The school building was gray. It sat on the side of a hill near houses built for miners. There was one room, four grades, and a merry-go-round. A pigtailed child wandered up the hill toward the building. She was five. When she entered the classroom, she smelled chalk and books. She loved the idea of education.

On the day she graduated from college, the smell of that classroom and the thrill of the merry-go-round ride remained the memory to which she clung.

She began teaching. Education was so important and she never quit loving the smell of chalk and books.