Our Great Grandson Hey Mikey begins 2nd Grade. School started yesterday in North Dakota.
I hope he likes 2nd Grade as much as I did.
My 2nd grade teacher was a neighbor lady by the name of Mrs. Z. she was a gifted kind teacher. I believe the worst thing I did in 2nd Grade was talking too much in the lunch room...imagine that! There were 19 children in my classroom back in 1958.
Have a great year Hey Mikey!!
Far Side
Far Guy and I were discussing elementary school days...he remembers his Kindergarten Teacher and his Sixth Grade Teacher...he could not come up with any of the other teachers names. I asked why? He said apparently they made no lasting impression on him. He went to a large school were there were several sections of each grade. He walked to school.
I went to a Grade One through Grade Four school in one building and Grade Five and Grade Six in another building. Most of my teachers were neighbors. I know all their names. I do not recall the name of my Kindergarten Teacher in North Dakota...or my Third Grade teacher in Iowa...maybe they did not leave an impression on me...or perhaps it was because I was only in those classes about six weeks, before we went back home to the farm. I rode the bus...getting on at 7:45 AM ...school must have started at 8:05 and ended at 3:25 so I was back off the bus at 3:40 in the afternoon.
I wonder do they still teach multiplication and division in Grade Three? Once you "get" it...it was fun to do...it took me a bit to get it! I recall thinking I would never pass Grade Three.
Far Guy had a few unusual happenings in grade school. Somehow he pushed an eraser up his nose...he doesn't recall how they got it out....he does recall that the teacher looked disgusted. One day he had a blister on his hand so he picked at it with his pencil...then when the red line started up his arm he kept making marks on his arm watching the progress...a classmate (Linda K) noticed and told the teacher...he said his parents were called and he was rushed to the doctor who explained how blood poisoning works. I think he was a handful.
Far Side
We are slowly collecting class photos from Far Guy’s school days.
This is Mrs Tidrick’s 4th Grade class 1959-1960. Far Guy is in the back row second from the right. Seems there were a couple of “Cub Scouts” in his class. (Far Guy was a Cub Scout too, different Dens met different days of the week. Far Guy’s Mom was Den #7 leader…probably “A Wolf Pack”)
Far Guy said “I am wearing the same shirt as last years class photo?” I answered “Your Mom probably liked that shirt and bought it in a couple of sizes!”
He remembers very little about this year or the teacher. He does recall that this class was in the old school.
What he does remember is that every kid had to stand in front of the class and tell what their Dad did for a living. When it was his turn he said “My Dad is in the Outdoor Show Business.” The teacher asked “Movie Business?” No…Outdoor Show Business… she kept asking questions finally he just blurted out CARNIVAL Business…and that shut her up. He said all the kids knew anyways…just not the teacher.
Park Rapids Schools were big enough back then to have at least three sections of each grade. Trying to find all the sections of his graduating class throughout the years has been an adventure that continues.
School started yesterday as usual for Minnesota schools, the day after Labor Day is always the first day of school.
Today is the day we honor our flag.
Here a few more flags.
A flag on Bunker Hill
Flags at Hector International Airport in Fargo ND
Avenue of flags in Detroit Lakes Minnesota
When I was in sixth grade in a two room schoolhouse we had a flag pole and our teacher Mr Martin Cox taught us proper flag ettiquette. I didn’t know at the time but he was a Veteran and after he served his time at various army bases and a year in Korea he was honorably discharged and took advantage of the GI Bill to further his eduation and become a teacher.
This was the old school house: fifth grade on the left and sixth grade on the right! In later years it became a Community Center and nowadays it is a rental.
I am certain that the time Mr Cox spent teaching us how to honor and care for The American Flag touched more students than just me. Mr Cox died last winter he was 83 years old. I wondered then how many students did he teach flag ettiquette to over the course of 32 years?
When the community got together and built a new elementary school, they didn’t build it large enough for the fifth and sixth grade classes.
So when it came time for me to leave the elementary school (fourth grade)…I went to the old school in Osage.
