The School Janitor

An account of my school days in the Gowrie school must perforce include some mention of the custodial/janitorial staff. Nominally this consisted solely of Gunnar Sigurdson. Judging from his manner of speech I’d surmise he was an immigrant from Sweden, a relatively late immigrant as compared with most of the Swedish element of the population in and around Gowrie.

Actually the care of the school and grounds was more than one individual could handle and he was assisted by his wife and two young sons (both somewhat younger than me — sort of in the age range of Vivian and Vincent). Occasionally he would hire a helper, but such help was not continuous. While school was in session Gunnar’s duties consisted mainly of sweeping the floors (classrooms and hallways) at the end of the school day. He would sprinkle a brown sweeping compound around and then sweep the floor with his long-handled push broom, and I can still see his two sons participating in this cleaning chore.

During the winter months it was also Gunnar’s duty to stoke the furnace. The furnace and steam boiler were located at the far end of the gymnasium wing and during my early years at the school the heating medium was coal. I don’t think the mechanical stoker was used — Gunnar had to get up during the night hours to add fresh fuel. Sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s, natural gas lines were installed in Gowrie (I can remember watching the laying of the lines in the vicinity of the little brown house) and I believe that the furnace in the school building was switched from coal to gas.

In the summer months Gunnar would use the time in various school maintenance work — such as varnishing the desks used by all the students. In the grades one through six the desks were movable. The desk had a little drawer below the seat in which books, tablets, etc. could be stored. There may have also been a place below the desk top for this purpose. The desk could only be entered from the left side. On the desk top at the far right was a place for an inkwell which was never used. The tops had been revarnished a number of times but still bore various indentations — scratches both accidental and deliberate.

The desks in the junior and senior high assembly halls were not movable, could be entered from either side, and had the storage area for books etc. below the desk top. The seat could be folded up perhaps to make floor sweeping easier. In the classrooms for junior and senior high students the seats were movable of the style more typical of those I encountered in junior college and SUI classes.

Some of the minor janitorial duties were actually performed by the students — such as washing the blackboards to remove the chalk dust. This was done by students selected by the teacher, and my recollection is that it was sort of a desired activity by the students. It was done directly after school closed for the day. Generally pupils were expected to leave the school premises as soon as school was over unless there was some approved reason — such as washing the blackboards — that intervened.