Stories from a Life #6

One Room School (Part 2)

 

   This little school,  District 21, Lake Sinai Township, Brookings County, SD, was on a hill.   The hill doesn't look very big now but as students we really enjoyed it.  It gave us a good place to use our sleds during the winter, running as fast as we could we would slam down on our sleds and go for a ride.

   The school ground was ringed by a double row of fir trees which my father, no doubt, helped to plant.  They proved great hiding for games of hide and seek.  The also created great snow banks in winter blizzards which were fun to play on.  Below the hill was a ball diamond where we played baseball.  Also, below the hill was a small stable to keep the horses students/teachers rode to school.  No one was riding to school in my memory (though one family who lived almost 3 miles from school drove a car, a 1928 Whippet)  so the stable was torn down and the lumber used to construct a backstop for baseball.  There were three outbuildings on top of the hill; out houses for boys and girls and a coal shed.

   Play ground equipment was minimal.   There was a double teeter totter which had an extended elevation of about six feet.   A home made merry ground swing was the only other item.   An old, spoked, car wheel was mounted on a steel post about ten feet high.  Chains had been hung from the wheel extending to a child height.  At a child's level wood bars were fixed to the chains to grasp.  Holding the wood bars students could run, lift their legs and swing in a circle.  The fun was limited by the amount of time one would want to hang by his/her arms.

    Free time, two fifteen minute recesses morning and afternoon and lunch hour, after lunches eaten at our desk were almost always used for group games; kick the can, pump pump pull away, hide and seek, baseball, fox and goose, tag, anti over and sledding when the snow was right.  We had one baseball and if was lost in the tall grass over the fence the game recessed until the ball was found.  Sometimes we resorted to rolling in the grass to find the ball.

    When recess or lunch hour was over the teacher, or a favored student, would recall us to classes with a brass hand bell.  I wonder if I heard it today if it would match the sound that rings in my memory?

 

  

Stories from a Life #5

                                                 One Room Country School, Part I

   At the time it didn't seem romantic...it was all we knew.   It was the school attended by my father and his three siblings, two of my cousins, where my mother taught and where my three siblings and I attended for 8 years apiece.  It was very small, though when I started in the first grade it seemed large.  There were three windows each on the east and west sides and an entry room on the south where we kept our lunches, coats and overshoes.
   There were three rows of desks attached to wood runners so that they could be moved a bit.  The bigger desks were in back for the older students and the teacher's desk was in front.  Pictures of Washington, you know the one that looks like he's rising from a white cloud, and Lincoln were hung high on the walls.  Two metal lockers at the back served as a library.  A globe was hung by rope and pulley in a front corner. Black boards were affixed to the side and front walls.  A wind up Regulator clock hung on the front wall.  A sand table was one of the few teaching aids.  On a side shelf was a ceramic crock of drinking water.   Water came from a cistern filled by run off from the roof.  In the front left corner stood the stove.   Until 4th grade it was a coal stove which the teacher had to fire every morning.  It was replaced by an oil burner which could be left on all night meaning that there was at least a little residual heat in the room when school opened in the morning.  On the coldest days our lunches in the entry would freeze by noon.  Before I started school it had been electrified which meant that there were three light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and that the fan on the oil burner could help circulate the heat.  I do not remember any other electrical appliances.  There was no telephone.
   Attendance was usually about twelve students in grades 1-8.  Our teachers were not college graduates but they had attended college for a year or two.   There were four students in my grade, one girl and three boys through grade four.  When we were in fifth grade the girl transferred to Arlington public school.  The three of us boys finished the 8th grade together and also graduated from high school together.
   I was five years old when I started, having a late October birthday.  I walked the mile with my siblings.  Because of our ages I had three siblings in school for two years, then two for another two years, then one for two years and then none my last two years.
   (To be con't.)
  A late addition;  I forgot to mention that most available wall space was covered with blackboards and that there was a map case hanging high on the wall.  The maps were rolled on dowels that were spring loaded like roll up window shades.  There was a long stick with a hook on the end used to reach up and pull down a map.   Our 4th grade teacher used to hit us with the stick until it was mysteriously cut up during a 4H meeting.

Book Report

    The Curmudgeonette and I have just finished Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.  As a classic introvert perhaps it's not surprising that I liked this book but the fact that the Curmudgeonette is equally enthusiastic about gives me assurance that it isn't just reinforcing my biases.
    Cain was a corporate lawyer on Wall Street and her experiences as an introvert in that setting impelled her on a journey of self discovery and reflections on what it means to be an introvert in contemporary American Society.  The book is very well researched and she examines many facets of American Culture; religion, education, business, parenting and spousal relationships.
    It was a real eye opener for me.  For example her analysis of Evangelical Christianity helped me to understand much of the reason that I'm often annoyed by Evangelicals.  Some of that annoyance comes from what I perceive to be their unhelpful theology.  However, that does not explain the depth of my viscerally negative reaction to them.  The issue that Cain identifies is that their theology makes extroversion a necessity, i.e., if you're a Christian you have to be a positive, ebullient communicator so you can evangelize everyone you meet.  Some even claim that "of course Jesus was an extrovert".  That's a claim with which I'd disagree.
    Could it be possible that this book is a 'game changer' for an American Culture that's idolized extroversion?  I think it might possibly be that.  She argues that initially Americans valued character in people but that shifted in the 20th century to an emphasis on personality.  For proof look at  the contemporary infatuation with celebrities, many of whom do not have any particular strength of character.  She points to Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends And Influence People as an example of that shift.
   So...don't take my word for it, read it yourself.  I'd be pleased to have your reactions and if you'd send them as comments I'll attach them to this post.

