Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Pa didn’t get a lot of schooling but he was very good with math.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - He only went through the sixth grade at Bridge School. But, if he were going to put barley in the bin, he could sit down and figure out how many bushels there were to go in. He could figure out most anything.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - When we had math problems from school, he could always help us out. People were intelligent without necessarily having to go to school for a long time.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - I only went to the Bridge School for seven years. When I started there, Harrison Dentel was the teacher. All the classes were together in the same room. I was the only one in the first grade so he moved me up with the second graders. So, when it came to the end of the year, he passed me on to the third grade. So I kept going and graduated from the eighth grade when I was thirteen.

Ralph Heiden - The Heidens overall seem like a pretty sharp bunch of people. I haven’t found too many who are down and out.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Wilma was third in her high school class.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Jeanie was Salutatorian of hers.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Yeah, I had to work real hard to beat Wilma. Then, when I had to give the speech at graduation, I was wishing I had been third.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Professor Ayris said he thought I should have gotten Salutatorian because the girl who got it had transferred in from another school. He said that the records from that school said that she had gotten all A’s and there was nothing he could do about it. He wanted to make me class Historian so I could give a speech too but I said, “No thank you!”

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I had to pay 25 cents a day for a ride to high school and some weeks it was awfully tough to come up with that $1.25.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We didn’t have buses in those days. If you went to high school, you had to find a ride with someone.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Viola Chambers used to give me a ride. Burkes across the river used to drive too.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I had Bonnie Zorn take me to Dundee.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - When Wilma was in the fourth grade, she won the county spelling bee against everyone, even the eighth graders and won all those medals.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I remember the day of an assembly in Monroe High School auditorium when they asked, “Is Wilma Heiden in the audience?” I stood up and they started clapping but the announcer said, “Where is she? I can’t see her.” Finally, I had to get up on my chair and everybody started cheering.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Harrison Dentel (left) wanted me to get into the spelling bee because Wilma had won it but I was too bashful for that stuff.

Ralph Heiden - A lot of the Heidens went to Bridge School. It went from kindergarten to eighth grade. How many students would there be at the school in the average year?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Oh, about fifty or sixty. Harrison Dental would be the only teacher.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We were all in the same room together. Everybody would be sitting at their desks and he would call up one class at a time to work on their lessons. That used to help the younger ones, I think. We would sit back there and, when we were in the second grade, we would get done with our work and then listen to the third grade go through their lesson. By the time you got there the next year, you pretty well knew most of it already.

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - By the time we got to the seventh or eighth grade, we would be allowed to help with the first graders and teach them.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I can still remember that old Regulator clock on the wall. It made a loud “Tick! Tick! Tick” sound!

Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - The teacher had a length of rubber hose in his desk. And, boy, he would use it too!

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - He would be teaching another class up front in the room but, if you turned around to talk to someone, he would spot you. All of a sudden, “Whop!”, he would snap you behind the head with the hose.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - He wore those big, black high top shoes and he would walk on the balls of his feet.

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - He always tiptoed around.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - We always called him, “Tippy toes!”