School Days

A few of you have attended rural schools during your elementary school education. I count myself in that group and look back with gratitude on some stellar teaching at that time.

The rural school I attended for grades 1-4 was called Clear Creek School and our teacher was Mrs. West. I remember her as a lovely, well-padded lady who reminded me a little of my grandmother. She kept a classroom of eight grades corralled and learning, teaching us everything from the 3-Rs to music and how to get along with others.

I remember playing Andy-Over (probably not spelled correctly) over the garage located near the schoolhouse—Mrs. West traveled to our school from a town nine miles away and parked her car there during her work day. How exciting it was to wait in suspense as your team threw the ball over the ridgepole of the structure and tensed to run away from the ball thrown at you by the ball-catcher on the other team who crept around the corner. If you’ve never played the game, it’s like Dodge Ball with lots of added suspense.

When snow fell as it does quite often in NE Missouri, we would play Fox and Geese, build snow forts and have snowball fights and, no doubt, come back into the schoolroom with snowsuits soaking wet. Older students helped younger ones and for those of us who came from small families, the atmosphere taught us how a large family functions.

 

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the schoolhouse as it was, but pictured above is the way it looks now—a private residence with an awesome front yard (please excuse the side mirror).

The next picture you see is what we called Trowbridge Hill, the hill I climbed every day on my way home from school (of course I did get to walk/run down the hill every weekday morning). I must say the hill looks much smaller now than it did to a first grader.

I hope you all have fond memories of your elementary school days, rural or not. I wouldn’t trade these memories for anything.