Stories from a Life #4

                                                        Calves In The Spring

   It was an old fashioned farm very different from most farms today.  Dad raised pigs, cattle and chickens on his farm of 160 acres which expanded to 320 acres.  This expansion happened when my cousin quit farming and moved to WA. in the early fifties.
   His cattle were mixed breeds but primarily Shorthorn and Hereford.  Initially he had more Shorthorns but as time went on he added Herefords.  Shorthorn were thought to be a kind of cross over breed good for both beef and milk.  Hereford on the other hand are a beef breed. Whatever the intention of the breeders he both sold the steers for beef and milked the cows.
   The barn, built at the turn of the century (i.e. about 1900) had a ground level hay mow that separated the horse barn on one side from the cow barn on the other.  The cow barn had milking stalls for 8 cows and calf pens.  When a cow calved during the calf was weaned and kept in the pens until spring.  The cow was milked, the milk separated and the cream was sold.
  As my brothers and I became old enough it became our duty to help with the chores.  This included milking by hand, pitching hay to the calves and carrying water from the tank at the windmill, which was about 50 yards away, for the calves.
  When spring arrived and the grass in the pasture greened there came day when the calves were let out.  These calves had spent their entire lives penned in the barn.  It took some pushing, pulling and prodding to get them from the barn to the pasture.  When it dawned on the calves that they were not constrained they ran, jumped, cavorted with their tails held high delighting in their new found freedom.  They also put on weight and looked healthier after a few week. 
  Of course we looked forward to this event.  It was delightful to see their joy and now we'd not have carry so many heavy pails of water to the barn.

Stories from a life. #3

                                                    Sunrise Service in the South China Sea

  For two months early in 1962 our battalion, (2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment) was aboard the USS Princeton.  We sailed the western Pacific occasionally making port in places like the Philippine Islands or Hong Kong.  Strategically, we were the ready landing force should there be trouble anywhere in east Asia.
   The time aboard ship coincided with Easter.  On Easter Sunday chairs were set up on the flight deck and all aboard were invited to a sunrise service on the deck.  It was a beautiful, clear, calm morning with only smooth swells rolling across the water.  The service was scheduled so that the sun rose about half way through.  It was a setting that cannot easily be replicated.
   Do I remember anything about the service itself.  No, but I have never forgotten that remarkable setting and that the service was well attended.  In those days I wasn't into those things so much but I should have sought out the chaplain to thank him.

"Stories From A Life" #2

                                                                 Restless Legs

 When we arrived at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, boot camp, we were assigned to a training platoon of approximately 30 "boots", i.e., recruits.  Four platoons created a company and we all went through training together.  There was a fifth platoon, the discipline platoon, for boots who were in trouble.
  The twelve weeks of boot camp in included a week of mess duty (what the Army calls KP).  While on mess duty on day I was serving food as the discipline platoon came through for lunch.  I engaged one of the 'disciplinees' in conversation.  Traveling Curmudgeon "What did you get in trouble for?"  Response "Leg trouble."  TC incredulously "LEG trouble?"  "Yeah, they keep running away!"

Stories From A Life, #1.

                                                   "Blood in the Water"  
Many years ago I spent time in the United State Marine Corps (USMC) ('59-'62).  Following Boot Camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, CA., I was assigned to Fifth Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA. 
  The way it worked was that hafter a year+ of training at Camp Pendleton our entire battalion was transferred to Okinawa relieving another battalion that then went to Camp Pendleton.  In Asia we were 2nd Batalion, 9th Marines. Training continued in Asia including cold weather training in Japan. (More about that training in Japan in another posting.)
   For several months we were at sea as a ready landing battalion should trouble break out any place in east Asia.  We were aboard the USS Princeton which was an aircraft carrier refitted to carry helicopters.  We could deploy by landing craft or by helicopter, or, some of each. It was the second USS Princeton built during World War II to replace the first one which was sunk by the Japanese.  As aircraft carriers go the Princeton was on the smaller side, ca. 900 feet long.
   One of the ports in which we spent some time was Subic Bay, Philippine Islands.  Some of our time there we were living ashore in POW barracks near Olongapo.  However, the incident for which this is all preamble happened while we were aboard ship anchored in Subic Bay.
  It was a calm tropical Sunday afternoon.  Navy ships are equipped with a public address (p.a.) system that is adequate to reach every nook and cranny both fore and aft as well as above and below deck.  The p.a. squawked often and every announcement was preceded by the bosun's whistle, a high pitched whistle that served to get attention for the announcement to follow.
  I was standing on the cat walk just below the flight deck on that beautiful afternoon when the whistle preceded the announcement "Lower the Captain's Gig."  Apparently the captain planned a trip ashore. The captain's gig, i.e., personal motor boat, was near where I was standing.  I watched the sailors detach the boat from the side of the ship, swing it out and away and begin lowering it.  One of the sailors working with the boat lost his balance and fell overboard into the bay.  The ship was anchored, the bay was calm and he was wearing a life preserver so he was in no danger.  His head was up and he was looking up to the other sailors.
   There was piping again on the p.a. system followed by an urgent message "Lower the motor whaleboat, lower the motor whaleboat!"   Motor whaleboats were used for rescue, they were perhaps 20-25 feet long, with upraised bows and sterns they were powered by a diesel engine.  The coxswain (driver) entered the boat, started the motor and gave the signal to lower the boat and the boat was dropped directly on the sailor in the water with the propeller turning.
  Before the boat cleared the sailor so we could see him we could see his blood in the water.  He was alive when they brought him aboard but I never learned the extent of his injuries.  I decided that should I fall over board in port I'd immediately swim a safe distance from the ship and await rescue.