A good job was hard to find in 1935. Thrilled at last to begin her depression-stalled teaching career, Freda stepped off the Pomona, California train platform and on to the eastbound train one February morning. Leaving a closeknit family life behind, her destination was Santa Domingo, New Mexico where she had been hired to teach second and third grades in the remote Indian Pueblo. Recollections, a biographical sketch of Alfreda Ward Maloof, recounts the unforgettable years she served in New Mexico and Montana.

Also included in this book, Maria Martinez Makes Pottery is the primer Alfreda created for her young students. This short story came out of her experience living and working with renowned Indian potter Maria Martinez of neighboring San Ildefonso Pueblo. But she never had the chance to use the primer in the classroom.

More than sixty years later, Alfreda collected her photographs and her memories to write the recollections of a dynamic period in her life. It was a time of independence and personal enrichment that left an imprint on her personality that she fond wore for the rest of her life. With Living Gold Press, Freda presented in this volume a glimpse of her treasured time and also, lovingly, the Maria Martinez primer. Alfreda passed away in the fall of 1999.