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• Summary
• Early Years
• 1947-1948
• 1948-1949
• 1949-1950
• 1950-1951
• 1951-1952
• 1952-1953
• 1953-1954
• 1954-1955
• 1955-1956
• 1956-1957
• Later Years

We were hoping to include some personal remembrances from Miss Ratliff, until we learned of her passing in 2018. She was one of two teachers to return for a second year during the time the Trachta children went to Bohannon. Perhaps someone can provide some additional memories of her tenure at Bohannon, or of the rest of her teaching career.

Jimmy Rufener graduated from Bohannon School in 1951, and attended at least two years at Macon High School. At some point he went into the Army and attained the rank of Sergeant. He passed away in 1997, and is buried in the Hargar's Grove Cemetery, north of Clarence, Missouri.

Jack and Victor Butkovich attended Bohannon during the 1950-1951 school year. I believe it was Victor’s last year, but Jack attended 1951-1952. They moved into what we knew as the Ralph and Mona Miles place, a unique square house about a mile east of us at the intersection of a southbound road. The Irvin Rufener family was straight ahead, and the Kasbecks, when they arrived, lived to the right. It was about three-fourths a mile from the school to Jack’s house, and maybe another three-fourths to where Nancy and her brother Jack Kasbeck lived. Walking down old dirt roads to and from school is a powerful memory builder, and Jack tells me he and Nancy have remained friends all these years.

Our parents made an effort to become acquainted with all their near neighbors. Their best friends were the Wrays, and my brother and I become best acquainted with the Wray boys, Jimmy and Claire.

We also spent time with the Butkovich clan. Corncob fights were a rousing past time. When I recently made contact with Jack (John, now going by “Bo”), he remembered at once, after three-quarters of a century, the time my brother was bitten by a rabid squirrel. It was a traumatic event requiring a full 21day course of the Pasteur injections.

I also recall the five of us, me, my brother, Mel, Jack, Victor, and their young uncle, Glen Despines, setting off in search of one of our cows. She’d been sneaking through the fence and meeting up with the neighbor’s bull. Getting her back was an adventure, since she was very pregnant, and the bull wasn’t friendly. When we found her, we discovered she’d given birth. The bull wasn't interested at that point, so Glen scooped up the new born and we dashed back to the damaged fence. The calf's mother followed us but the bull didn’t bother. It was exciting, excellent fun of the sort young boys remember forever. Glen was a big boy, but it left him huffing. When I mentioned to my brother about making contact with John, he immediately remembered the Butkovich boys, and the episode with the bull.

John kindly shared a brief synopsis of his interesting years since Bohnnaon school. You can read it here.

The picture below was probably taken in the spring of 1951, probably on the last day of school, still a little chilly at the end of April. From left to right, they are Lilly Mae Rufener, Jimmy Rufener, Gregory Trachta, Billy Hoffman (in front), Victor Butkovich (behind them), Latrelle Walker, Jack Butkovich, and Wendel Rufener. After the picture was taken, my brother and I set off down the hill for our short walk home. The Butkovich boys, the Kasbeck siblings, and the Rufeners often set off together on their lengthy hikes home.

On the right might have been Owen Walker's distinctive green car, probably a 1930 Model A, the only green car in the neighborhood. The setting is in front of the school house (out of sight to the left) with the Manley Graves house in the background to the north. The picture was taken by Melton Trachta, on his Brownie 127 he earned by selling Mark Twain seeds.

My brother Mel, always the entrepreneur, wrote away and became a salesman of Mark Twain seeds. He was very successful, and before long had compiled enough credits to get a premium: his first camera. It was a Brownie 127, still in operation today if there were anyplace to get the film developed. It took surprisingly sharp pictures and survived a few mishaps. Once it was briefly in a Colorado lake, and logged lots of miles as the family went to Colorado and New Mexico. Thankfully, among his targets, were his Bohannon classmates, and we have these wonderful images.

I tried my hand at working for Mr. Twain, also. It looked so easy. As I've proved over and over again, the things other people do are so much easier than when I try them.

There were a number of evening entertainments during Miss Ratliff's tenure, events that included parties and refreshements, and sometimes songs and stage productions. One of these featured a scavenger hunt, and, due to over-selling by my brother and I, one of the scavenger items was a trip to the Trachta "Cave."

Mel had discovered the cave early-on in our explorations of the old Bohannon place. It was a territory rich for discovery. There were at least three former house sites, which offered artifacts of living, like fragments of dishes, boards with old square nails in them, a usable paring knife, and farm-equipment parts. In a deep draw, between a couple of hilltops, wild water had eroded a space beneath the roots of a large tree. That was our cave. Mel had read everything written by Mark Twain, at least once. We'd been through Mark Twain's cave, in Hannibal, and the idea of a cave on our property loosed a whirlwind of fantasy. We naturally suggested including it as a destination for Miss Ratliff's scavenger hunt. She agreed, for some reason.

I believe Mel and I were the only ones who made it to the cave. There might have been one or two with us. It was dark, wet, and spooky, and for the first time I wondered what creatures might be living in that cave. We stayed long enough to say we'd been there, and went back, the only ones who completed the journey.

It was about this time the Rurual Electrification Administration (REA) ran lines into the neighborhood and the kerosene lamps in the school, and most homes were replaced. Some people even wired their barns, an extravagance the Trachtas never embraced, although we had a "pole light" outside and Dad wired his shop so he could use his electric arc welder. After Dad wired the house we plugged in the electric lamps, toaster, and washing machine we'd moved from California. Plumbing was another matter. I don't recall anyone with indoor toilets. Only one family that I recall had running water: Rayel Long and his wife near Anabel. At some point a water fountain was purchased for the school. It required someone filling the resevoir from the well outside, and emptying what the students called the "slobber bucket."