MONTEZUMA

During the 1920s the school at Young continued to grow until we had six teachers. I was able to finish the first two years of high school there and was then faced with the problem of completing high school. Our parents were disappointed in Floyd's performance so they decided to try something different with me. They thought a boarding school might be a better answer than farming me out to a family in Globe. They talked with Rev. Bussell who was a bright very well educated man and was minister of the local Baptist Church. He recommended sending me to Montezuma, a Baptist high school and college in Montezuma, New Mexico. I remember the day Dad talked to me about leaving home to continue school. He was very direct saying,"Sherman, you have gone as far as you can go here in the Valley so we will need to decide where you go from here? What do you plan to do?" I said, "Dad, I want to go on to school. I do not know just yet what I will do but I do not see anything in this Valley that I would like to do for the rest of my life." Dad then told me that he and Mom had talked with Rev. Bussell and that Bussell had recommended a boarding school called Montezuma near Las Vegas, New Mexico. That hit me exactly where I wanted to be hit and I told the folks that I would do my best to make good there.

Now I am sure that many people would not consider Las Vegas New Mexico to be a great place to "escape" to. For me it was like the gates of paradise had just opened and I was ready to step inside. I was fresh from the "sticks." I had never seen a properly set table. I had never tasted ice tea or hot dogs. I was just in from the country riding on a load of pumpkins and had a million things to learn about the rest of the world. I did have one thing going for me. I was ready and willing to make the best of any situation.

It was decided that I would go alone on the train from Holbrook to Las Vegas. After all, I was sixteen years old and could ride a horse or brand a calf so I should be able to ride a train overnight to Las Vegas. It was necessary to get a few clothes and we relied on Sears Roebuck for those, placing an order for a suit, shirts, trousers and shoes. As I remember the order totaled about fifty dollars including shipping charges.

Around the first of September 1928 we started to Holbrook in Uncle Dalton's Model T Ford. That car had a Ruxtell Axle so it would throttle down enough to climb slowly over the large rocks in the unimproved road. The first day we made it to Heber which was forty seven miles from Young. We spent the night in the Heber School house and drove on to Holbrook the next morning. On checking schedules we found that I could catch a train at nine o'clock that evening. Dad and Mom would not think of leaving me alone to catch that train at nine that evening. We all sat around the depot and waited. You might suppose Dad, Mom. Ruth and Victor would stay at a motel after I left but there were no motels in those days. They simply drove out of town to a convenient spot, rolled out their bed rolls and slept. It was much less expensive to travel in those days but it was not very convenient.