aunt naomi
Photo Friday
Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 26)
My sixth grade year was spent at one-room Centennial School. This was a new mixture of students from other areas of the community and kind of exciting. Our teacher was Miss Luce. There must have been over 25 students attending. I remember some of the boys (Howard Carrendar) let the air out of Miss Luce’s car tire and got into a lot of trouble. The bad word of all bad words was painted on the back of the school in two foot high letters by some prankster during the school year. That caused a lot of commotion. I didn’t know what the word meant so I asked Mother and not only did she not tell me what it meant, but I was punished for saying the word. But I knew it was a word I was not supposed to use; of course I still didn’t know what it meant.
One common country prank was to push the school outhouses over. Our school’s was pushed over. I can’t remember much about where we went to the bathroom that day or if school was called off. Bill Norfleet’s mom, Marge, brought birthday party cupcakes and candy to Centennial when Bill had his birthday. This was something new introduced to us country children. Miss Luce used to let me help the younger students with their class work. I remember drawing paper dolls and clothes for a young girl. Soon all the little girls wanted me to draw paper dolls for them.
Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 25)
Joan Shipman was a breath of fresh air to Oak Grove. She had a time each day that she set aside to just read stories to the students. It was during her year of teaching that Ina Golden and I decided to write (I don’t remember what we wrote) in red nail polish on the back of the girl’s outhouse. I believe I had to write 500 times “I will not write on school property.” Joan took us on nature walks and introduced many novel ideas, in her teaching. She was probably the reason I decided I wanted to be a teacher. She later taught music at Eugene High School where I attended, and there I had her for my music teacher.
It was from Oak Grove School that I did my first really daring adventure type thing in my life. My friend Esther Golden and I decided to get off the school bus on Deer Run road (at that time it did not have a name that I know of) and walk through the woods to her home and then she would ride me home on her bicycle. We were sure it would be just straight across. It took a lot longer than we expected and by the time I got home that evening, it was getting dark and I was met at the gate with a sound switching (which I knew I deserved) for causing so much worry.
Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 24)
I have memories that differ from my older siblings’ memories of my early school years. I remember my first teacher being Rufus Kelsey. Evidently, I started school at age 4 with John as my teacher. I got sick a lot (shortly after that I had my tonsils removed) and had to drop out that year. Mother taught me to read and spell at home. Glenn Payne was my 3rd & 4th grade teacher. I can remember he gave me and Floyd a transportation mural to draw and color. He sneezed a lot. A few years later he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. In later years he was cured, I believe. Glenn was teacher when a very traumatic thing happened. A wasp flew down Myrene Englebrecht’s wide-neck dress and proceeded to sting her. She ran screaming up and down the room. When Glenn realized what was happening, he asked a few of the older girls to take her into the cloak room and help her get her dress off and the wasp out. She was stung several times. To this day, when I see a wasp, my hand goes up instinctively and I hold the neck of my garment shut.
Glen played a mean joke on Roy Blockberger. Roywas a bit slow because he had a “draining ear.” Now days he would have tubes put in. Glenn asked who wanted to see stars. He put his coat overRoy’s face with the sleeve extended above and poured a bit of water down the sleeve. This was a stupid thing for a teacher to do, I thought. Everyone laughed at poorRoy.
Aunt Naomi’s Story (part 23)
I have a few memories [of Oak Grove School] that are unpleasant also. I got terrible sick to my stomach when I was in first grade and I was too shy to tell the teacher. So I upchucked right on my desk. Cleo and Lolly had to clean it up. Bless the poor things! I remember a teacher, Rufus Kelsey trying to get me to read. I was extremely shy. He asked me if a “cat had got my tongue.” I never knew what he meant and had to ponder all day what it meant. I was a very shy child. It was fun to see who could make the most “marks” on the blackboard and then count them. (A Friday afternoon game).
On very cold days, walking to school, Mother would give us hot boiled eggs to hold in our gloved hands. This would help keep our hands warm for a while, and we could then eat the eggs for lunch. We had to walk a mile or more through meadows with cows, hills, two creeks, gates, wire fences (one had a hole cut in it just large enough for us to crawl through), and a barbed wire fence which had a burlap bag wound/tied around to keep us from tearing our clothing. It was no easy task to walk to school. It was very difficult to cross the field with the cows especially if we did not know if the bull was grazing with them. One occasion, Lolly stumbled and sprained her ankle in the Goetz meadow. We were a long distance from home. Cleo and I ended up putting her astride an old fence rail and carried her home that way.