Fourth grade was taught by Miss (Juanita?) Johnson. I have a somewhat clearer picture of her than of Mrs. Wood or Miss Geddes. Miss Johnson was a short, stocky person with dark, somewhat curly hair.
I can remember only one incident directly related to fourth grade. One of the teaching devices that Miss Johnson used on teaching arithmetic was a contest between students to see who would do some problem correctly the fastest. In some cases at least this contest was done at the blackboard in the front of the classroom and with two contestants only. The rest of the class simply watched. On one occasion I was competing with another boy in the class, Bill Jones, and it was a close contest but I prevailed.
Bill was the oldest child of a sort of shiftless farmer and though he kept up with our class (he was in our graduating class) he did not have any further schooling beyond high school. What would have happened to him with a more auspicious upbringing I have sometimes wondered. I think he ended up in some sort of trucking business and had died before the time of our 50th class reunion in 1988.
Blackboards were an indispensable part of all the classrooms in the Gowrie school, including the high school assembly hall. They were the old-fashioned slate boards and were black, not the present day green color. Frequently the class instruction would be at the blackboard, perhaps to conserve paper or maybe the teacher could sort of combine her instruction with her grading process.
I seem to recall that there were some housekeeping functions connected with the blackboards that the pupils took care of — such as taking the erasers outside the building and knocking them together to get the chalk dust out of them, or staying after school to wash the blackboards.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Jacks, Lunches, and a Close Call
I have strayed considerable from my review of recess activities (induced by my thinking of the mumble-ti-peg game and its association in my mind with Bible school). But back to recess.
Jacks was a girls’ activity but I remember playing the game with my sisters. During the winter months recess would be held in the gymnasium. This would also be where the children who brought their lunches with them (principally the rural children) would play during the noon hour after having eaten their lunches.
Lunches were eaten in a large room across the hall from the gymnasium. Once in a great while when we were still in the little brown house if the weather was inclement we would take our lunch to school. I remember once when Clarice and I, thinking that the day was going to be cold and snowy, badgered my mother into providing us with lunches to take to school. As it turned out the weather changed and the day became sunny and bright. We carried our lunches that day in some small tin pails, probably the containers for some corn syrup that my mother had bought.
Normally the only fare the children had for lunch was what they brought with them. But there was a period in which some hot dish was prepared and served. This may have been a project carried out by the home ec classes and it may have entailed a small cost to the students. The program may also have been a victim of Depression economics.
At this point I want to write about an event that occurred when Clarice and I were small children. I think both of us were involved directly although it may have been only Clarice. I have no personal recollection of the event, my information is all secondhand, and even then it may be faulty, as when I am not sure that it only concerned Clarice or the two of us.
One morning as we, or only Clarice was walking to school, the day was rainy with thunder and lightning, such as the Midwest can generate on occasion. For some reason Molly Rosene called to Clarice (or to us) to come back to her back porch to wait out the storm for a short time. During this interruption in the walk to school, lightning struck one of the two large cottonwood trees in front of the next house. The strike tore off part of the tree and sent it flying across the sidewalk and against the house where it broke a large glass window.
Had not Molly delayed Clarice (us) she (we) would have been in the vicinity of the tree when it was struck. What would have happened to Clarice (us) could have been quite serious I suppose.
Jacks was a girls’ activity but I remember playing the game with my sisters. During the winter months recess would be held in the gymnasium. This would also be where the children who brought their lunches with them (principally the rural children) would play during the noon hour after having eaten their lunches.
Lunches were eaten in a large room across the hall from the gymnasium. Once in a great while when we were still in the little brown house if the weather was inclement we would take our lunch to school. I remember once when Clarice and I, thinking that the day was going to be cold and snowy, badgered my mother into providing us with lunches to take to school. As it turned out the weather changed and the day became sunny and bright. We carried our lunches that day in some small tin pails, probably the containers for some corn syrup that my mother had bought.
Normally the only fare the children had for lunch was what they brought with them. But there was a period in which some hot dish was prepared and served. This may have been a project carried out by the home ec classes and it may have entailed a small cost to the students. The program may also have been a victim of Depression economics.
