From the Lefthand Corner: Who says kids can't work these days?

The early days of May brought the long overdue sun and warmth to Echoland.

Last Wednesday, May 4, it also brought a sunny warmth to my home in the form of six bright and cheery teenagers who swarmed over my house and front and backyard for several hours.

I was pleasantly surprised by the early arrival of an SUV with three young women in work clothes, closely followed by another vehicle similarly occupied.

With smiles and enthusiasm, they identified as Pequot Lakes High School students, ready and willing to go to work, raking leaves and washing windows - one task that I’d be very slow at, and another that I would never even try.

I now digress a bit.

They came in new-appearing SUVs - a Jeep and a Honda, the Jeep quite different from the government surplus Jeep my Navy uncle was offered after World War II.

Their vehicles reminded me of the stark contrast in student travel to and from school - the then and the now.

I’m part of those lingering and lessening old old-timers who remember the stories of walking two to five miles to a one-room country school; all up hill - both ways. In truth, I did start country school at age 5. I believe Mother was anxious to get me out of the house and her presence for a few hours a day.

The first year, a neighbor transported us in his two-door, 1940 Chev that he kept in the barn during the winter so it would start in the morning. Not many had garages out our way.

It was a warm but smelly ride in the mornings, a little less so in the afternoons on the way home.

That school closed and the second year we did walk 1¼ miles each way.

Then that school closed and we were split, with some of us going to the “big school” in Pequot in a really old yellow bus, for more split grades and eventually graduating in 1951 in a class of 23.

Back to the yard and window workers.

A pair of also pleasant supervisors came at 10:30 a.m. to check on the girls and talk briefly about the project.

Overall , it is another striking example of the good that is all around us in our Echoland community.

In a little over three hours the amazing sextet raked, sacked, tied, carried and loaded over 30 fully stuffed 40-gallon sacks of leaves to my pickup and then washed over 20 windows. Wow!

It took me longer than that to drive the two full loads to the recycling site and unload the leaves. They did the work, put everything back, and as a final touch, the earlier finishers weeded a flower garden and swept the entrance walk while waiting for others to put the window washing stuff and step ladders back in place.

Who says kids can’t work these days? Some PLHS sophomores sure can.

My thanks to Pequot Lakes High School and to whoever started and administers the workday project.

My thanks to Danni from church, who also works at the school and who signed me up as a project beneficiary.

My thanks to those parents who encouraged and instilled the quite obvious work ethic in the young women who showed up last Wednesday.

My special thanks to Allie, Taylor, Jenna, Kessa, Rian and Emma.