Little Red Schoolhouses are ripe in the Land of Mears

Little Red Schoolhouses

are ripe in the Land of Mears

-Gray dawn finds me emerging eastward from New Era , from the cluster of very white houses that form the glorified vil- lage of the Dutch . The mixing of linseed oil and the spreading of white lead are essential elements in the religion in the thrifty lives of these ambitious folks from the Netherlands . In the mist I could see the iron horse standing on the railroad tracks and harnessed to the canning fac- tory to give it steam . This locomotive is on the payroll . The iron horse helps to can the string beans as much as the girls on the snipping belt . That might be celery growing in that lowland on the left . I make out a white horse feeding in a pasture by the swamp of pointed cedars . More white houses and white barns and a flock of turkeys I leave behind as I walk on up the hills on a winding sand road that seems to have no houses for two miles . Of course long before this I was up and astir in Mears for the alarm clock was set for four o'clock in the morning . I have walked a few miles under the stars and caught some rides to reach New Era before six o'clock . And now on a high spot on the road I stand to look at a lovely little lake on the left while the great red sun is rising , and by its light I sit down five minutes to read in a precious trade journal I have carried in my pocket . In the perusal of its adver tising , in the study of its type faces and arrangements and attention appeals I may forget time and spoce and the breathless beauty of the sunrise lighting the lake . There is coveted concentration to drink every- thing from a printed page . Five minutes here and I leave Inman Lake and go walking on . I unlock the door of the little red schoolhouse on the hill , so quiet now at half past seven . I build a wood fire in the round oak stove . The north windows look out on a second growth for est , the south to the willow trees in the vale and the green grain on a hill that seems to run up to the sky . I never saw before a school ground with pink grapes on the fence for the children to eat . There is no thunder in the bell in the little tower . It tinkles pleasantly to call the pupils back to songs and crayons and books and pictures and games and adventures with numbers and journeys to the world of the Tigris and Euphrates . How beautiful is the setting of the little red schoolhouse in the wilderness with the friendship of forest and marshes , and little lakes in a land of pioneering newness . How beautiful also that families who love the poise of woodland freedom can send their children to the

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rural neighborhood school and not have them swallowed into buses and clattered to school far away , shattering the woodland poise of the rural picture . Oceana has other schools on the other hills where the bell does not ring because there is no teacher . - Jeannette Vandenberg of Kala- Charles Herner . She mazoo was up in Mears visiting her father , brought along her daughters , Anne and Thelma Jean , also her husband . and they ate peaches and peaches . - The Lathers family went to mont Lake the other Sunday to attend the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Miller , also the Bennett family reunion.- A woolen goods man wanted to rent a concession space on the fair grounds to sell blankets and mackinaws , but George Powers didn't want him in because the woolen goods man would sell so much clothing . So the man rented a space in front of the closed gas station on the corner from the other gas station proprietor across the corner who used to operate both stations . And here he displayed his warm blankets Wednes- day . But George didn't want him here either , although that is outside the fair grounds . Some village ordinance was cited which prevented transient selling without a license , I infer . But it seems the woolen goods man consulted an attorney and found he could take orders . So Thursday night he was back selling again . It couldn't be that the wook en goods man was excluded from the fair grounds on account of space . could it ? The big Fine Arts building was all ciosed up because there weren't any people who wanted to set up booths in it , what with maru- facturing curtailed and no washing machines and radios to sell and lumber all restricted . So far as space was concerned , the woolen goods man could have had the whole building to himself or a bootn outside the door . No , it couldn't have been for lack of space that the man was excluded from the fair grounds . Maybe the fair association thought he would sell too many clothes or hurt the blanket business in the Cora cribs . It kind of makes a fellow wonder , doesn't it ? And the nights got so chilly too it would have been real humane if the people on the fair grounds could have bought mackinaws and put them on or wrapped a blanket around their shoulders like heap big Indian chief . it night have made the people feel more comfortable and they could have stayed on the fair grounds longer and spent more money . You should see the grand new listings of farm offerings Eva of Real Estate is getting up for the fall time hunters of lands and houses and streams here in Oce ana county . If you plan to sell your farm home any time soon , go see Eva and have her put your description in with the others . Folks away out in Washington where Nellie Mull lives will read it , some up in Maine where Mrs. Charlie Ferguson came from , and just any number from Dewey's good old York state . If you want to let the chickens and the bossies , the goats and the tractors go with the farm , OK . put ' em all in for the world to read about . Eva's ads are in the papers all over . and what a lot of folks she already has on her waiting lists . adv.- George and Eva Meyer , with Judy , Sally and Larry , and George's sis- ter , Rena Meyer , and Marian Klevering were up from the cities to breathe the Silver Lake air . Wish they would come up and spend a week so Era could sing again at the campfire program . I wonder If there were any campfire sings this year . - Raymond Greiner must have spent Sunday afternoon with the red - head that he met the preceding week because Lorraine waited by the hour for the invisible man to ap pear . - In the Klaassen neighborhood at the lake I found some Chicago Petersons , Carl and Helen with little Carl , Jr. , who got a 2 - pound bass . and little Marilyn who tasted some . N. M. Finke was from Arlingtou Heights , Ill . , with Carolyn and Carol Ann Finke and Carolyn Hunt ,

