Things That I Remember —
I started school at six. My sister Cora Hardman (Sorensen) was my first teacher and Eulalia Sorensen (Welch) my second. Adelia Lemmon was my teacher in the “middle room,” I liked Delia best of all my teachers. She could get more work out of me than anyone else.
Arithmetic was my best subject, I could do that easily, but reading and spelling came hard. My interests were more in sports than academic studies. I usually came out first in athletics. My father also encouraged me in this. At home dad fixed up a track and pole vault and each morning I would run around the block. When we got into the “big room” our school had the best basketball team in the valley. Afton Bird, LaVern Larsen, Percy Taylor, Theo Whitney and Osmar Baker comprised this team. David Winn was principal and coach.
When Clifford Watkins was principal he tried to teach me to sing, but he didn’t have any success. He always wore pointed toed shoes and when he was angry he would give us a kick with those pointed toed shoes. We played basketball in the old back room in the winter and outside in good weather. We played our games in Richards Hall.
— Eli Bernard Hardman