"Once a week they had a music
supervisor." "Once a week they practiced
penmanship." "They did spelling bees where a
child had to spell a word. If he got it wrong, he sat
down." "If you were left-handed, you were
made to write with your right hand."
"Most of the children in the school
knew the limits and if they didn't know a rule the teacher
would certainly let them know." One little boy who was mischievous was put in a
chest-high wastebasket when he was bad. Now this boy is a
successful businessman. "Back then teachers were
strict!" Some children would play tricks. One boy's parents had a
store and he would get pepper-laced gum and give it to the
teachers. HOT! The child would get punished for it. The
teachers would laugh about it later. "On one of the school days, the
whole school was dismissed for different
reasons."
"In a one-room schoolhouse, best
friends were very, very close. Many years from then, best
friends are still close." "Boys and girls didn't really
separate from each other. Boys played sports with girls and
one girl was the best athlete in the school. One boy got his
first black eye from a young lady."
"For warmth they had a wood stove.
One person would come to school early to start the
fire." "For food the children would cook hot dogs." "A child would go up to where
Gordon King's house is now and draw water from a
pump." "There was a privy next to the schoolhouse."
"At recess the children would solve
their own confilicts with no adult supervision." "The children went down to where
the Stetson Tree Farm is now. Back then it was an open field
where the children could play football or
baseball." "Boys would bring baseball mitts
and nail a nail into the wall to hang them." "Almost every boy had a jack knife
at school. They either whittled with it at recess or used it
on their way home. They never used it on
anybody." "Once a year the school district
got together and would complete in three-legged races and
games like that. This was called field day."