At this point I want to write about an event that occurred when Clarice and I were small children. I think both of us were involved directly although it may have been only Clarice. I have no personal recollection of the event, my information is all secondhand, and even then it may be faulty, as when I am not sure that it only concerned Clarice or the two of us.
One morning as we, or only Clarice was walking to school, the day was rainy with thunder and lightning, such as the Midwest can generate on occasion. For some reason Molly Rosene called to Clarice (or to us) to come back to her back porch to wait out the storm for a short time. During this interruption in the walk to school, lightning struck one of the two large cottonwood trees in front of the next house. The strike tore off part of the tree and sent it flying across the sidewalk and against the house where it broke a large glass window.
Had not Molly delayed Clarice (us) she (we) would have been in the vicinity of the tree when it was struck. What would have happened to Clarice (us) could have been quite serious I suppose.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Vacation Bible School
The Bible school was held in the public school building and was specific to the Lutheran congregation. Whether the Methodists had a summer Bible school I have no idea. By the time I was on an age to go to Bible school there were only two active congregations in Gowrie, the Congregationalists and the Baptists having ceased to function.
The Congregational church was still in usable condition at the time when the new Lutheran church was being built in the early 1930s. It was used for some of the church functions while the new structure was being built, such as evening meetings of the church group, choir practice, etc. It was not large enough for Sunday morning services so those were held in the gymnasium of the school building.
I don’t know if the use of the school building in this way, for the vacation Bible school and for Sunday morning services would be looked on with favor in the present day and age but then I knew of no public reaction of a negative sort.
Where Sunday school was held during the construction of the new church I have no specific recollection (oddly enough) but I’d surmise that they were held in the old Congregational church. It was only about a block and a half away from the school building. As to the services in the gymnasium I recall only one — a Christmas children’s program in which my part was to recite the first chapter of St. John’s gospel and I remember being up on the stage all alone.
Vacation Bible school was I suppose a continuation of the Swedish school that my mother’s family participated in during the summer, probably using the public school house in use during the fall, winter, and spring months. Sessions were held only in the mornings and lasted perhaps two weeks, though it could have been longer. The instruction was pretty serious business, rather different in character and extent than I have perceived the activity to be in recent years.
There was instruction in the catechism, church history and related subjects. There were however some more recreational activities. I remember making some papier mâché tablets representing the ten commandments. This particular project was carried out in what was normally the sixth grade classroom. Other instructed was centered (for me at least) in what was the junior high room though I suspect there were other classes also.
The instructors were typically elementary school teachers who had roots in the community and would perchance to be in Gowrie during the vacation months. My aunt Laurine served in this capacity I believe as well as a Ms. Larson. Usually the congregation would employ a seminary student as sort of an intern during the summer months and he would carry part of the Bible school teaching load. The intern would also conduct the regular Sunday morning services while the regular pastor was on vacation which was usually in August.
One indelible impression remains from Bible school, of warm, sunny days, but not yet the real heat of summer. The school windows would be open and there would be the soft, coolish breeze of the morning hours, with the somnolent sounds from outside of insects chirping and the occasional song of a bird. The view across the street would be screen in part by the foliage of the trees lining the street along the front of the school building. A sensation that all was well with the world, though I might not have been particularly interested in what the teacher was saying.
The Congregational church was still in usable condition at the time when the new Lutheran church was being built in the early 1930s. It was used for some of the church functions while the new structure was being built, such as evening meetings of the church group, choir practice, etc. It was not large enough for Sunday morning services so those were held in the gymnasium of the school building.
I don’t know if the use of the school building in this way, for the vacation Bible school and for Sunday morning services would be looked on with favor in the present day and age but then I knew of no public reaction of a negative sort.
Where Sunday school was held during the construction of the new church I have no specific recollection (oddly enough) but I’d surmise that they were held in the old Congregational church. It was only about a block and a half away from the school building. As to the services in the gymnasium I recall only one — a Christmas children’s program in which my part was to recite the first chapter of St. John’s gospel and I remember being up on the stage all alone.
