Good Ole' School Days

The last stop on my Sunday drive last week was at this one room school house. It was built in 1884 and used for grades one through eight until 1956. It was dismantled and moved from its original spot seven miles from where it stands today. It has original desks, pot-bellied stove, slate chalkboards, a pump and an outhouse.

Years ago my parents had a choice when it was time for me to begin my school career. They were informed I could ride the bus into “town” to go to the public elementary school there or the bus would drop me off about halfway there at a small one room school house. My parents chose the town school. Every day the bus would stop and drop off those students attending the one room school and then off to the city the rest of us would go. I attended school in that one building from grade one to grade eight. I liked school and have many wonderful memories of those elementary years.

However, I still often wonder what it would have been like in that little one room school house. Everyday as we stopped to get those other students we could anticipate a glorious story of something that had happened. We heard who fell in the creek, a story about the, um, – outhouse, the baseball games or tag. I particularly remember there were many stories about a young boy who was always getting into something. He was a little cross-eyed and the boys had a running joke about his antics. They always said,”It would have killed any ordinary man.” And, always we heard their laughter each and every day.

I’m not sure if those students missed out on anything; but I think maybe I did.