This building was built in 1938 so when I went to school here it was only 24 years old. The building was a two room schoolhouse. Fifth grade was on the left and taught by Mrs. Tillie Zeller, to the right was the sixth grade class taught by Mr. Martin Cox. Mrs. Zeller was a grandmotherly type teacher…ample in all the right places and kind with an endless supply of floral dresses. Mr. Cox was very young…possibly in his first few years of teaching. He had one burgundy/maroon colored sweater that he favored…but often times wore a suit. Both classes had about 16 students…maybe 18.
We walked over as a group to the Elementary School to have lunch and I recall walking to Release Time Classes (Religion) on Wednesday mornings at Dorothy Noeske’s home.
There were swings in the school yard and one of those marvelous Merry Go Rounds you know the ones with heavily rutted paths all the way around. You would grab ahold and run like the wind and then hop on…and if you were really brave you would wrap your legs around the bars and fall backwards your hair blowing in the breeze…laughing..always laughing.
Eventually the fifth and sixth graders were sent to Park Rapids to school…not sure when.
The school became a Community Center and served the Community in that capacity for a number of years. Far Guy’s Grandmother Tracie was instrumental in it becoming a Community Center and a place for Senior Citizens Hot Lunch…her group raised funds to update the kitchen and to have the building’s roof repaired.
Times change. The township sold the building. Last winter crews were there working everyday…electricians, plumbers and carpenters. Finally it was done. There is even a deck off the sixth grade classroom.
I have not been inside. They had an open house but we missed it. Supposedly it sleeps twenty people and has a number of bathrooms.
I remember that the oak steps beyond the front door one set going to the right and one set to the left were worn from children’s feet…and the cloak rooms had their own unique smell…wet wool….and the blackboard was massive covering most of one wall in each room.
The Grade School that I went to as a child was built and completed for the start of the 1957 school year when I was ready for First Grade…I was five when school started and turned six later that month….back then I think you had to be six years old by December 31st to go to school.
My parents had purchased a farm that was near a country school (Linnell School)…you could see it from our home. I would just have a short walk to school!
The building of the new school in Osage split the community…sometimes this split is still evident. Some were in favor of a new school building and others thought the country school was good enough…and neither side spoke to the other side unless it was necessary.
Mrs. Pearl Sexton taught first grade, Mrs. Minnie Zauche taught second grade, Mrs. Lucille Stearns taught third grade, Mr. Oscar Vaadland taught fourth grade and was the principal. He had a yard stick with a red bow on it and if you were misbehaving you got whacked with the stick. The school nurse came out about once a week, not sure what she did other than keep track of who had their shots. Each classroom had their own single bathroom and there were two other proper boys and girls bathrooms in the hallway. Not sure why the classrooms were positioned as they were: 1st, 4th, 3rd and 2nd. There was a library room, an office, a milk room off the cafeteria ( it continually smelled like sour milk) a kitchen where Arvilla Nilson was the best school cook ever, and the cafeteria/gym. Carl Nilson was the boiler operator, janitor and bus driver.
Everyone went outside after lunch. In the winter we played king of the hill on the mountains of snow and in the spring and fall we would take turns swinging…there were maybe six swings and some monkey bars.
The last day of school we always had a whole school picnic with our parents invited and all kinds of fun games…sack and relay races.
I rode the bus to school, the bus driver was Ivan Siegford (he owned the hardware store in Ponsford and began his route with the Ritt’s girls over on Shell Lake.) I got on the bus about 7:45 in the morning and got off at 3:45 in the afternoon. For me it was not a long ride to school…about 7 miles. There were only a few stops after I got on. I loved a window seat on the bus so I could look out on the passing landscape and in the winter those frosty bus windows became a canvas for thumb print designs…and whatever else I could scratch into the frost.
I took this photo the other day…it is now apartments and is owned by one of my cousins.
I learned to read ( See Dick, see Jane!), spell, write in cursive, how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Division was the worst for me in third grade…until one day “it clicked.” I can still smell the thick white paste in the big jars and I remember how everyone smelled the purple mimeographed paper before beginning our work.