Vacation Bible school was I suppose a continuation of the Swedish school that my mother’s family participated in during the summer, probably using the public school house in use during the fall, winter, and spring months. Sessions were held only in the mornings and lasted perhaps two weeks, though it could have been longer. The instruction was pretty serious business, rather different in character and extent than I have perceived the activity to be in recent years.
There was instruction in the catechism, church history and related subjects. There were however some more recreational activities. I remember making some papier mâché tablets representing the ten commandments. This particular project was carried out in what was normally the sixth grade classroom. Other instructed was centered (for me at least) in what was the junior high room though I suspect there were other classes also.
The instructors were typically elementary school teachers who had roots in the community and would perchance to be in Gowrie during the vacation months. My aunt Laurine served in this capacity I believe as well as a Ms. Larson. Usually the congregation would employ a seminary student as sort of an intern during the summer months and he would carry part of the Bible school teaching load. The intern would also conduct the regular Sunday morning services while the regular pastor was on vacation which was usually in August.
One indelible impression remains from Bible school, of warm, sunny days, but not yet the real heat of summer. The school windows would be open and there would be the soft, coolish breeze of the morning hours, with the somnolent sounds from outside of insects chirping and the occasional song of a bird. The view across the street would be screen in part by the foliage of the trees lining the street along the front of the school building. A sensation that all was well with the world, though I might not have been particularly interested in what the teacher was saying.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Marbles and Mumble-ti-peg
Recess, when out-of-doors, was also characterized by such activities as playing marbles or mumble-ti-peg for the boys and playing jacks for the girls — although I suppose the latter could just as well be played indoors.
Jacks was not a boys’ game, although I remember playing the game with my sisters.
Playing marbles was an activity that came and went. There would be a spate of involvement, then it would die away for awhile. The marbles consisted of a shooter, which might be an agate, i.e. a stone carved to a spherical share and given a high gloss, or it might be a “glassie” which was the second-class marble. These came in different sizes, colors and design configurations. Then there were the lowly “commies” which were clay spheres with surfaces somewhat irregular. An agate might cost as much as 25 cents at the local drug store, which I seem to recall as the source of marbles locally.
There were two configurations of the game layout. The first was a single ring perhaps 15–18 inches in diameter within which each played placed an agreed-on number of marbles. To begin the game the players would stand some distance away from the ring for the “lagging” which consisted of the players tossing their shooter marbles toward the ring. The player whose marble was closest to the ring got to “shoot” first, with the rest in order of increasing distance from the ring.
The object of the game, was to propel the shooter marble by a hand/finger motion and cause it to hit one of the marbles in the ring. The hand/finger motion is a little hard to describe in words. The marble was held between the thumb above the top knuckle and the forefinger. The marble would be propelled forward by a sudden straightening of the thumb. If a player who was shooting knocked a marble out of the ring, he could continue until he failed to do so, when the next player in order would take his turn.
The game could be played for “keeps” in which the played kept all the marbles he shot out of the ring or I believe there was an alternative in which each player retained his own marbles (though I don’t recall the details of how this was handled, and it was not the usual alternative). More than two players could play, but two was most common and the number of players usually did not exceed three or four.
The other configuration of the game had two rings — a small central ring in which the marbles were placed and a concentric larger ring maybe three or four feet in diameter. There was also a straight line for the “lagging” part of the game.
The player lagging his shooter closest to this line started the next part of the game, with the other players in order. I don’t recall for sure in either configuration from what position the player made his first shot, or his subsequent ones.
In the second configuration I’m fairly sure that the first shot was made from the outer ring, at a position on the ring selected by the player. As in the other alternative, playing for “keeps” was the most common alternative. Glass marbles were the kind mostly used, but I recall one episode in which two of the better and more avid players played a game for keeps with agates. In addition to the school yard, a popular place for play was on a sandy area adjacent to the street along the west side of the city park. This would be the scene of games as boys went home for lunch, or returned before school began.
