HAZEN CORNERS: Located half way between Eastman and Prairie du Chien, WI. was the first school Neil D. Greene was to teach. The school is gone now, but for a young man who never really wanted to be a farmer, it was a place to start his career. Neil was single and "just graduated" from PLATTEVILLE COLLEGE WITH a "Lifetime Certificate", qualifying him to teach any subject for his lifetime.

LOWER SHANGHI RIDGE: This school also no longer exists except in the memories of those who had occasion to be there. Evelyn M. Doskocil, who grew to young ladyhood on a farm a few miles West of there, was employed as a houseperson in WAUZEKA, WI., just about 4 miles southeast of the school. Part of her duties was to fix the noontime meals for her employers, the Zeahs, who had a store downstairs. Evelyn and a girlfriend, Hazel Richman, were to walk from Wauzeka to the school so that Evelyn could visit Neil at his school and then hurriedly make the walk back before noon to cook lunch for her employers. The romance quickly blossomed; Neil dressed well and HE WORE A HAT! After eloping with a nephew of Neil's, Cecil McDaniel and Helen Christopherson, who also eloped that day. Neil and Evelyn set up housekeeping in a stone house near the school. They shared the house with a man who had 1 room upstairs and 1 room downstairs. Less than a perfect home, they had 1 room upstairs and 2 rooms downstairs. The man who lived there had bedbugs and they spread to the whole house. Evelyn sprayed their part with kerosene and put a pan with kerosene below each bedstead to discourage the bugs. To complicate matters, Neil and Evelyn were making some wine and it ran over into the man's space, angering him further. The man didn't like sharing this place and went so far as to erect a fence down the middle of Evelyn's garden. About this time Evelyn became pregnant...later to miscarry an infant son after lifting a washtub of water. She became very depressed and began crying all the time; something had to give. An arrangement was made with the schoolboard so that they could live downstairs at the school...with a blanket for a door so as not to disturb the classes. Evelyn started teaching the girl students to sew, probably one of the first [if not the first] HOME-EC classes in WI. The project was to be quilts for each girl...with a special showing at the end of year for the parents. Each mistake was to cost a penny, to be used for a special trip at years end. Near years end saw the mistakes costing 5 cents as the girls became better. The money was enough for a trip to PRAIRIE... transportation in a trailer pulled by Neil's car. Each girl bringing in a slip with her parents approval signature. The quilt show was a success! Later a house trailer was bought and moved to a flat spot on the hill just below the school. Evelyn was to have her first child, John Wm. Greene, in Jan. 1935, at her sister's house in town during a snowstorm...in town just in case a Dr. might be needed.

CHRIS SCHOOL: Closer to Boscobel but still on the ridge on the downhill side of the "Old Maple Grove Church" and not too far from friends Harlas and Eva Dolan. Not many evenings went by without a few hands of 500 or euchre. The trailer was moved closer to the school and it was here that son John started to walk at 9 months of age. Things are going well and a new car is purchased by Neil. The trailer is sold and a move to town, Boscobel, is made to a rented house. It was a "large house", nice, and hard to heat. Evelyn was to paper the walls and paint things in this house as well as "all' the houses they lived in. Heating only 3 rooms is still expensive so a move is made to a smaller house across from the Boscobel Fire Station...they can now heat the whole house. Nephew Claire Greene was to help in the move... he brings along a scoop shovel to help remove the trash and dirt that years of neglect had accumulated. Once cleaned, wallpapered, and painted, it was quite "livable". Neil gave a ride to 3 kids to the school each day in exchange for meat and firewood for heat. At this home Evelyn had her tonsils removed; they were buried with her appendix in their bottles in the yard to be dug up and buried with her in case of her demise. [bottles are probably still there] A better job offer is made to Neil and they are to move again.

BEETOWN: A house is rented between the school and downtown...near the bridge on the "Slabtown" road. Son John is now 2 years old and Evelyn finds an adult friend to share time with...lifelong friend, Eulala Kiddo, whose name was to be given to a future daughter 2 years later. They, Neil, decides to buy a better car and he borrows money from Cecil's Grandfather. The payments prove to be too much and a "deal" is made for a trade...the NICE CAR for a corn planter and a team of BEAUTIFUL but unbroken horses. An old car is purchased for transportation to the new job teaching "Hoover Hollow School" on IRISH RIDGE. A home will have to be found near the new school but that will be the easy part.

