it out. A government sponsored school lunch program provided me a hot lunch including fresh bread every school day. There was no special education so a retarded boy sat on the floor and played with his little cars in my 3rd-4th grade class. The older students looked out for him on the playground.

This logging town diminished in population after the trees were all cut, and the school, which had been twelve grades, diminished in size to serve only the first eight grades. Since the upper floor was now empty, the army used it to billet a group of soldiers who were there to guard a local bridge. I used to go to the school in the evenings to play the piano for the men who came into the gymnasium for recreation. Since they were mostly from Texas, I had requests for The Yellow Rose of Texas over and over. I even began dating a tall, handsome blonde fellow from Texas.

The gossip in town amongst the young women was that you couldn't get married there unless you got pregnant first. I found out that any local fellow that I dated before the soldiers came to town must have bought into that story as even on a first date a young woman was often pressed into sex. Although I was quite naive, I had a built-in sense of self protection which stood me in good stead, as they say. What memories I have looking back on those early years. None of those dating problems plague me today since I have found a special companion to share a great part of my life. No more worries about finding a date or teetering around on four inch heels these days. Life is rich without the pitfalls that younger people face.
Recently when I was down visiting relatives in the Chehalis area I took a drive through Vader and did not recognize it. So many new homes had sprung up everywhere that I realized the truth in that statement, “You can’t go home again.” The only certainty is change. Life is challenging but exciting at the same time. Savor every moment of it.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at 206-935-8663 or gnkunkel@comcast.net.