90 years of memories living at Womble Mountain
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Kestner Wallace, educator and author, says he did not expect to reach the age of 90 today.
He read years ago in the Bible man's allotted time was three score and 10 years, or age 70.
"I thought if I reached that I'd be lucky. But I might live for a few more years even," Wallace said.
For most of his life Wallace has lived surrounded by family at the foot of Womble Mountain in southern Mountain Township. It was a place his grandfather, a Civil War veteran, purchased and divided among his several boys.
Growing up, Wallace was surrounded by his five siblings and six cousins. In more recent years his son Ray, wife Lisa, and their children have shared the old Wallace homestead.
"It seems like a peaceful place to live and a healthy place to live," Wallace said.
The odd mountain, removed from the Eagle Mountain range, is a special place for the Wallaces.
"We lived close enough to it, it was easily accessible for hunting and recreational purposes. We got firewood off the mountain to use for heating and cooking," Wallace said.
Wallace said the depression meant there was no money, but the family was self-sufficient.
"The only way it affected us was being short on money. Money was scarce and hard to come by. We were as poor as everyone else around us," Wallace said.
But the family kept cows that provided milk and butter, enough pigs for smoked and cured meat, chickens for eating and eggs, grew plenty of potatoes and picked blackberries.
"We didn't lack for food, but money was scarce," Wallace said.
Wallace, at 5-years-old, attended Sadler school behind Womble Mountain, but his teacher turned him away. Schooling was not required until age 6 and the class size was high. Wallace did not mind waiting another year. He said he did not care that much about school, anyway.
But when he did go he joined the other children walking on the well-worn trail through the woods to reach the one-room school building. The school took him through eighth grade.
Wallace was born in 1920 and the "new road" from Golconda to Harrisburg -- now state Route 34 -- was paved in 1927 and 1928. Because of the road Wallace was able to hitchhike to high school his first two years and rarely had trouble getting a ride. He remembers one bitter winter day with ice on the road and little traffic that he had to walk the 6 miles from Mitchellsville to home.
In his final two years of high school, Wallace took his father's 1920 Model T Ford off the blocks and drove it to school with his two brothers and five other students.
The new road changed the culture of Mountain Township. There was a general store in Herod and one in Rudement. Farmers sold produce to the general stores and families depended on them for grocery shopping.
As state Route 34 did away with the bumpy mud and dust road that had limited travel and automobiles came into popularity, more and more families drove past the general stores for fresh meat available in Harrisburg.
General store merchants were buying chickens, eggs and cream from the farmers, but more and more of those farming families were traveling to Harrisburg to buy.
General store merchants sponsored an essay contest with a $10 prize to try to save their businesses. Contestants were to write on the subject of why people ought to patronize their country stores to buy groceries.
"My sister wrote a letter and won $10," Wallace said.
Like many young men at that time, Wallace at 16 left for Michigan to find summer work in an automobile factory, but found the employees were on strike and there was no work.
He took a job at a grain farm. His pay was $40 a month.
By the second summer at the farm he had saved enough to buy tires, a new battery and side curtains for his father's Model T. In 1938 he drove it to high school. He and his uncle modified the engine so that it would reach speeds of 55 mph.
The next few years took Wallace to Pontiac, Mich., to work nights at a bakery for 35 cents an hour and then to Jig Bushing, a defense plant that made airplane parts.
"I was an external grinder. My job was so tedious they couldn't keep a man on," Wallace said.
The company's owner was on the draft board and Wallace was of the draft age. The owner was able to spare Wallace from the draft three times before he was finally drafted into the Navy and was stationed in Saipan.
Wallace had formerly taught a Sunday school class and while in the Navy was taking correspondence courses from Columbia University and a college in Dearborn, Mich. From his classes and his experience working with other sailors, Wallace believed he would like a career as a teacher.
In 1946, out of the service, he took a job teaching at Rudement school for the next five years. Then he taught at Pankeyville school, a two-room school, for five years.
Finally, in the 1958 to 1959 school year, the 13 rural schools consolidated into Independence Consolidated School and Wallace was hired as superintendent and principal. He would hold the principal position for 30 years until the school closed.
"As superintendent and full time principal the work was so overwhelming, my wife Evelyn would go back and help with the paperwork," Wallace said.
Wallace was also teaching half-time.
Independence Consolidated School was then consolidated into the Harrisburg Unit No. 3 district and became Independence Grade School attendance center.
Wallace had a half-time secretary and no longer taught.
"For the last few years I was only full-time principal. That was when I became a hot shot," Wallace said.
"My philosophy was being kind and considerate to students, teachers and parents, more or less following the Golden Rule," Wallace said.
One of his joys was the morning tradition of shaking hands with Everett Bolin, the school custodian, who he had originally met at a Mitchellsville church.
"Country churches were strong on handshakes, a good, right hand, fellowship handshake. We shook hands several times in the Mitchellsville church. He was hired as a custodian and the first day at school we met at the door and shook hands. For the next 10 years we never failed to shake hands," Wallace said.
Independence Grade School closed in 1987. Wallace believes it served its purpose.
"I felt like it was built for me. I had 30 good years there, good employment, good experiences, good parents and good students. It couldn't have been better," Wallace said.
Wallace was known for a tradition that would have raised eyebrows today. Around Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas and the first day of school the pupils assembled in the cafeteria.
"We would meet at an assembly and I would offer a prayer. At the beginning of school I would offer a prayer for the safety and success of school that year. I was careful not to overdo my religious inclinations for fear of being seen as a religious nut," Wallace said.
He said he believed the school could benefit from the guidance of a higher power.
He believes the district administration was aware he was leading prayers, but he was never approached about it.
"No one complained. If I had been warned, I would have complied," Wallace said.
Since his retirement, Wallace has remained busy mowing his two acres of lawn, gardening until he gave it up to the varmints and fishing.
He has also been a regular contributor to Springhouse magazine for more than 25 years, writing his memoirs as a boy growing up on a farm and on the people who have been important to him as friends, mentors and neighbors.
Wallace's family created a compilation of Wallace's essays in the book "A Dollar the Hard Way."
"I have enjoyed my writing. It seems as though it has exercised my mind and helps me to recall things that happened years ago. It seems if I had not written I would be less mentally alert," Wallace said.
"And I appreciate the fact Gary and Judy DeNeal have seen fit to publish my stories in Springhouse. Again, it makes me feel like a hot shot."
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DeNeal receives e-mail at mailto:bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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