- Memories of Greenwood County,
First Day at School
Dorothy started school in 1921 and remembers her mother, starting in August, making two or three new dresses for herself and her two sisters. They wore their Sunday shoes and which were always too small and hurt her feet. They usually went barefoot all summer. They got new pencils and crayons each school year. Dorothy always wondered what the teacher would look like and what the other girls would wear to school. The teacher would ring the school bell at 8:30 a.m., again at 5 minutes before school and the last bell at 9 a.m. #77 school house had its bell in a belfry. Some of the students who were better-off carried shiny new dinner buckets. The poorer kids had tin buckets. The big older kids carried gallon buckets and the smaller kids carried half gallon lunch buckets. Dorothy envied the kids that brought cold fried chicken, baker’s bread and store-bought cookies. Dorothy always tried to be the first to school so she could get a desk on the north side of the room by a window to look out the and watch people go by on the road. After a few weeks of school, the teacher would move Dorothy to the other side of the room as she was looking out the windows too much.
Box Suppers
Many rural schools held box-suppers each year to raise money for items to be used at the school. Dorothy’s school did not have playground equipment, so the teacher bought items like a ball, bat and catcher’s glove. One time they bought a horse shoe set with rubber horse shoes so they could play indoors in cold weather. Another time, the teacher bought a one burner kerosene stove with a fuel bottle to make hot lunches.
The box-suppers were held in the fall around Halloween and the teacher would have the students present a program first before they ate. The little kids would “speak a part” and there would be several songs sung by all the students. They would practice for several weeks on the program before the box-supper event.
The boxes for the food were heavy cardboard and were wrapped with colored crepe paper. The older girls tried to outdo each other on the boxes. The Food in the boxes was for two people, the girl who owned the box and the young man or boy who bought the box. Sandwiches were made of ground chicken, there were small pickles, bananas, red grapes, dainty cookies, a slice of cake and candy bars. The boxes were filled, decorated and wrapped in newspaper. They were carried behind a curtain, the newspaper taken off and auctioned off after the program. A box might bring 75 to 80 cents, maybe several dollars if several young men were after a certain girl’s box. The competition brought more money. Whoever bought the box would eat with the girl who owned the box. If the young man wanted the box to take home, it was his also as he paid for it. Sometimes 40 or 50 dollars was raised at this event.
Winter Days at School
Dorothy does not remember a day of school ever being cancelled due to snow or bad weather. Living right across the road from the school helped her get there a little easier. The teacher always got to school somehow. Dorothy’s mom did not want her kids to miss school and Dorothy also thinks her mom was glad to get the kids out of the house.
When the weather permitted, the students played games outside, like “Ante Over” where you throw a ball over the school to students on the other side, “Sheep My Pen,” “Hide and Seek” and “Dog and the Wolf,” were other games played. When they could not go outside, they played indoor games like, “Tic-Tic-Tic,” “Upset the fruit Basket,” “Kitty wants a Corner” and “Horse Shoes” with rubber horse shoes. Some of the more affluent boys would bring a ball and bat if the school had none, but the Braucher kids could not use the bat, as they were lower status kids.
Dorothy and her sisters had overshoes because there were no boots for women and kids in those days. The boots were for men and the big boys. Every other winter, Dorothy and her sisters got new overshoes, which usually had one buckle. The first winter Dorothy went to
2x5=$97.50
school, her hand-me-down overshoes were two sizes too big and the next winter they were a half inch too short. What an ordeal Dorothy had trying to get those overshoes on. She thought it took 20 minutes of pulling, kicking, tugging and “cussing” to get them on. They wore high topped lace-up shoes in those days. When Dorothy got up in the morning, the floors and stairs were cold because there was no carpet. Her mother had a fire going in the kitchen range and the oven door open to help heat the kitchen. The kids would sit and put their feet on the oven door to warm them up, still in their flannel nightgowns, no pajamas. Breakfast was usually cream-of-wheat or oatmeal. Once a week they ate homemade coffee cake. When they came home from school, they took off their school dresses and put on everyday clothes. Then they went out and brought in wood and corn cobs for tomorrow’s fires. Dorothy hated that job. When there was snow on the ground, they hauled the wood on a home-made sled that their father had made. It was heavy and why couldn’t they have one of those nice storebought sleds like Bill Jasper and Roland Hind had? Some of the poorer kids did not even have a hand-made sled.
All the students carried their lunches except Dorothy and her siblings. Because they lived across the road from the school, they went home for lunch. The poorer kids had poor lunches, like home-made bread with lard spread on it. Some ate boiled sweet potatoes sandwiches or bread with syrup on it.
The more effluent students had fried chicken, bakers’ bread, store-bought cookies and bananas. Dorothy would stand around and watch those kids eat those wonderful cookies, and just wished she, someday, could carry her lunch in a shiny dinner bucket and have bananas, fried chicken and those heavenly store-bought cookies. Many years later when Dorothy was a rural school teacher, she got to carry her own lunch and it was not nearly so wonderful.
First School Christmas
The year was 1921 and Dorothy was in the first grade. The Christmas program was in the afternoon and Dorothy’s mother had to wash and iron a dress for her. She got back to school about halfway through the program. Dorothy does not remember if she said her line in the program. At many of the programs, Dorothy’s mother would go over to the school and practice with the students as she was the only person who could play the piano or organ. She would play a march as the students filed on to the stage. Dorothy remembers her mother wearing a red and white sweater to the Christmas programs. This sweater was bought before she got married, as there was never money for nice clothes. Dorothy remembers her mother having a heavy wool coat that she thought weighed 20 pounds.
