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Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 42)

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The hill to the south of the house carried the most activity of any.  It was on that side that we would sleigh ride in the winter.  We walked to the spring, crossed the creek and went up the hill a way to pick up hickory nuts for mother’s ice box cookies.  Further to the east on the south hill we had a wondrous junk pile.  All junk (not garbage) was deposited there.  We had fun playing in it. Even further south was a wonderful wild cherry tree.  We picked cherries every summer and this was used to make jelly, juice and even daddy made some wine!

The southeast area was the way we walked to school.  Once we crossed the creek to the south we had a pasture and then woods to walk through.  We had to cross a barb wire fence when we got in the woods, so Mahlon wrapped burlap bags around the barbs so we wouldn’t tear our clothes or scratch ourselves when we crossed.  It was easy to cross if you were with someone.  One person held up the top wire and while you pushed down on the second wire, you had a lot of room to crawl through.  After crossing the “Goetz” creek at the edge of the woods, we had a pasture and then another fence.  This fence was made of 6-inch wire blocks and in order to cross that, Mahlon cut an 18 by 18 inch hole so we could all squeeze through.  There was an incline after that fence and then again pasture.  This was the area where we had to watch for bulls.  When we got through the pasture, it was a short walk through the woods to reach the back yard of the Oak Grove schoolhouse lot.  The entire walk may have been two miles, but I am not sure.

Aunt Lolly’s Story (part 12)

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One Halloween, our car was broken down. We had a 4-H Halloween party at Oak Grove. We got dressed up in our costumes. Mother and Daddy went-with us. We walked by lantern light to Oak Grove. When we got there, no one could guess who we were because we came out of the woods and had no car to give us away. I will always remember that beautiful walk through the woods late that night. It was spooky and exciting with a big moon and millions of stars shining, and Mother and Daddy to keep us safe.

Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 25)

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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)

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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)

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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.

Aunt Naomi’s Story (part 22)

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[Editor’s Note: Aunt Naomi divided her memories up by periods of her life, and not into these little parts. I’ve taken the liberty of cutting chapter 3, Elementary School, into 6 parts to make it easier for us to talk about them one at a time. Thanks Aunt Naomi for writing all of this down.]

The following students made up the enrollment of Oak Grove School, grades 1 through 8 over the years I attended:  Roy Blockberger; Shirley, Ralph, and Glen Robinett; Delores Vieseman; Barbara and Jimmy Goetz; Freddy and Darlene Hammond; Rochelle and Carol Shellman; Geneva and Myrene Englebrecht; Marilyn Probst; Floyd and Mary Jane Siebeneck; Mary, Esther, Ina Golden; Leland Sappenfield; Bobby Crede; Cleo, Lolly, Naomi and Lloyd Sommerer.

The school was set in woods with an area large enough for the school, a play yard on all sides, a woodshed, two outhouses and a well with a pump. The entrance side faced what is now called Deer Run Road.  The entrance had large cloak rooms on each side.  That is where we put our coats, boots, hats, lunchboxes, balls and bats.  Cleaning supplies like push brooms, cleaning compound and other items were kept there also.  Books and other school supplies were also stored there.  Rows of seats of various sizes ran up and down.  They were secured to planks on the floor, so could not be easily moved.  The wood heating stove was in the middle of the room.  The water crock set in a back corner.  There was a cabinet with glass doors for a library.  We didn’t have many books to read but the Cole County Bookmobile came once a month and we were allowed to choose books to read.  They were returned the next month and new books chosen.  The teacher’s desk was on the “stage.”  This was an 8” rise in the front of the school and the students recited at the teacher’s desk on the stage.

Blackboards (black slate) covered the entire front wall (except for the window) and part of the side walls on the stage.  When the students presented a play, curtains would be pulled open and shut on a wire extending from one wall to the other across the front of the stage.  Portraits of Washington and Lincoln hung on the walls.  I have wonderful memories of Oak Grove and appreciate being able to attend a “one-room country school.”