HOOVER HOLLOW and HOMESTEAD ROOTS: William Green, Neil's father, had made purchase arrangements for his sons before he passed away in 1932. Brothers Lyle and Ray were already farming parts of Grandfather Tompkins Green's homestead; now Neil was to give it a try. Farming and teaching seemed perfect, especially since the land deal involved no payments for the first year. The well was already there and a granary and chicken coop were quickly turned into living quarters. The team of horses soon learned to "whoa" and rest...having been taught by pulling a fully loaded stoneboat on those Crawford Co. hills. Teaching school is what Neil is best at and things are looking up. $60 a month for teaching and a farm to work was manageable. Son John is now 5 years old and plans for woodcutting at Uncle Lyle Greene's farm are made for a cold November day. A long wait at Uncle Lyle's is ended when Neil takes his son home to meet his new sister, Eulala. Not knowing there was to be a new sister left John slightly miffed at having to share Mom with a crying sister who had a red, bent ear... explained to brother as having been caused by a too small DR's bag. The fact that the Dr. was drunk wasn't mentioned at the time. Homemade grapejuice and fresh pears helped compensate for the chimney fire; popping corks from the too warm homemade rootbeer helped make the snowdrift behind the red-hot pot-bellied stove seem almost OK. The deciding factor for the next move came when an overzealous bank representative of Grandfather William Greene's estate demanded early payment before the year was up. Neil was not a man to be pushed, no payment was made; it's off to a new teaching job in Bell Center. Hoover Hollow School is no more.

MOUNT STERLING: The town was slow to accept the Greenes and the schoolboard took some heat. The house we lived in was next to and just west of the school. Neil produced a couple of plays with townspeople and students and things start to look better. A summer job at the local cheese factory and a fall job picking apples at GAYS MILLS... things are going OK. Evelyn taking in several quarry workers for board and room... the extra rationing stamps helped when the world changed and all were gathered around the radio to hear "A DAY OF INFAMY". Junk collections and picking milkweed pods became school time projects. 7/Dec/1941, a time for togetherness of community and country.

MUSCODA: Neil was now to teach high school, son John is now in 3rd grade and Eulala is out of the twos! Evelyn has a part time job at Johnny's Cafe. After a brief stay in a 2nd story apartment, Neil and Evelyn purchased a house on Second St.., it comes complete with overgrown grass and a willow tree branch through the south window. At least it was close to the Post Office and grocery stores. $1400 was a lot of money and it needed a lot of TLC, but it was theirs to fix up and live in for nearly 14 years. A large garden that no one could put a fence through, even a large playhouse for the 2 young daughters. JANET was almost as much surprise to John and Eulala as "YAH" had been to "JACK" years earlier. It was in Muscoda that Jack was to graduate High School the same year Yah graduated 8th grade and Janet left Kindergarten for first grade. At 84 years old, in 1995, Evelyn still chuckles about what someone must have thought if they ever removed the wall that was stuffed with a bunch of old "bras" for filler while remodeling was in progress. It was here that several firsts for Neil and Evelyn were to occur...hot running water, a gas stove, an indoor toilet, and in 1954...a TV.

VIROQUA: The VERNON CO. NORMAL, later to become a WI Center of Platteville and Madison University Satellite School, Supervisors didn't let the fact that Neil had led a successful teachers strike while at Muscoda deter them, they hired him to teach and later to be Administrator of their school. Evelyn worked for several years at the nursing home, and all three kids were married and on their own. The large house on Washington St. was too big and the house at Muscoda had been sold, Neil and Evelyn buy a small house at 523 So. Rusk Ave. The first thing they set about doing was to remodel. They bought the house next door and tore it down... the old couple that had lived there were impossible to get along with. Later they sold the lot and a new house was built there [nice neighbors this time]. Neil was to have several heart attacks but stayed till the college closed, his goal was to stay till then and did so. His career spanned 42 years and went from 1 room country schools through college...thousands of students had the distinct advantage of having been taught by a true "EDUCATOR" .

Quote from "Kickapoo Pearls", v.1, June 1979. Kickapoo Valley History Project, Crawford, Vernon, & Monroe co. historical Societies, by Evelyn: "I think every one of his (Neil, her husband) students will carry with them something he has helped them with. He'd always take the kid that everyone else put down and make something of that kid. he was a great man. I don't say that just because he was my husband, anyone will tell you that about him."