Since there was relatively
little traffic on Locust Road, girls jumped rope and
played hopscotch. Team play often consisted of baseball
and a game I believe was called ollie, ollie over in
which teams stood on opposite sides of the school. Someone
threw a ball over the roof, and, if the receiving team
caught the ball, they would stealthily creep around
the school and try to tag as many "kids" as
possible as they fled to the opposite side. The team
with the most players at the end of recess was the winner.
After America entered WWII, we played war games with
girls delegated to the role of nurses.
Attending a one-room school provided unique opportunities
for enrichment, review, and flexible scheduling. Students
could be integrated into different levels if their mastery
warranted. Both Miss Walsh (Mrs. Kelly) and Mrs. Conway
were excellent teachers and provided a good learning
environment.
I very much enjoyed our music period on Fridays when
Mrs. Kelly, at the piano, taught patriotic songs which
we belted out with enthusiasm, especially during the
war years. She also liked Irish Ballads and I shall
never forget "The Wear'n of the Green".
The arrival of the library book box was another highlight
of my school experiences and I still recall several
of the books I read during those years.
After Pearl Harbor, I remember the war efforts and the
air raid drills in the classroom. We took our coats
and placed them over our heads as we curled up under
our desks. We were given a cotton sack to collect milkweed
pods for navy life jackets and lectured on the importance
of saving stamps.
A fun-filled climax to our school year was a picnic
at Red Hole, a river with depths that provided great
swimming! Everyone looked forward to this outing that
heralded summer vacation.
Since our school had no running water, two people were
assigned to carry a covered bucket to the Schibi Chicken
Farm just down the road for fresh water daily. A rotation
chart of housekeeping duties was essential to keep everything
running smoothly. Clapping erasers was always a rather
messy assignment. During the cold months, older boys
had the chore of starting a fire in the wood burning
stove that heated the classroom. If we all arrived simultaneously,
we sat in coats, hats and mittens until the room became
warm. I remember the day that the gold fish bowl was
solidly frozen. Unfortunately the occupants never survived
the experience.
We had a substitute teacher during the interim between
Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Conway. Either as a practical joke
or a quirk of fate, when she opened her desk drawer,
there was a nest of baby mice. Needless to say, the
result was pandemonium.
Locust Road School had a great group of students and
teachers and I look back on the experience with nostalgia.
