My fourth grade class is studying the history of Worcester, Vermont, our town. I'm studying Eagle Ledge Road, where I live. I interviewed Dot White and Madeline Bador. Dot showed her photo album with old pictures of the sawmill on Fisher Pond.

I learned about the sawmill. They got the logs out of the woods by horses or mules.

After sawing, they would load the lumber on a truck. Bert Fisher, the owner of the mill, is sitting on this truck.

Now I'm going to tell you about the school. Kids on Eagle Ledge went to the Wheeler School. Dot went to Wheeler School from first grade to eighth grade. It was a one-room schoolhouse, for all eight grades. The year that Dot finished eighth grade, 1941, the Wheeler School closed because there weren't enough children any more.

Then the kids had to walk to school in the village. For Eagle Ledge children it was three miles. Madeline Bador told us that she and the other mothers thought that was too far for young children to have to walk, so they didn't send their kids to school. After a few weeks of their boycott, the school board visited them, and decided they needed a school bus. The first bus was a truck, with two boards in the back for the kids to sit on, facing each other.

Wheeler School students, 1940 (Dorothy Bador White is in the front on the left.)

It was fun talking to Dot White about growing up on Eagle Ledge Road. I think my favorite part was when she showed us a picture of her pet. It was a skunk! She said her parents found it when it was a tiny baby, and it never sprayed her.

Thank you, Dot White and Madeline Bador, for talking about things that I didn't know.