My Face to the Wind Quotes

“I ignored them, mostly because I had no idea what I should say and I didn’t want to make the situation worse.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“So our march was suddenly a swerving parade that looked as if we’d all been helping Mr. Bock with his still.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“Sarah Jane, do you always have to be the teacher?” she asked and then immediately added, “I already know the answer so you don’t have to answer that.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“At one point, Ida wondered if the board would get me a new school if this one burned down. “By accident, of course,” she said quickly.
Fire would solve a lot of that building’s problems.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“I said something to Carl about the snow, but he wasn’t much concerned. Maybe he figured if I got lost and died in the snow he could escape school a while longer.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“Mrs. Bock told me to take the trail out of town, then go right and the Huftalens’ farm was “just up a piece.” Even with snow on the ground, her directions were fairly easy to follow. In fact, the only trouble with had was that I went over a hill and there was Johnnie Hatter out a ways with a small, furry creature wriggling in his arms. Probably trying to kill dinner, I thought. Which made me hasten my step along, I can tell you.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“The next time she scolded me, I said if I cleaned the table any more I would take the color out of the wood and Miss Kizer snapped back, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness and don’t you forget it.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“I was so nervous I didn’t even sit down. I think because I wanted to be ready to run away if I had to.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“Mr. Gaddis admitted the school wasn’t much to look at before dropping the first match and lighting another. “But it’s better than nothing.”
It is nothing! I screamed. Inside my head, of course. And I might even have said it out loud except I was too shocked to open my mouth. Johnnie Hatter’s hole in the riverbank is probably better than this.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“Wrote that last entry in a running scribble that looks like a foreign language backward. If anybody reads it in the future, they will surely need good, thick glasses.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“Somewhere along the way I told myself to be confident. Sell yourself, Sarah Jane. Like Mr. Walter Chalmers sells his bitters.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“And that I found cleaning very peaceful and relaxing.
Mrs. Bock’s lips twitched ever so slightly when I said that. Almost as if she wanted to give up a smile. “Well, Sarah Jane,” she said, gesturing toward the mounds of laundry against a wall. “If it is peace and relaxation you want, we have piles of it here.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“Instead, I’ve got the Hewitt boys down on paper. So that 100 years from now some reader I don’t know can see how dumb they were!”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher

“I run a good, honest establishment, so I’m not worried,” she said, looking very worried.”
― Jim Murphy, My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, a Prairie Teacher