Echoes from the ledges surrounding the old Ghost village of Fruita, in the heart of the Capitol Reef National Park, make me melancholy.

Over half a century ago, I spent a lot of my childhood in Fruita. It was in its old, one-room, sawed-log school that I entered the first grade. I was only 4 going on 5 in November; really too young for the first grade. But, My mother – Hattie Mulford Robison – who was the teacher, had no other place to put me.

Hattie Mulford Robinson	Hattie and son Clay with 1924 Chevy
Old Log School House	Inside Old Log School House