School
teaching in the early 1940s was different than it is today. Evelyn Frideen’s
school sat several miles away from the home where she grew up in northwestern
Buffalo County, so she could only go back to visit her father on weekends. But
he would faithfully drive over every Friday to be there when school was out and
take her home. If it was snowy, he would hook up the horses to come. So she boarded with a family that only lived a couple of miles away, and would walk to school every day, arriving in time to make sure the stove was going so that everyone would be warm. When one of her students excitedly told her about the new baby at their house, she walked an extra mile and a half in the opposite direction to visit the family and meet their new addition.
The classroom was a lot different, too. It was just one not-so-big room holding students for 5 years old to 16 years old, a lot for a 20 year old to handle. So many age and ability levels to prepare for every day, not to mention the discipline issues that always came along.
Evelyn taught two years at this school, called Grandview. Then she resigned and she and her father moved to Kearney where she took a job as a bookkeeper with the Beshore Manufacturing Company which made airplane parts for the planes flying over Europe and the Pacific during WWII. She continued in that capacity for a few years even after her marriage in 1948 to Sam Matheny, a farmer in the Kearney area.
Not a lot of people traveled at that time but Sam and Evelyn decided they would take a big trip every year if at all possible. He would plan the trips, and she was in charge of the travel details. With an eye to cost, they would camp if possible, stay with friends and acquaintances when they could, and take along all food necessary for a one or two week trip. By the time Evelyn passed away, she had visited all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and several European countries (where they did not camp!). They also passed this wanderlust on to their children, though maybe not the urge to camp.
Evelyn passed away on April 27, 2013, at the age of 91.
The classroom was a lot different, too. It was just one not-so-big room holding students for 5 years old to 16 years old, a lot for a 20 year old to handle. So many age and ability levels to prepare for every day, not to mention the discipline issues that always came along.
Evelyn taught two years at this school, called Grandview. Then she resigned and she and her father moved to Kearney where she took a job as a bookkeeper with the Beshore Manufacturing Company which made airplane parts for the planes flying over Europe and the Pacific during WWII. She continued in that capacity for a few years even after her marriage in 1948 to Sam Matheny, a farmer in the Kearney area.
Not a lot of people traveled at that time but Sam and Evelyn decided they would take a big trip every year if at all possible. He would plan the trips, and she was in charge of the travel details. With an eye to cost, they would camp if possible, stay with friends and acquaintances when they could, and take along all food necessary for a one or two week trip. By the time Evelyn passed away, she had visited all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and several European countries (where they did not camp!). They also passed this wanderlust on to their children, though maybe not the urge to camp.
Evelyn passed away on April 27, 2013, at the age of 91.