When Children were Children
Our schoolhouse home
By Sharon Hopper 

I had a lot of cousins who used to visit on the weekends or we went to their homes for events, but we never seemed to be missing someone to play with. After my introduction to the one room school house that I attended I realized that my life was quite a bit different from my cousins. They all went to modern schools with indoor plumbing, a lunchroom, and all that regular stuff. They said I was going to grow up to be a dummy. My uncle lived and worked on farms that he was a caretaker for so we always had barns and fields to play in. Even an old apple orchard and we climbed the many trees to play imaginary games in. In the meantime my rough looking schoolhouse was taking on the look of a regular home. Right after my first grade year we put in the bathroom, and shortly thereafter my mother finally had her blue and white kitchen. It was a big kitchen. Room for lots of ladies to prepare a meal in. I especially remember the first thanksgiving after our kitchen was finished. But before I get to that I have to tell about the huge outdoor roast that the whole family attended. 

There was a huge fire pit and a wheat field right next door that was protected by barbed wire. I guess years before there were cows in there. Anyway we were playing the usual country kid kind of play and my cousin ran into the barbed wire and It barely missed here eye. She looked a mess for awhile but overall she was alright. The reason I remember that so well was this house was in four floors. It was like a room on each floor. The ground floor was a huge kitchen with a wood burning stove in it. In the winter it was the warmest place in the house. The next floor was the parlor. The next were two bedrooms, and the fourth floor was the children’s floor. Believe me in the winter it was cold. I honestly do not remember how they heated that place, but it must have had some kind of furnace. My uncle loved that old place and we often played in the barns and orchard. We were never inside when the weather was tolerable. And there was a huge hill for sled riding in the winter. At least it seemed huge to me at the time. 

Back to our first real kitchen prepared Thanksgiving in our schoolhouse. We had everyone there for the big feast and my aunt had just had a baby in June and my mother was expecting my brother in January. We had grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles and their kids. Wow that was a packed house. We were just finishing dinner when the phone rang and my dad hollered “everyone we have to go. He yelled “ Wayne your house is one fire.” We all piled into cars and headed for the old farmhouse about twenty five minutes away.. When we got there the house was nearly burned to the ground. Needless to say we had company for a few days till my aunt and uncle could figure out what to do. My cousin would not go to school with me because she was afraid of the outside bathrooms. However after a few days, my aunt and uncle found another farm job and they moved into an old farmhouse. I think it was in worse shape than our schoolhouse when we moved in. Connie and I slept together in a big bedroom that was so cold you could see your breath. We stayed there for the most part of a couple months so dad and mom could help get the place in livable condition. In the meantime my baby brother was born and I quickly became a second mother to him. I loved to play with my dolls and pretend that I had a family and now I really did have a real baby to play with. 

In that three years the schoolhouse became a real home and the garage was built, and life was good. That summer after second grade we went to Butler where my uncle showed outside movies and we had popcorn and bakery cookies in the grass. After the movie we would play hide and seek and we were all over that little town till late in the night. No one seemed to worry about where the children were. When it was time to go in for the night, the local policeman would drive around with his speaker and announce that it was time to go home. (I can see that one today.) All in all those years were lots of fun. I drive out there every once in awhile when I am in Mansfield, Ohio just to see and remember that old schoolhouse we called home. It has changed, but it is still home to someone.

Sharon Hopper