It was on the first day of school in 1934 when Ann Prosby and her brother Joe learned their first five words of English. It was at the District 22 rural school near Felton, Minn.

The two walked into the school for the first time and stood in the doorway staring at all the students. Then the teacher walked up and said, "Welcome," then, "Please close the door," demonstrating what she meant.

And Ann and Joe had their first English words.

This story comes from Joyce Burnham, of Pelican Rapids, Minn., where she is a teacher. Ann, who eventually married and became Ann Hovdestad, was her mother.

Joyce writes that according to Clay County school census records, the District 22 school first opened in 1911. Joyce and her two older sisters, Carol Sellent and Diana Christeson, attended school there. It closed after the 1959-1960 school year.

One of the school's graduates, Mark Storo, organized a school reunion last October. Those attending were of different ages, but they had something in common: They all had Rose Johnson for a teacher.

Rose, who died some years ago, was a teacher at District 22 for many years.

In one of the displays at Fargo's Downtown Street Fair last year, Carol happened to see a photo of a school bus, and in it was an elderly Rose peering through the window. "Favorite teachers never really go away," Joyce says. "Sometimes they hop a memory bus back into our lives. Just ask Carol."