Schurz Newsletter

For a school year, 1968-1969, I was the principal, 7th & 8th grade teacher, sometime bus driver and sometime custodian on the Walker River Piaute Indian Reservation in Schurz, Nevada.  (I got up very early to build the fire in one of the classrooms so they would be warm.  This was in the high desert and was very, very cold in the wintertime.)  It was a pretty wild year, what with my drinking, the wildness of the territory and absolutely no law enforcement for most of the time I was there.  In this news letter a couple of interesting items; The Volunteer Fire Department was being organized.  I was a volunteer.  The way it worked, we had a very loud horn which could be heard all over town.  When you heard that, you knew to get into action, into your car and go to the fire.  I only went to one fire.  The horn sounded, we all raced to our cars and followed the old delapadated truck to the fire.  The only problem was we took a bad route.  We arrived on the other side of the river from the little house that was going up in smoke.  In true fashion, the decision was made to have a couple of beers, smoke a few cigarettes and watch the thing burn.  The other item in the newsletter concerned the Elementary School, my school.  Parents were invited to visit the school while it was in session to see how things are done.  They could eat lunch with their children for .45 cents.  There was spelling bee to be held countywide in Hawthorne the county seat. And, there was a meeting tentatively set for the week of February 13, to try to organize a parent/teacher organization.  I have no idea how any of these turned out.  Oh, oh, I found one more item in the newsletter . . . The Schurz Elementary School team took Third Place in the Austin Tourney held over Christmas.  Not bit news.  Here's the interesting thing, how did the the team get to Austin.  As I recall, Austin was up in the mountains.  When I first arrived to take the job, the district office guy said, "I suppose you'd like to have a bus driving license."  "Of course," I replied.  Forthwith, I was presented a bus driving license without training, no testing and I had never driven a bus in my life.  Well, my first bus-driving experience was up to Austin with a busload of basketball players and a few chaperones.  The trip up into those mountains was the most terrifying of my life.  It started to snow and the road was almost straight up.  I didn't even know how to shift the damn thing.  We slid all over the road all the way up.  Thank Goodness we made it all right, but I have to tell you, it was touch and go.