who was 3. Verna Klaassen is now Mrs. Robert S. Taylor . Zoe Freeman of Grand Rapids was up visiting Scott Pipe Organ McCurdy and sing- ing Althea . FOR SALE . Car radio , also a gas car heater . See Art Goerbig at Silver Hills Farm , Mears . - Mary Fleming and Marilyn Hathaway , two high school girls from Chicago , spent a week with Mrs. Walt Hansen and went home before the fair got to going . - Ray Fekken likes to rattle the tin cans at the New Era Canning Co. because Kate Mutrick is working on the belt and he can see her often . - Billy and Bea Walsh and Mrs. Doty and the Tallmans of Bass Lake came to the Hart fair on the bus , but the Walshs are soon leaving for Beantown ( Boston to you . ) - Green's cottage at Bass Lake burned up . A dog had to go in and wake up two women . I suppose he carried their stockings in his teeth so they could put them on . The registered Guernsey cows from Silver Hills Farm took 17 first prizes at the Hart fair . Also three seconds and one third . Scottland Farms Josephine was awarded grand champion of all cows exhibited and Pine Manor Courageous grand champion of all the bulls of all breeds . Josephine won a first prize in a Guernsey classification . Marlene a first as an age cow and Cinderella a 2nd . Meadow Gold Dukes Constance got 3rd as an age cow . In the four year old class Darlene won 1st and Hollichoisie 2nd . Josephine was 1st as a 2 year old Guernsey . Cherub was 1st as a senior yearling , Annn . belle second . Camila was first as a junior yearling and Azalea second . Aristocrat was first in get of sire and Marlene first in produce of dam . -Keith Corliss , the grocer on the corner in Mears , sells hats and col lars for fruit jars : also tablets for school . adv . - Harland Fuller's shiny car was backed into while parked at the fair . A $ 75 bump says Harland , and he doesn't know who did it . He wishes he had walked to the fair . The outdoor movie influence has registered on Fleet Birch Lathers , 22 , for this morning he was riding a rocking chair arm with his brother's belt for a line and singing " Riding Down the Canyon . " - FOR SALE : Ford Model T pickup , or will trade for Model T sedan Billo Lathers , Mears . - Helen Westlund and Thelma Lathers bicycled to the Hart Fair Thursday . Did anybody go with a horse and buggy ? - Western Michigan College will conduct an extension class in American Prese 122 , with Mr. Herbert Slusser as instructor , at Hart during the first semester for the teachers of Oceana vicinity . The first meeting will be held on Mon .. Sept. 18. at 7 p . m . CWT , at the high school . ady Past Collie and part Shepherd , mother and six pups for sale . Females , $ 1.50 ; males $ 2.00 . Mother is good watch dog . Lonis Lundry , Mears .

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Al Dumont's electrical appliance repair shop at 209 State street , Hart . beais refrigerators . Phone 23 by day and 282 - J evenings . adv . GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Big tall Herman Schuhknecht is here and buying produce in Mears

Herman Schukknecht is hack in Mears again , located at the Jonasson warehouse and buying fruits and all kinds of produce . For nine years now Herman has been coming up here in the produce business at lart or Mears . Look up this tall Hermann at the Jonassen .. warehouse in Mears . Or give him a ring .