One-Room School Days as told by Don Morgan

[genealogynut]

I went to a one-room school all eight years.  For seven years I attended the Antioch school (northeast of Howard).  The teachers were: Miss Ann Bales (she later married Clarence Garrett), Mrs. Edna Snowden, Miss Wanda Arnold, Miss Bernice Morehead (she married Robert DeWitt), Miss Anita Marcey, Irma Magers (she married Dennis Crisp). And for the eighth grade I attended the Fiat school, (which was located on what is now known as Pioneer Road).  My teacher was Mrs. Margaret Gragg.

I started at the age of five.  My first grade teacher was Miss Ann Bales, but after about 1-2 months, she had to quit and take care of her mother, so Mrs. Edna Snowden took her place.  With the weather permitting, we lined up every morning outside, by the flag pole and recited the "Pledge of Allegiance", then marched inside to begin the classes for the day.

My older brother, Bob, and I walked two miles (one way) to school every day, (School buses were unheard of) one mile was a graveled road and the other mile was a dirt road.  We walked whether it was rain or shine!  When it rained the roads were very muddy and it was a "sticky" mud.  Some kids rode horses, as did some teachers.  There was a horse barn behind the school house.

School started the day after Labor Day, and ended by the middle of April.  There was no such thing as time off for teachers meetings, two weeks off during mid-term, or spring vacations.

There was a pot-bellied coal stove in the middle of the school room.  One side of you burned, while the other side of you froze to death.  We had no air-conditioning, as we just opened the windows in warm weather.  There was no electricity--as we used white gas lamps for lights. There was no indoor plumbing---we had outhouses!  For lunch, everyone brought their lunch from home in a lunch pail.

During recess we played soft-ball, hide -and -seek, and anti-over. When snow was on the ground, we played fox -and -geese.

Everyone brought their own tin cup to drink out of, as the water came from a cistern well.

On the last day of school, each year, everyone from the neighborhood, brought food and we all had a big dinner and enjoyed visiting.

In my second or third year of school, there was a bad snow storm in April.  It started before noon and soon afterwards roads were drifting.  The teacher, Miss Bernice Morehead, and her boyfriend, Bob DeWitt, who came in his car, and the two had started to take my brother and I home, (as the other parents had already picked the other children up) got stuck about 1/2 way to our home, we then left his car there and started walking across the field with me on his shoulder, as my legs were too short to wade the snow.  The snow was blowing so hard we didn't see my father who was stuck in a snow drift about 1/4 mile away.  Miss Morehead and her boyfriend had seen us safely home, then walked on to her aunt's home that was about 1/2 mile away and remained there until weather permitted.

That was the end of school for that year as the roads were blocked for a week or two.  We didn't have the road equipment to open roads then, like what is available today.

The students today have it "made in the shade!"

[Wilma]

You make me feel privileged.  I only had 1/2 mile to walk the first half of my first year of school.  Then we moved and it was a longer walk, but I don't remember how long.  Sometimes we could ride a bus.  This was only until November of the next school year and we moved again and I could just crawl the pasture fence and be in the schoolyard.  I wasn't supposed to.  I was supposed to walk the 2 blocks around the corner.  The pasture was faster.  At the end of the school year, we moved again and we walked across town to school until we moved a half mile north, then again another mile north.  Now I had 2 miles to walk.  We walked it lots of times, but sometimes a neighbor would pick us up on the way to or on the way home.

One time my little brother and I were walking home alone and the neighbor offered us a ride.  We wouldn't ride with him as we had instructions even back then to not get in a car with anyone we didn't know and we, being fairly new in the community, didn't know him.

Finally, my folks bought a house in the little town north of us and we had only 5 blocks to walk the long way, or 4 blocks, taking the shortcut across the railroad tracks.  And we stayed there 6 full years.  I wasn't the new kid in class anymore.  Maybe that is why I insisted that we stay in one spot while our kids were in school.  The two oldest graduated from Severy High, the next one, Janet, graduated from North Elk and the youngest one from West Elk.

Yes, the students today have it "made in the shade", but I wouldn't want my little ones walking to school in today's world.  I'm not even sure I would want them on the highway in a school bus.  Thank goodness for good, conscientious  bus drivers.

[genealogynut]

Thanks for sharing your school experiences.   It must have been hard for you, tho, trying to make new friends in each new school.  And did you ever find yourself falling behind in what was being taught?

[Janet Harrington]

Ah, heck no, Lois.  My mother is the smartest woman in the world. 

[Wilma]

My daughter is delusional.  No, I didn't have trouble keeping up in school.  It was a matter of pride to me to be at the top.  I have an older sister that loved to teach and by the time I started to school, I could read, write my name and do all the things that a first grader had to do to become a second grader.  The only thing I had trouble with was algebra and I didn't know I had trouble with it as my older brother helped me.  In the little town where I got most of my schooling, my sister had already set a reputation of being a good student and it just passed on down to me.  The teachers expected me to be good, so I was.

[Janet Harrington]

You know, mommy, I've been called alot of things, but I don't think I have ever been told I was delusional.  What a word.  Delusional.  I think I'll be delusional all day tomorrow.

[Wilma]

How is anybody going to tell the difference?

[Teresa]

Delusional. HA HA HA
  Delusional is ...ahhhhhh... welllll it is .................at least something different than I usually call you....
Delusional.................................
Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
Oh I am SO gald we have Mama Wilma on here.

[Teresa]

I have some pictures that are kind of neat. on one room school houses...
I will try to get them on here in the morning... 

[Janet Harrington]

How is anybody going to tell the difference?

My Mother.  What a Mother.  I even laughed.