When I was a young girl, most children had to walk at
least two or three miles each way to school.
Early in the establishment and settling of our country, early surveyors
divided the country into sections. Each
section was then divided into thirty-six units of one hundred sixty acres, with
a township consisting of six hundred forty acres. On every 16th unit there was land set aside
for a school within walking distance for all children. New Home School was my first school to attend
and was located just across the road and to the Southwest of New Home Baptist
Church. Today, the old school has been
made into a home.
Elvici Wright was the teacher, and Marie, Clifton, Tommy,
and I walked with the Baker children, Tom Dorothy, James, Florann, Charlotte,
and Leslie. Their parents were Will and
Alice Baker. Next on our road was the
Nowie Arnold children, Johnny Wayne and Norman and then the Bradsher children,
Vernita, Arveline, Vaudene, Mary Jo, and Gay.
Along with these children, the family consisted of two other boys and a
baby girl, whose names escape me at this moment. The Bradsher parents were Arvin “Cotton”
Bradsher. All of these children went to
school and lived along the road east of New Home.
The school was one large room with a raised platform at
the east end. Two large blackboards were
behind the teacher’s desk, and in the center of the room was a wood burning
potbellied stove, which the boys kept burning.
There were three different size desks aligned in two neat rows along the
outside walls. In the front beside the
two doors were shelves and coat racks where we hung our coats and caps. This was where we also placed our lunch
buckets.
There was a well shed outside on the south side of the
school. It seems to me, we all drank
from the same bucket and used the same dipper.
I remember the well shed being a cool lovely place. The teacher or older children always drew the
water from the well, using a long bucket between six to eight inches wide and
three to four foot long. This bucket was
attached to a long rope which was let down into the well. When the bucket was let down into the water,
a lid in the bottom of the bucket allowed the cool water inside. As the bucket filled, it was lowered further
into the water until a blubbering or gurgling sound was heard. This sound signaled the bucket was full and
it was time to pull the bucket back out of the water. The rope passed trough a large pulley over
the top of the well. This pulley helped
to ease the effort of pulling the bucket full of water out of the well. The water was then emptied into a water bucket
with dipper. There were Hollyhocks and
Moss growing around this lovely place, and always a few dippers full of water
were reserved to water these hardy plants.
A large creek ran along the south and west side of the
schoolyard. It was along this creek that
most of our recess time was spent, wading along the shallow water, watching
minnows dart back and forth. Sometimes,
we even ate our lunch on the old creek bank.
The children all grouped up in small groups, gladly sharing
dinners. Some had peanut butter and
crackers, some had deviled eggs on biscuits.
Some had just a fried egg. Then
some had fried potatoes on biscuits, while others had chocolate rolls, butter
roles, fried pies, or maybe even a piece of cake. We all drank water.
As far back away from the school as one could get was the
bathroom or toilet, commonly known as the outhouse. An old used Sears & Roebuck Catalog was
used in the place of Charmins for toilet paper.
Sometimes the boys would hide in the creek and throw rocks and sticks at
the outhouse used by the girls.
In those days, the three R’s of Reading, Writing, and
Arithmetic were taught along with respect of personal and private property. Grades One through Eight were taught in the
same room. Some classes may have only
three or four children where the larger classes were made up of six to eight
children. The class in session would go
to the front of room and all set on a bench.
The other students did homework or helped the younger children.
Each day always started with Prayer and Bible reading,
with each child sharing a favorite Bible Verse.
Jesus Wept, and God is Love were used a lot because they were short and
sweet, but we could all also recite the Twenty Third Psalms and Matthew 24 or
John 3:16. We received a gold star for
memory verses and Honor Role, and during Revival at the New Home Baptist
Church, we were excused from attending a Hellfire and Brimstone Revival.
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| Sarah & Earline Lafe School |
