I don't have many memories
of the time I went to Locust Road School, but here are
a few recollections.
Locust Road School was a small one-room schoolhouse
with no electricity and no plumbing, It had a wood stove
for heat, and an out-house "out back". The
teacher taught all eight grades.
I walked 4/5 of a mile four times daily: to school in
the morning, back home at noon for a "hot lunch",
then to school and back home at the end of the day.
The two German Shepherd dogs owned by the Cleveland
family terrified me, as did the bull tethered in the
front yard of the family on the East side of Locust
Road, just North of the school. (I do not recall the
name of the family.)
Each day two students were "volunteered" to
get drinking water in containers. They went to the Cleveland
family with the dogs, I tried to avoid being "volunteered"!
I have always been ambidextrous, Although I do most
things right handed, I sweep floors (or play croquet)
left handed. The teacher (I forget her name) always
tried to force me to sweep the floor right handed!
At one point the teacher became engaged to be married.
I do not know what possessed me, but I decided to play
a prank on her. I placed roofing nails (with large heads)
in front and behind each tire of her car. To my surprise,
she only got one flat tire! To this day, as far as I
know, no one suspected that I had done this!
On my birthday I always put a wooden shingle in my pants,
so it wouldn't hurt too much when I was spanked! Of
course, I always pretended that it hurt more than it
did!
The day of the 1938 hurricane my father did not come
to the school to drive me home. He was so involved with
his work on the panels for the 1939 New York World's
Fair that he was unaware of the storm.
I am not sure why the teacher didn't drive me home.
The father of the Smith children came to get them, They
had already gotten a ride home with someone else, He
drove me home in what I believe was a Model A Ford.
In order to work the windshield wipers, he had to reach
out the side window to the front of the windshield to
operate them manually.
My recollection is that Lewis Reynolds rode (or walked)
his bicycle home during this storm, and was almost hit
by a falling tree.
This is about all that comes to mind. I completed first
through fifth grade there (1935 - 1940),