Mumble-ti-peg was played with a pen knife and the object of the game was to complete a series of maneuvers with the knife, each maneuver being successfully accomplished if the knife blade entered the ground so that the knife was more or less erect, when the knife was flipped in a certain way. I think the criterion if the knife was erect as it entered the ground was if two fingers could be placed superimposed on each other between the end of the knife and the ground.
Which player started first I don’t remember or how many players there usually were. A player completing one maneuver could continue on to the next until he failed to complete one successfully. Then the next player in order would take his turn. The player finishing first had the reward of shaping a small pointed stake which he would drive into the ground with three hits of the knife handle (the knife being held by the end of the blade). The loser then had to pull the stake out of the ground with his teeth.
Needless to say the game was usually played on a grassy area where the soil was reasonably moist so that the knife blade could fairly easily enter and stick in the soil.
I don’t remember this game much from public school — my recollections are mostly from vacation Bible school The name of the game doubtless came from the act of pulling the little stake out of the ground with the teeth.
Jacks was not a boys’ game, although I remember playing the game with my sisters.
Playing marbles was an activity that came and went. There would be a spate of involvement, then it would die away for awhile. The marbles consisted of a shooter, which might be an agate, i.e. a stone carved to a spherical share and given a high gloss, or it might be a “glassie” which was the second-class marble. These came in different sizes, colors and design configurations. Then there were the lowly “commies” which were clay spheres with surfaces somewhat irregular. An agate might cost as much as 25 cents at the local drug store, which I seem to recall as the source of marbles locally.
There were two configurations of the game layout. The first was a single ring perhaps 15–18 inches in diameter within which each played placed an agreed-on number of marbles. To begin the game the players would stand some distance away from the ring for the “lagging” which consisted of the players tossing their shooter marbles toward the ring. The player whose marble was closest to the ring got to “shoot” first, with the rest in order of increasing distance from the ring.
The object of the game, was to propel the shooter marble by a hand/finger motion and cause it to hit one of the marbles in the ring. The hand/finger motion is a little hard to describe in words. The marble was held between the thumb above the top knuckle and the forefinger. The marble would be propelled forward by a sudden straightening of the thumb. If a player who was shooting knocked a marble out of the ring, he could continue until he failed to do so, when the next player in order would take his turn.
The game could be played for “keeps” in which the played kept all the marbles he shot out of the ring or I believe there was an alternative in which each player retained his own marbles (though I don’t recall the details of how this was handled, and it was not the usual alternative). More than two players could play, but two was most common and the number of players usually did not exceed three or four.
The other configuration of the game had two rings — a small central ring in which the marbles were placed and a concentric larger ring maybe three or four feet in diameter. There was also a straight line for the “lagging” part of the game.
The player lagging his shooter closest to this line started the next part of the game, with the other players in order. I don’t recall for sure in either configuration from what position the player made his first shot, or his subsequent ones.
In the second configuration I’m fairly sure that the first shot was made from the outer ring, at a position on the ring selected by the player. As in the other alternative, playing for “keeps” was the most common alternative. Glass marbles were the kind mostly used, but I recall one episode in which two of the better and more avid players played a game for keeps with agates. In addition to the school yard, a popular place for play was on a sandy area adjacent to the street along the west side of the city park. This would be the scene of games as boys went home for lunch, or returned before school began.
Mumble-ti-peg was played with a pen knife and the object of the game was to complete a series of maneuvers with the knife, each maneuver being successfully accomplished if the knife blade entered the ground so that the knife was more or less erect, when the knife was flipped in a certain way. I think the criterion if the knife was erect as it entered the ground was if two fingers could be placed superimposed on each other between the end of the knife and the ground.
Which player started first I don’t remember or how many players there usually were. A player completing one maneuver could continue on to the next until he failed to complete one successfully. Then the next player in order would take his turn. The player finishing first had the reward of shaping a small pointed stake which he would drive into the ground with three hits of the knife handle (the knife being held by the end of the blade). The loser then had to pull the stake out of the ground with his teeth.
