Tomorrow - Dec 9, 1985 - we will pick up Jason and Jennifer at school and keep them until Harry Jr. picks them up to go to scout meeting.
That makes me think about my early school days.
The school I attended was a rural one room-one teacher school with grades 1 thru 7. After grade 7 the students rode in a small van to Chester to high school. Before I reached High school the school was closed and we rode a bus to Blackstock to school. I was in the sixth grade by then.
I began school in September often I was 5 in March. I was allowed to go because I begged to go and the enrollment was low. There was one other child in the first grade with me. The teacher would assign one class work to do while another class was reciting etc.
I loved school - mostly I liked reading - was never that great in Math. We had a small library right off the school room and when Mrs. Temaut, our teacher, was busy I would slip into the Library and sit on the floor and read.
I remember being in the Christmas program the year I was still five. I, being the smallest child in school, was an angel. I still remember the gauze wings with gold tinsel. I felt very important.
The teacher had the fathers cut a big cedar tree. It was placed on the stage, where the teachers desk sat. We decorated it with homemade (classroom) items and some of the teachers ornaments.
This was 1929, during the depression years. The school had no electricity so if a night affair was held there were Kerosine lamp for light.
We children though it was the loveliest sight of the year when we saw the tree when it was finished. We all knew that Mrs. Temaut had a gift for each child under the tree. For some children it was their only gift.
I guess, looking back, that this was a hardship for her, but she did it each year as long as she taught there.
We always sang carols and someone dressed as Santa Claus to give out gifts. This was done on the day vacation began.
We received one gift a piece at home (six children) and fruit and candy and mints and were very happy.
The girls usually had a doll and the boys a knife - a yo-yo etc.
A strange custom was shooting fireworks on Christmas morning. We carried a shovel of hot coals outside and lighted small firecrackers and sparklers from it. It is a wonder children weren't seriously injured, but none of us was.
Back to the school. It was a white frame building with wide steps and a porch. The door opened into a hall with rooms on each side. These were coat closits - one for girls one for boys - There we placed our jackets hats etc and our lunch.
There was no hot lunch program. We took whatever could be found. Sausage biscuit - Bacon & Biscuit - even baked sweet potatos. Occasionally the mothers, on cold days would send soup for all the students and it was heated on top of the wood heater (later coal).
The older boys brought in the wood or coal and started the fire each morning. One was assigned to bring a bucket of water for the water cooler which was kept in a store room. When we ran out of paper cup we were allowed to fold cups out of notebook paper. They worked fine.
At recess, when weather was suitable we ate lunch in the yard. There was a row of oak tree along the road and we each had our favorite spot. For years there were indentations on the ditch bank where we children had sat and kicked our heels into the bank.
The boys mostly played on one side of school - girls on the other. They played baseball etc. The girls played running games.
We always had an Easter Egg hunt in the school yard. The eggs were sometimes dyed with homemade ingredients. Peach leaves boiled made a pretty yellow as well as I remember.
My sister Jessie became ill at an egg hunt. It turned out to be Pneumonia and I remember how ill she was. This was before the days of antibiotics and pneumonia frequently was fatal. She, with good care from my mother and the neighbors, recovered after a lengthy time.
Posted by Beth McKeown at December 8, 1985 11:13 PM