School Days of Yore
Where did the summer go? Perhaps lots of parents are wondering the same thing with the beginning of school in mid August. In fact school started for our daughter in Newton County, Georgia in July. Her students came to school on July 28. I can’t believe this. Just imagine how much money it takes to cool these huge buildings.
In the 1930’s about this time of year singing schools would be over and we would be ordering new book satchels and maybe a new pair of shoes from the Sears Roebuck Catalog in preparation for the opening of school. In my earliest school years I had to walk from right here to school at Geraldine. Actually, it is about one mile and a half; however, I thought it was five miles and uphill both ways. Now when I sometimes tell the stories of my walking to school I’ve been accused of claiming it to be farther and being uphill both ways. Oh well. There was a wagon road through my favorite scope of woods and I walked it, and then crossed a pasture – coming out into the main road just south of what is now Harris Funeral Home. With soil erosion (I’m told caused to a great extent by farming with tractors) and paved roads the lay of the land is somewhat different than it used to be. In rainy weather, I had to be careful about mud and slipping. Of course, I was lucky enough to own a pair of galoshes (these, too, were ordered from Sears and Roebuck) and I wore them when it was rainy and/or cold.
During cotton picking season, schools would “let out” for two or three weeks so students could help gather the crops. Needless to say, we were glad to see that so called vacation come to an end so we could return to school and visit with friends again.
Somebody had to arrive at the school early and build a fire in the old coal-burning stove that sat in the back of the room. Another job for the janitor was to take out the ashes. Boys would vie for the job of bringing in extra scuttles of coal during the day. Just beyond the stove was the cloak room where we hung our coats and placed our lunches on a shelf there — built just for that purpose. No, there were no lunchrooms. Each student brought their own lunch. Many came with lunches wrapped up in a sheet of newspaper; however, I had a brown paper bag, but I had to save it and use it until I managed to get another one. Our drinking water came from a well equipped with a pump which was operated by hand. We had no drinking cups, so we made our own by a certain folding of notebook paper – or probably back then we used a sheet of paper ripped from a tablet. The oblong paper was folded in half (bottom folded to the top), then the right hand lower corner (where the fold was) was folded up to the center of the paper and the same thing was done to the left hand corner. At this time the top rim of the paper was folded down about three quarters of an inch on each side and creased well. With careful handling, you’d be surprised how much good cold drinking water this cup would hold.
Restrooms were toilets located about 100 yards down behind the school building. There were no doors on the stalls; however, there was a wall that divided the stalls from the great outdoors. Girl and boy units were separated by a single wall. Boys going down a little further than the girls – they had to enter through the back door whereas the girls entered via the front door. Actually the entrances were not doors at all – but were built something like a pig sty where you just walked around a bit until you arrived at your destination. Sanitation? Hello!! Toilet tissue? No such thing. This was our first experience with drip dry.
We did the pledge of allegiance, somebody did a bible reading and our class was opened with prayer daily. I don’t remember just which grade it was – but one year we had to memorize the Twenty-third Psalm. Then the work began. Paper wads were very common in that day, stinging sharply when they hit their intended target.
Our classes consisted of readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic. One of my favorite times was spelling and at that time I was a good speller. I wonder what had happened to that talent. Sometimes when I’m trying to write this column I can’t begin to spell the common word that I need to use. We loved having spelling bees on Fridays.
Decorating for Christmas was a special time. We made the decorations from cut-up construction paper, sweet gum balls dipped in flour water and whatever we could come up with. Perhaps we brought popcorn and strung it for a garland. Of course, we drew names and were super excited when the appointed day came.
It’s just a few of the memories of days gone by – another era of country living.