In the fall of 1953 I started 5th grade at Trona Elementary School. The room we had was in the original part of the school near the auditorium. The auditorium was shared by the elementary school and the high school. It was boundary that separated the high school campus from the elementary.

This was Mrs. Mont-Eton’s third year as a teacher but her first year of teaching in Trona. It was also her children’s, first year at Trona High School. They had already become used desert life during the two years their mother taught school in Twentynine Palms and from spending time during the summer in the Panamint Range and Valley while their father was prospecting.

I’m sure we weren’t the easiest class to deal with but for the most part I think were pretty good. One student with the initials of H. S. seemed to be the center of attention but after a while she managed to get that under control.

There were many new teachers that came to Trona, stayed in houses the district subsidized for the first year or two and then they moved on. Winifred Mont-Eton was one of the teachers that grew roots.

Winifred retired from teaching in 1975 after 25 years of teaching. She spent 22 years of those years teaching 5th grade in Trona. After retiring she remained near Trona in Ridgecrest and Inyokern until her death in 2010.

There is much more to her story but I don’t want to tell it all. Winifred dictated her story into a tape recorder and her daughter, Lorry Wagner, transcribed it and published it as a book.

To learn about Winifred becoming one of the first Ham radio operators click on the link below:

https://www.sdarabians.com/mom.html