Blackfoot DistrictSchool
The school I went to from the third grade to the seventh grade was one of the last one-room schools left in the area. When I was in the seventh grade the school was combined with several other schools in the county. Dad didn’t like the idea and enrolled us in the catholic school in town. We were the only catholic family out in the Blackfoot district and dad didn’t think we would get as good an education with so many schools combined.
But getting back to the little one-room school, we had around 18 to 20 kids in the school my sister and I were the only girls at the time. There were other girls in the area but they were in high school. We were all from neighboring farms and were more like family than school friends. The older grades helped teach the younger grades.
Most of our teachers were student teachers from Southwest Missouri State teaching college in Springfield about an hour away. They were doing internships and had big plans of fixing all the educational problems of rule schools. We weren’t the easiest bunch to teach either. We knew they were only there for one year and most didn’t apply for a permanent teaching position. So we didn’t connect well with them.
Attendance was always a concern as we were all farm kids who had to work the planting and harvesting times of the year. We went in late summer; school would start in August then be off for fall harvest then back for the winter months. We got one day off for Thanksgiving and one day for Christmas. Then we got out in April for planting season.
It was a challenge for teachers to get in the allotted number of days, but in the ’50s kids were needed as part of the workforce. The farmers would pool their equipment and travel from farm to farm either planting, harvesting, or haying. One year our teacher offered to help; one to see how things were done and the second to see if his help would speed the process. It didn’t speed the process but it did give him a new outlook on farm life.
The school was also the local community center; the PTA would hold meetings and fundraisers. One such event was the annual pie supper auction. The girls would fix a meal and bake a pie, put it in a decorated box or basket. Then they would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The bidders weren’t supposed to know who made which box, but certain young men seemed to know whose was whose.
The second-year we attended school at Blackfoot, I was given the lead in the school play. Not because I was a good actor but the teacher thought my Northern Accent made the production more interesting. Besides, I was the only girl old enough to remember the lines, and none of the boys wanted to play a girl part. It was a fun evening, one of the neighboring farmers bought my box supper. From then on when they would come to our farm to work I was to make a cherry cream pie as I made for the pie supper.
The year we got telephones in our area opened a whole new way of communicating with your neighbors. We got our first-party line and when you were talking to someone you could hear if someone else picked up. My mom was head of the PTA at that time. She would send notes to school with me to pass out to the other families. They were told to pick up the phone at seven o’clock, she would call our nearest neighbor, everyone would pick up and they would have a meeting and not have to leave home. Mom thought it was fantastic.
That time is a treasure trove of memories and I will write more in the future. Now though this will be the end of this one. Those were fond times in my life even if my dad would tell people he had four strapping boys to help on the farm, just two wore dresses on Sunday. Everyone would laugh, except us girls. But that is another story to come.
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