Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers

Chapter 12 Home Life of Students

Chapter 12 Home Life of Students Many rural students came from desperately poor families. Families were frequently large, and at times there was not enough food to go around. Some families were also what we in modern terms would call dysfunctional, as one or two stories below graphically illustrate. It is perhaps in the nature of things that teachers would remember and talk about the failures rather than the successes in discussing this topic, but other stories throughout this collection, as well as the last one given here, show that regardless of hard times, love and support among families also abounded. Caring for Poor Kids The kids always brought their lunch meal from home, and I had one family in which the mother had died. Their daddy was raising their four children, and these children would come to school in the mornings , then they would go home. A lot of days they wouldn’t come back during the afternoon. They lived a long way from school and had to walk to and from school. They didn’t come back because they hadn’t had anything to eat. Well, I took some things and would give them food, but I didn’t have a lot either back then. I was working hard to get by. But those kids have all come along okay. Two of them were girls, and those two girls are the ones that organize our reunion every year. Zona Royse, Columbia, October 4, 2008 Welfare Family Students I had one family here in Knox County that had twenty-two chil- Home Life of Students 241 dren, and I had eleven of them in school. They lived in a three-room house—two log rooms and a lean-to on the back. Not all of those twenty-two kids were at home, but about eighteen of them were there at home. They were short of money and everything, but they were on welfare. So they almost had more money than anybody else. Welfare made sure they had clothes. Eight to fifteen children was a common thing for families back then. I had four or five children from the same home. Irma Gall, Barbourville, November 20, 2008 Poor Lunch Students would bring biscuit sandwiches, of course, and fried eggs, boiled eggs, fried chicken, cookies, sausage, and cake. Whatever they had at home, they’d make some of it into sandwiches and bring it to school. One time this neighbor boy came to our house and was going to ride with my brother to high school. Somehow something happened to his lunch. They had wrapped it in newspaper, so to take care of it and not let it ruin, my mother took it inside and unwrapped it. She said it was just peanut butter and crackers—several of those, but that was all. She said that she wanted to put a biscuit and ham in it, but didn’t dare do it because it might have been insulting. So she just wrapped his peanut butter and crackers back up. Virginia DeBoe, Eddyville, October 7, 2008 Thievery Forgiven At Miller’s Creek School many children brought something such as a snack for first recess or last recess. Several children had a long walk to and from school. If I remember, when I was in first or second grade I had saved an apple one time for the last recess. When I looked for my apple at my desk and didn’t find it, I told the teacher that the boy next to me had my apple. He didn’t deny that he had it, but the teacher did nothing, not even to scolding the boy. He was a member of one of the two poorest families in the community. Our teacher and families were very good at teaching us morals and compassion for others. After I grew up I understood more and admired the teacher, while sympathizing with the boy. The teacher knew that Tom had little or 242 Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers nothing to eat, and I didn’t need the apple, for if I did I could always get more. Pauline Keene Looney, Pikeville, December 8, 2008 Grandfather’s Contribution I remember that Grandfather would get up from the table after all family members had finished eating lunch. He would then pick up the kettle of beans and one containing potatoes, along with an extra...