Needless to say the game was usually played on a grassy area where the soil was reasonably moist so that the knife blade could fairly easily enter and stick in the soil.
I don’t remember this game much from public school — my recollections are mostly from vacation Bible school The name of the game doubtless came from the act of pulling the little stake out of the ground with the teeth.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Third Grade
Third grade was just across the hall from second grade and the teacher was Miss Geddes. I have the vague feeling that later on she married someone locally.
I specifically recall only one incident from being in third grade. One time we has a drawing (art) assignment and it consisted in part at least of snowflakes falling from a dark blue sky. The sky was the blue of the blue composition paper that had been furnished us for the exercise and we were making the snowflakes with a white crayon or a piece of chalk. Most members of the class, including myself, proceeded to do this with quick, vigorous stabbing of the crayon on the paper but two members of the class (the Stillman twins) proceeded to draw in a more deliberate fashion. Miss Geddes noticed this and brought the difference to the attention of the class, comparing rather negatively our approach to that of the Stillman twins. I felt vaguely chagrined. Whether pictorially our efforts were not as good as those of the Stillman twins I don’t know at this point – certainly out approach was less a considered one.
In the art classes which I have had in retirement, there has always been an emphasis on spontaneity as being a highly important, if not a dominant factor in producing a superior artistic statement. I haven’t always “bought” this concept, concluding that consciously or unconsciously there are mental decisions that control what is being produced.
The conclusion has probably been influenced by the attitude engendered in my training as an engineering where there us a premium placed on the deliberate approach. So I am not sure if art instructed would agree with Miss Geddes’ opinion although I would tend to agree with her.
I recall playing with the Stillman twins a couple of times — they resided about a block west of my grandmother’s house. The family left Gowrie sometime when I was still in the elementary grades; one of the twins died in WWII and the other has also died I think.
In the third grade my seat was on the right side of the room, facing the teacher and very close to the back of the room. I might mention at this point that the first three grades had recess all at the same time (recess lasted fifteen minutes and was at bout the middle of the morning and afternoon parts of the school day). I think we were also expected after recess to line up in a queue fir a drink of water at the water fountains (which were in the hall) before going back into the classroom. I think we were also expected to make a stop at the rest room in conjunction with recess.
Recess for grades 4 through 6 was at a later time. When the weather was nice recess was always out of doors. The playground was to the south of the building and had swings, a merry-go-round and perhaps a slide.
Originally the swings had two steel rods for the two attachments of the swing to the bar above, but these had a tendency to be bent (from children “pumping” up so high that some sort of torque was placed on the rods near their point of attachment to the overhead bar). The replacements were linked attachments, the links being 6 to 8 inches long. The swings were not of a type really suitable for young children.
I specifically recall only one incident from being in third grade. One time we has a drawing (art) assignment and it consisted in part at least of snowflakes falling from a dark blue sky. The sky was the blue of the blue composition paper that had been furnished us for the exercise and we were making the snowflakes with a white crayon or a piece of chalk. Most members of the class, including myself, proceeded to do this with quick, vigorous stabbing of the crayon on the paper but two members of the class (the Stillman twins) proceeded to draw in a more deliberate fashion. Miss Geddes noticed this and brought the difference to the attention of the class, comparing rather negatively our approach to that of the Stillman twins. I felt vaguely chagrined. Whether pictorially our efforts were not as good as those of the Stillman twins I don’t know at this point – certainly out approach was less a considered one.
In the art classes which I have had in retirement, there has always been an emphasis on spontaneity as being a highly important, if not a dominant factor in producing a superior artistic statement. I haven’t always “bought” this concept, concluding that consciously or unconsciously there are mental decisions that control what is being produced.
The conclusion has probably been influenced by the attitude engendered in my training as an engineering where there us a premium placed on the deliberate approach. So I am not sure if art instructed would agree with Miss Geddes’ opinion although I would tend to agree with her.
