Got a lot of cleaning done yesterday and today, in the trailer. I'm a horrible pack rat, and it doesn't help a bit that I married another one. I'll be undecided as to throwing something out or not, and he'll say, 'Oh, we can use that someday, here, I'll take it.'. Then he squirrels it away in one of...hmmmm, I think there are 8? cars and trucks on the place, as well as a number of sheds, bedrooms, corners, and assorted piles on the place. It's really out of hand. Anyway, I digress. I have to be in just the right mood to clean and throw stuff out. Happy, contented, or calm just doesn't work, angry is best, enraged is better, sometimes despair will work. Otherwise, I end up sitting down and looking at this and that, remembering this pleasant time when....and oh, look at this!!, etc etc.

So I'm out there cleaning- got a lot of stuff bagged up for the trash and thrift store, as well as stuffing the stove full of old papers, when I come across a folded piece of paper. It has water damage and has been partly eaten away by mice, and I was about to toss it. It says: "Dear (legal name), Congratulations! You are invited to be an honored guest at the annual Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce Academic Acheivement Banquet. The banquet honors the top 2 graduates of Quapaw Technical Institue as well as the top 10% of the graduating high school seniors in the county. (lots of details)." Apparently it was a banquet where the top students had an opportunity to further their education. I don't know, because I never went to it.

I spent all but two months of my high school years working in the woods, helping deliver newspapers, doing housework, helping our family survive, and ostensibly being homeschooled. There wasn't a whole lot of actual academic education taking place, though I learned an incredible amount of life experience. When I got married, I had no high school diploma, and I wanted to get my G.E.D.. My husband didn't have one either, so we went in at about the same time to take the test. I took it cold turkey, and did really well. It was an easy test. The people there made a real fuss over it, and my (now ex) husband wanted to do well, too. So he took out books from the library, studied, had me quiz him, and then he took it, and asked right away if he'd done better...but the ladies laughed at him. I guess he never forgave that, because he wouldn't let me go to the banquet.