DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Adelia M. Hoyt memoir and photographs

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Page 13

UNFOLDING YEARS 13
Whether it was that this outdoor life began to have its effect or that I was outgrowing the tendency, the fact remains that the next spring for the first time in several years I escaped the fever and long illness which had for so long sapped my vitality. For the next two years I continued to live much of the time in the open, breathing the sweet, clean air of the Iowa prairies and gaining in physical strength. I was still a very frail looking child, somewhat underside, but I think in those days was laid the foundation of what has proved in later years, in spite of many struggles, to be a rel tenacity to hold on to life. 
My people valued an education above most of those early pioneers. My delicate health, as well as my defective sight, prevented me from attending the country school two miles distant. My parents grieved over this, but the kind old family physician told them that my brain was growing too fast for my body, and that I must be discouraged rather than encouraged to use it. He always added that comforting assurance that it was not likely I would live to grow up. But nothing could prevent me from picking up knowledge from those around me or stop my brain from being filled with all sorts of busy fancies. From the books and magazines read aloud I learned much, for I lived over in imagination all the experiences of the various characters. When my sister Emma began going to high school, and later when she attended the State Normal School about two miles from us, on our side of town, she would often read her lessons aloud. In this way I memorized much that I could not understand but which I stored up for future use, thus keeping my mental processes alert. 
As my health improved my parents began teaching me in a rather desultory fashion. My father made me a blackboard and on stormy winter days he taught me to write on it and also learn the rudiments of arithmetic. I made my letters and figures large in order to see them. My father, who had some knowledge of music and loved it, drew on the blackboard the staff and taught me music notation. Mother gave me lessons in grammar and she also taught me to

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UNFOLDING YEARS 13 Whether it was that this outdoor life began to have its effect or that I was outgrowing the tendency, the fact remains that the next spring for the first time in several years I escaped the fever and long illness which had for so long sapped my vitality. For the next two years I continued to live much of the time in the open, breathing the sweet, clean air of the Iowa prairies and gaining in physical strength. I was still a very frail looking child, somewhat underside, but I think in those days was laid the foundation of what has proved in later years, in spite of many struggles, to be a rel tenacity to hold on to life. My people valued an education above most of those early pioneers. My delicate health, as well as my defective sight, prevented me from attending the country school two miles distant. My parents grieved over this, but the kind old family physician told them that my brain was growing too fast for my body, and that I must be discouraged rather than encouraged to use it. He always added that comforting assurance that it was not likely I would live to grow up. But nothing could prevent me from picking up knowledge from those around me or stop my brain from being filled with all sorts of busy fancies. From the books and magazines read aloud I learned much, for I lived over in imagination all the experiences of the various characters. When my sister Emma began going to high school, and later when she attended the State Normal School about two miles from us, on our side of town, she would often read her lessons aloud. In this way I memorized much that I could not understand but which I stored up for future use, thus keeping my mental processes alert. As my health improved my parents began teaching me in a rather desultory fashion. My father made me a blackboard and on stormy winter days he taught me to write on it and also learn the rudiments of arithmetic. I made my letters and figures large in order to see them. My father, who had some knowledge of music and loved it, drew on the blackboard the staff and taught me music notation. Mother gave me lessons in grammar and she also taught me to