When Children were Children (3)
School……..
By Sharon Hopper 

Well as I said before we lived in an old schoolhouse that was being changed into a home. We now had rooms, furnace, well with a pump for water, and lots of ideas of how the house would be when finished. My mother had her heart set on a blue and white kitchen. My father wanted a garage. Well you guessed it. The garage was being built as I started school. 

My mother drove me down the road from our house about two miles to a little place called Pavonia. There on a bit of a hill was a white schoolhouse. Two room schoolhouse. My room was to be in the back addition. We went inside and I was so excited. The desks were in a row and a wood, coal stove stood in the corner and the blackboards and teachers desk was in the front. We entered the schoolroom and a very friendly lady smiled to greet us. I will never forget her name. Mrs. Yonkers. While talking to us she found out that I wanted to play piano and she informed us that in the house next door to the school was a lady who taught piano and suggested that we go and talk to her. But back to the school. The floors were plankboard wood and the playground amounted to a large pasture. No swings or anything like that, but right behind the pasture was the little house for the bathroom with boys and girls signs on the doors. The woods was right behind that little building. I remember that woods because we used to gather rocks and build rooms our of them to play in. 

On the first day of school I discovered that Mrs. Yonkers was very talented. She could teach three grades at once in that schoolroom. There was probably about 10 first graders, maybe 12 second graders and about the same third graders. While one grade was working on a project she would do the lesson for another grade. Now if you were really paying attention, you could get most of the second grade learned while in the first grade. That made second grade a breeze. 

At recess we played the silliest games. Tag. Hide and Seek. Kick ball. and sometimes we just went off into the woods to see what we could discover. I do not remember very much organized playtime. That was probably because Mrs. Yonkers was busy preparing lessons for one of her classes. I vividly remember putting my head under the spouting one rainy day and getting awfully wet. I had lots of earaches as a child and I was told not to get my head and ears wet. Needless to say I was taken home and did I ever get a spanking. The next day was no better. I had to sit on a chair in the corner of the school room for half the day so everyone knew I had done something wrong. Can you imagine that these days? I also remember getting a spanking from the teacher but I do not remember why. But I know I never had that happen again. That was embarrassing. I also remember some of the boys getting their mouths washed out with soap for talking nasty. Today that would be criminal. In my day it was called teaching respect. 

I loved riding the school bus to and from school. There was a young boy named Dale Evans. No lie. I was smitten by Dale and we would talk on the phone after school almost every day. And every night when I got off the bus my dog Skipper would be waiting for me. It is funny how I remember those days. They were full of good memories. I think that was because we were truly happy children.