I guess my school days predate yours by about ten years. I attended a two room school with four grades in each room. No electricity, running water or bathrooms-just an outhouse. There were five or six students in each class.
I also saved my paper lunch bag, but the wax paper was supposed to be folded neatly and brought home in the bag. Mother used this wax paper to keep the top of our black cooking stove squeaky clean as we toasted bread on the top of the stove-no electric toaster.
Our “playground” was an old field behind the school. No swings, slides- just grubby old field. Everyone was crazy over baseball and if anyone was lucky enough to bring a ball to school, they were top-dog that day-called all the shots, made the rules and assigned bases-all extra players went into the outfield. No bats-just sticks. Just once, somehow I was fortunate enough to bring a ball to school and proudly started a game. Alas within a few minutes, someone hit that ball all the way out into the tall bushes, never to be seen again. We had to go back to the silly games of tag, king of the mountain or ring around the rosy.
We were supposed to be tough from an early age. I remember walking home alone in the dark at a very young age. I was scared to death but wouldn’t let on to anyone.
Thinking about it now, maybe that was the cause of my complete refusal to go to school when I was in the second grade. Now, I proudly display my rank card which states “absent until April” and below that all A’s and at the very bottom “Promoted to grade three”. To this day, I am fearful of being out after dark alone and have only recently admitted this to the complete amazement of my children. Guess I kept my fears well hidden for eighty years.
Drinking water was kept in an earthern ware container with a small faucet near the bottom. I don’t ever remember seeing anyone clean this container. Some student would go to a neighbors with a five gallon pail and get a pail of water and dump it into the crock. Tasted good on a hot day. We all drank out of the tin cup hanging beside the water jug.
Good old days!!!
Thank You!
What a great reminiscence!
There were still schools like yours in the 1950s.
I know because my wife attended one.
She was the only girl in her class with about 4 boys!
The entire elementary school only had about 2 dozen students on a big year.
Sand lot baseball was still the craze when I was school age.
Kids of all ages and sizes on the same teams.
Seems like someone could usually come up with a falling-apart baseball wrapped in that sticky black tar tape!
Summer time it was out the door as soon as we could wolf down some breakfast, do the chores, and stay outside playing, finding some fruit or vegetables for a snack, climbing trees, hiking through the fields and woods or just hanging around until dark.
If a kid wasn’t outside he was either sick or in the dog house.
There was so much to do and summers went by so fast!
I’m glad we didn’t have computers and video games because absolutely nothing comes close to the enjoyment we had back then.