"Mom, going to the pond."

"OK. You going fishing?"

"Yup." So I went down the hill to fish. As I looked over to what used to be the old Wheeler/Fisher Sawmill, I just saw a foundation of stones and moss. It amazes me to think that until 1956 that mill made logs into boards. So I looked at the ruins one last time, listened to the osprey, and went home.

That night I thought hard about the mill and just living in the early 1900's. Then I fell asleep and had a dream. In my dream I woke up at 6 a.m. with my mom saying, "Honey, time for milking."

"What?"

So I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I got there I was in for another surprise.

"Huh? Where's the bathroom?!"

Then it hit me. I had traveled back in time. I kept pinching myself and wondering how it happened. Fortunately, I have learned how to milk a cow at summer camp. I headed out to the shed, did the milking, and brought the milk in to my mom. She put it in the icebox. Wait a minute . . . an icebox?! Oh, I remember. I learned about those in school. People had them before there was electricity.

Then I got an idea. I could use this opportunity to find out some information for our class history project! So I got a notebook and headed out to observe.

First I went to the mill. It was weird to see the mill when it was working, having just seen it in ruins. The water in the pond was much higher, and I saw logs floating, with men walking on them! And there were no leeches. I quickly wrote down, "water higher, logs floating with men walking on them, no leeches."

Wheeler School students in front of the school, 1933

Carl and Audrey B.'s house

Then I went home just like I had before, only 70 years earlier. When I got home my mom said, "Time for school."

"Can you take me, or should I ride the bus?" I asked her.

"Bus?! What are you talking about?"

"Oh yeah, guess I gotta walk." I had learned in school that kids had to walk to their school. So I walked to the Wheeler School. I brought my notebook with me. It was a mile and a half walk so I had some more time to write.

When I got there I saw the girls playing Miss Mary Mac while boys were playing tricks on the teacher (like gluing her ruler to the desk). I wrote, "Girls playing Miss Mary Mac, boys playing tricks." Then I realized that the school was at Carl and Audrey Beauregard's house, but as the Wheeler School it sure looked different. For one thing, there was a flagpole out front. The boys were wearing knickers and the girls were wearing long dresses. I wrote, "girls long dresses, boys knickers."

Wheeler/Fisher Mill

Logs on Fisher Pond, floating to the mill

Inside the school there was no electricity, so there were kerosene lamps instead. Then I wrote, "kerosene lamps instead of electric light bulbs."

When school was over I had written enough down, and I was ready to go back to 2005. But how? Then I remembered, I got here by a dream, so why couldn't I get back by a dream? So I went to bed and said goodbye to 1935, and the way my part of Worcester was back then.

Thank you, very much, Dot White and Madeline Bador for helping me learn about the history of the mill, the pond, and Eagle Ledge Road.