3 ½ miles one way
No lie we did walk 3 ½ miles to school. Rain, snow, and sunshine we walked. We didn’t have busing in grade school. Even when I went to high school, I still had to walk a mile and a half. The bus would come to the end of the paved blacktop. The driver would sit there for about 15 minutes then turn around and go back to town. If you weren’t there, too bad you missed your ride.
During grade school, we walked to the one-room schoolhouse next to the cemetery. The property had been deeded to the school district by the Dismang family, with the understanding that if the school was ever disbanded the land would revert back to the family.
It took around 30 minutes to get to school from our farm if the boys didn’t play on the way or my little sister didn’t want to be carried. She did pretty well except when it was snowing or a lot of snow on the ground, then she wined to be carried. My brother and I would take turns carrying her so we wouldn’t be late. We would bribe her with time to play outside if we got there early.
The road was lined with trees most of the way so the road was mostly protected. The last mile was cleared off so the weather conditions were worse. The wind blew the snow across the road and was hard to walk in. As we passed neighboring farms other kids joined our little caravan so that by the time we got to school most of the 18 kids that comprised the student body got there at the same time.
If the weather was good and if we got there early the teacher would let us play baseball before school started; to calm us down so we would pay attention better. When it was cold or a lot of snow on the ground we had to go inside so we wouldn’t get all wet and then have to set in class.
We very seldom had snow days. The road had to be totally impassable for us not to have school. If we got to school and the teacher hadn’t got there by the time we did we had to walk back home. Mom was glad when we got phone service in our district. It saved us from having to get out in the weather needlessly. I was glad when I got to High School because I didn’t have to walk up to the blacktop and find that the bus couldn’t get out from town.
Kids nowadays make fun of us when we say we walked 3 1/2 miles to school, but we did even uphill part of the way. But times were safer back then. We didn’t have to worry about walking to and from school like kids do today. When the schools consolidated and we no longer went to the one-room school the kids got bus service. But still had to get to the end of the blacktop as high school students did.
Below is a winter scene painting I did. Whenever I look at it I think of those long walks to school, carrying my little sister piggyback all the way.
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