Daddy, May I Go Back To School?

While my father, Charley James Watson, was attending the now long time closed Dorris one-room school, he asked his daddy, Eli Jasper Watson Jr., one winter evening as they sat around the fire in the fireplace, if he had to go to school. His dad inquired, “Why do you ask?” Charley said that he was getting tired going to school and that he would rather stay at home and help with the work on the farm. His dad replied that if that was the way that he felt that he did not have to go.

After Charley had gone to bed, Grandfather Eli asked Grandma Lynn to cook their breakfast early enough the following morning to allow him and Charley to get out of the house by first light. He had a newground to clear. He also asked her to bring a picnic lunch and additional drinking water to the newground at noon so that they could put in a full day.

The following morning Grandfather Eli and Charley headed to the clearing with axe, kaiser blade (the Mississippi name for a brush blade), hoe, fork, and saw. They cut brush and bramble; felled, trimmed, and cut trees into limbs and logs; piled and burned brush and logs; and then when the piles had burned they regrouped the sooty remnant to complete the burning. This schedule continued until noon without a break. After sitting down and eating the picnic lunch they returned immediately to the work of clearing.

Now if you have never done this work you cannot imagine just how difficult and harsh are these tasks. They held to the strenuous schedule for a full three days. Early to late, so long as there was sufficient light, they worked stopping only long enough to take the necessary food and water.

After the third day as they sat around the fire in the evening, Charley asked, “Daddy, may I go back to school?” Eli asked, “Is that what you want to do?” Charley answered, “Yes.” My grandfather replied that it would be alright. He reminded him that he had never said that he could not go.

When Charley finished the grades at the Dorris School, he attended Wood Normal (now Wood Junior College) at Mathiston, Mississippi and completed the one-year program of study there.

And that is how my father, Charley James Watson, became one of the best educated farmers in Montgomery County in his day.

This was written by Roy Charles Watson on June 7, 1986 at Jackson, Mississippi.