I am eighty years old. I was born on the Murdock ranch east of Big Piney in 1909. I lived on the ranch while growing up then moved to Pinedale when I married. My husband’s name was E.J. Bing. We had one son, Robert.
I have taught school 41 years and also worked on the ranch. I enjoyed playing games like anti-I-over, hide and seek, and baseball as well as riding horses which was the most fun. I also went swimming in the summer.
I went to a country school for about four years. Some years we did not have a school available so my mom sent me to St. Mary’s Academy in Salt Lake City. My mother was my first teacher. I was six years old. I have always liked school very much.
We used kerosene lamps before electricity, and our washing machines were hand propelled. Everything had to be done by hand. The most important changes have be[en] in transportation, television, radio[,] and of course, the wonderful school you children are now attending.
I enjoyed playing and working the most. Sometimes we were lonesome. In the summer we played and climbed trees. We cooked with a Majestic stove which burned wood and coal. The sewing machine was a Singer and we had to pedal it with our feet.
When I taught the first subject was Reading and then we had Arithmetic. In the afternoons I had Geography, Health, Science[,] and Art. Schools started at 9:00 and ended at 4:00.

Interviewed by Michelle Lockwood and Gretchen Sherwood