“School times end but the memories last forever.” – Unknown
I got this message from Nancy about my book, Along a Storied Trail. “Your best book yet!! Keep them coming. I went to a country school in WI in the 1940’s. All 8 grades; walked or rode bike to school. Small stove to heat the one room. One teacher all 8 years. We prayed she would go to another school but she never did. I loved books then and still do. I hope there are still folks who get the books to the children out in the sticks.”
Her message made me think about my own school days and about how school was when my mom and dad went and now how it is for my grandchildren. So many changes. So many more kids in schools that have hundreds of kids instead of maybe 40 to 50 for Nancy. I’m guessing about that since I have no idea how many students were in her school, but I’m thinking about that one teacher teaching eight grades. I have to smile at her hope for a new teacher and how that prayer wasn’t answered and for eight years she had a teacher she wished was somebody else’s teacher. But she did have those books to make school better. Like her, I do hope that children everywhere, no matter how far they are from towns, have a way of getting books.
That’s what the Packhorse Library project was all about as the dedicated book women, like my character Tansy in Along a Storied Trail, got the books out to those children and adults too up in the hills or out in the sticks. Most towns in the United States have libraries now and how great is that. Our local library was a blessing to me as a child and as an adult.
I went to an elementary school that had eight classes too, but a different teacher for each class. My dad went to a one room school that had that one teacher for all the kids and he did his work on this slate that one of us sisters still have. It’s a treasure as we can imagine our dad a little boy solving math problems or learning how to write on this slate. Dad walked to school and had adventures on the way with the other kids in the neighborhood walking with him. I’m sure they had a stove for warmth and a bucket with a dipper they all drink from. Can you imagine that happening these days?
My mother went to a small school too, but I think her school had two teachers. She like Nancy wasn’t fond of one of her teachers. She always said the teacher had hoped Mom’s father would marry her and hadn’t ever gotten past the fact that he had chosen someone else. So she made sure that other woman’s daughters paid a price for that in school. Mom didn’t live far from the school and sometimes she and her sisters would run home to eat lunch. She told how her younger sister took off for home to get her shoes once when the photographer came to take class pictures because she didn’t want to be barefoot in the picture. Right there is a big difference for me. I can’t imagine our school letting us come to school barefoot, but it was common for the kids in Mom’s elementary school and I’m sure it was for Dad’s school too. Country kids went barefoot most of the time in warm weather in those days. They had a different school year too. I think it was July to February, but I’m not sure about that.
The top picture is of me and some of my friends posing for a picture for our yearbook. We look way more studious than we actually were when we came out of those school doors. In fact in those days, we were sometimes dismissed to go sit out in the yard in front of the school to enjoy the fresh air. I don’t remember ever taking a book with me to study. That was the time to talk to friends and a great time to make some memories. We girls always wore dresses. Slacks weren’t allowed for girls and certainly not shorts. So when we sat on the grass lawn, we had to be careful to be ladylike in our pencil slim skirts. There were two floors to our school with stairs on each end of the hall. Lockers lined those halls and I can still remember the clanging of locker doors when that last bell rang.
Now, at my grandkids’ schools, they don’t have lockers. So they don’t wear coats even in the coldest weather because they would have to carry them around all day. They also carry backpacks that have to be building their muscles or maybe giving them back trouble. Some of the schools won’t let the girls carry purses. We all had purses when I was in high school and we carried our books in our arms. A backpack might have been easier because if you dropped your notebook, papers would slide everywhere. Dad wouldn’t have had that problem with his slate, but he might have worried about breaking it or losing his piece of chalk.
It’s fun to walk back down memory lane and think about how things have changed. Since we’re still in the Thanksgiving weekend, I will say that I’m thankful for public schools and for being able to learn at those schools when I was a kid and for the education my own children received at their schools and now my grandchildren. Some days were hard when a test didn’t go well or a friend may have hurt your feelings or you really didn’t like this or that teacher, but you learn to adapt, to endure, to get along, to do better on the morrow. And someday you graduate and leave school behind and remember the good times and the friends you made and like Nancy, how much you love books.
What are your memories of your school days?
The Winner is:
I drew a winner of my quick book giveaway here. Thank all of you for joining in with comments. I wish I could send you all books, but then I’d go broke with all the postage. 
So I chose a winner by random number and the winner is Betsy from Florida. I’ve heard from her already and she chose An Appalachian Summer for her prize. Betsy, I’ll get the book in the mail to you next week.
I just sent out a newsletter with another chance to win a book and more. If you didn’t get one, let me know and I’ll shoot one out to you. Or if you think you’re signed up for the newsletter and didn’t get it, you might check your Spam folder. I hate being spam mail. So rescue my news if you find it there.
As always, thanks for reading.