How many of us attended one room schools????  It appears that at least 37 of us did attend a one room school sometime during our grade years.  The one room schools in our area were closed starting in the 50's and all we closed  by the early 60's. 

 

The memories of one room schools are many. The long walk to school (sometimes up to 2 miles) started our days and then the walk home after school gave us rosy cheeks and runny noses!     These walks were in any weather- rain, snow, sub zero temps – we did it all.   Never knowing for sure if a snow storm was bad enough to close school we would make the long journey only to find NO teacher and NO school.  Then it was back home playing in the snow all the way.  Our snow pants and boots were not water proof so the wool snow pants and coats would be soaked and our feet were cold.

 

The lower grades had longer recess than the upper grades so the little kids were on their own for the first part of recess.  A good time to get into mischief.  When the weather was rainy or very cold we would have our recess inside the school.  Sometimes we would play in the basement which was not much more than a furnace and  wood or coal stored there for the fuel  Other times we would play in the cloak rooms (in our case we had a center hall which was always cold – no heat).  But we did have fun and the memories are many.

 

One room schools had lotza  “programs”.  Halloween was always special and often the parents (at least the moms) were invited for the “Halloween Party” which consisted of poems and songs and maybe  a small skit or two..  This was followed by food,  bobbing for apples  and lots of fun.

 

We always looked forward to the Christmas Program.  We started practicing for the program in early November. Sometime when it was getting close to “program time” we would get the stage down from its stored space and put it in the front of the room.  The program consisted of plays, skits, recitations, and music.   A tree was put up and decorated and gifts exchanged.  This was looked forward to by all of us.  The moms always brought and served food after all of these functions. We all received a bag of candy nuts and maybe an apple from Santa.

 

Valentines Day was special because of the Valentine exchange!

 

Once during each school year the Superintendent of Schools would visit the one room school. We were on our best behavior the days she/he showed up.

 

Another memory was the day the Coca Cola truck showed up and gave each of us a bottle of Coke and a ruler.  What a treat!!!  That would often be the only bottle of soda we would have until he showed up the next year.

 

 

At least 2 or 3 times during the spring our teacher and a couple of mom’s that drove would load up all the kids and we would go to a nearby one room school to challenge them in a game of soft ball.  Other times we hosted the ball game.

 

The last day of school was celebrated by having  a HUGE  Picnic.   Everybody in the school district came even those that did not have children in school.  The highlight was having a 5 gallon can of ice cream from the dairy in SV and all getting ice cream cones for dessert along with all the other goodies.