I recall playing with the Stillman twins a couple of times — they resided about a block west of my grandmother’s house. The family left Gowrie sometime when I was still in the elementary grades; one of the twins died in WWII and the other has also died I think.
In the third grade my seat was on the right side of the room, facing the teacher and very close to the back of the room. I might mention at this point that the first three grades had recess all at the same time (recess lasted fifteen minutes and was at bout the middle of the morning and afternoon parts of the school day). I think we were also expected after recess to line up in a queue fir a drink of water at the water fountains (which were in the hall) before going back into the classroom. I think we were also expected to make a stop at the rest room in conjunction with recess.
Recess for grades 4 through 6 was at a later time. When the weather was nice recess was always out of doors. The playground was to the south of the building and had swings, a merry-go-round and perhaps a slide.
Originally the swings had two steel rods for the two attachments of the swing to the bar above, but these had a tendency to be bent (from children “pumping” up so high that some sort of torque was placed on the rods near their point of attachment to the overhead bar). The replacements were linked attachments, the links being 6 to 8 inches long. The swings were not of a type really suitable for young children.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Second Grade and the “Corn” Show
Each classroom through junior high, had a cloakroom or closet along the side or the back of the room. These had sliding doors I seem to recall. Probably the cloakroom had little use on early fall or late spring days, but in winter it was filled with overshoes, coats, caps, etc. Children living within the town walked to the school; bus service was provided only for rural children. And generally children in town went home for lunch.
The school day ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with an hour off for lunch. Getting home for lunch and back to school by 1 p.n. was easy for us as we were only a couple of blocks from the school For my relative Harold Renquist who lived at the far east end of Gowrie it was a different matter but he always (I was given to understand) went home for lunch. Harold was enough older than I that I never remembered him in a school setting.
My friend Howard Nelson also resided on the east edge of Gowrie, but somehow or other he and his two cousins Beth and Faith Blomgren (who lived near him) were permitted to ride on the school bus. Perhaps they were just outside the city limits. In the first grade the cloakroom was along the north side of the room, in the second grade on the south side.
One of my recollections of the second grade was of the only time I recall of being kept after school for disciplinary reasons. It happened in connection with the annual “corn” show which was held in various rooms in the basement of the school building. While the show was in progress the rooms it occupied were off limits to the pupils during school hours — they had a guided tour of the exhibits, etc., and perhaps they could freely attend after school was out (I don’t remember specifically as to this).
One of the boys in my class, Dale Hauser, inveigled me into going to one of the exhibit areas during a noon hour; we were observed and Mrs. Woods kept the two of us after school and reprimanded us. It was a pretty mild reprimand, in retrospect, but I was quite frightened at the time. The exhibit that had lured me to disregard the attendance ban was a rather elaborate mechanical construction from an Erector set.
As I mentioned the “corn” show was an annual event. It included both agricultural displays and home-making projects. The agricultural exhibits included displays of ears of corn which farmers had submitted in the competition for the best corn. There were also chickens in coops and, I believe specimens of hay, oats, etc.
Who judged the agricultural exhibits I don’t know, perhaps the ag teacher in the high school did, or it might have been the county agent. Maybe the exhibits were judged as a class project by the ag class of the high school.
One year my mother entered a coat that she had made for me, in which she had used a discarded one from one of my aunts as raw material. She won a prize for her project and I seem to recall in one of the picture albums that I have there is a photo of me wearing that coat.
In addition to the sewing projects there were I think displays of canned goods, perhaps baked items also. The corn show was sort of an anachronism of times past and it didn’t survive after the first few years I was in school. In a way it was sort of a fair on a very local basis, less extensive than the county fair or of course the state fair.
Schematic of first floor of Gowrie school (not to scale)
The school day ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with an hour off for lunch. Getting home for lunch and back to school by 1 p.n. was easy for us as we were only a couple of blocks from the school For my relative Harold Renquist who lived at the far east end of Gowrie it was a different matter but he always (I was given to understand) went home for lunch. Harold was enough older than I that I never remembered him in a school setting.
