I was born in 1898 in Marshall, Texas, the oldest of five kids. Papa couldn't 1 the money for me to go to school. If I had one 2 , it was never learning how to read.
When I turned 65, I 3 , but I didn't stop working. For the next 25 years, I 4 to my garden and did yard work for people nearby. I 5 all that when I was nearly 90．I ought to be 6 tired. But my eyes were good and I got all my teeth. People around were always trying to 7 me to use a walking cane. But the only8 I ever saw said I had the body of a 60-year-old.
One day, when I was walking down the street, a young fellow 9 me and handed me a piece of paper.
"What's this?" I asked.
"It's 10 about adult education classes at Lincoln Instructional Center. Adults can study for their degrees, learn math, learn to read and write..."
I 11 to hear the rest of what he said. Instead, I felt a warmth deep down inside me. My lifelong wish was to learn to read. It was high time for 12 . I got into the young man's car and he drove a few blocks to an old building. I knew it well—it was where all my seven 13 had gone to school. I had 14 the building so many times. But this time it was 15 , because it was going to be my own school.