My friend Howard Nelson also resided on the east edge of Gowrie, but somehow or other he and his two cousins Beth and Faith Blomgren (who lived near him) were permitted to ride on the school bus. Perhaps they were just outside the city limits. In the first grade the cloakroom was along the north side of the room, in the second grade on the south side.
One of my recollections of the second grade was of the only time I recall of being kept after school for disciplinary reasons. It happened in connection with the annual “corn” show which was held in various rooms in the basement of the school building. While the show was in progress the rooms it occupied were off limits to the pupils during school hours — they had a guided tour of the exhibits, etc., and perhaps they could freely attend after school was out (I don’t remember specifically as to this).
One of the boys in my class, Dale Hauser, inveigled me into going to one of the exhibit areas during a noon hour; we were observed and Mrs. Woods kept the two of us after school and reprimanded us. It was a pretty mild reprimand, in retrospect, but I was quite frightened at the time. The exhibit that had lured me to disregard the attendance ban was a rather elaborate mechanical construction from an Erector set.
As I mentioned the “corn” show was an annual event. It included both agricultural displays and home-making projects. The agricultural exhibits included displays of ears of corn which farmers had submitted in the competition for the best corn. There were also chickens in coops and, I believe specimens of hay, oats, etc.
Who judged the agricultural exhibits I don’t know, perhaps the ag teacher in the high school did, or it might have been the county agent. Maybe the exhibits were judged as a class project by the ag class of the high school.
One year my mother entered a coat that she had made for me, in which she had used a discarded one from one of my aunts as raw material. She won a prize for her project and I seem to recall in one of the picture albums that I have there is a photo of me wearing that coat.
In addition to the sewing projects there were I think displays of canned goods, perhaps baked items also. The corn show was sort of an anachronism of times past and it didn’t survive after the first few years I was in school. In a way it was sort of a fair on a very local basis, less extensive than the county fair or of course the state fair.
Schematic of first floor of Gowrie school (not to scale)
Thursday, December 15, 2011
School Desks
Second grade for me was taught by Mrs. Esther (?) Woods, who as I have mentioned was the only female married teacher I had all through the years at the Gowrie school. As for the first grade I have some recollection of where I sat in the classroom. In first grade it was, at least part of the time on the very left side of the room (as the teacher faced it) and two or three seats from the front.
In second grade Mrs. Wood had her desk on the north side of the room but the rows of desks ran past her rather than toward her — the pupils faced east. I was in the second row away from her desk, about midway in the row.
The desks were movable, each desk being a unit in itself. I think the desktop could be adjusted as to slant, but of this I am not sure, and it could only be adjusted slightly if it were possible. The desk could only be entered from the left side and underneath the seat was a little drawer, which could be pulled out form the right side, where books etc. could be stored. Perhaps there was also space under the desktop. This kind of movable desk was used all through the sixth grade.
The desktops bore the marks of earlier students — scratches, initials carved into it, etc. The janitor probably did some maintenance on the tops, such as varnishing, during the summer months. On the desktop there was space for an inkwell, but it was never used, either in the elementary or junior high grades. I think the classroom would be provided only with the number of desks required by the number of students, the excess supply was probably stored somewhere in the school building.
In second grade Mrs. Wood had her desk on the north side of the room but the rows of desks ran past her rather than toward her — the pupils faced east. I was in the second row away from her desk, about midway in the row.
The desks were movable, each desk being a unit in itself. I think the desktop could be adjusted as to slant, but of this I am not sure, and it could only be adjusted slightly if it were possible. The desk could only be entered from the left side and underneath the seat was a little drawer, which could be pulled out form the right side, where books etc. could be stored. Perhaps there was also space under the desktop. This kind of movable desk was used all through the sixth grade.
The desktops bore the marks of earlier students — scratches, initials carved into it, etc. The janitor probably did some maintenance on the tops, such as varnishing, during the summer months. On the desktop there was space for an inkwell, but it was never used, either in the elementary or junior high grades. I think the classroom would be provided only with the number of desks required by the number of students, the excess supply was probably stored somewhere in the school building.
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