Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers

Chapter 4 Vignettes of One-Room Schoolhouse Life

Chapter 4 VIGNETTES OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE LIFE Perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of oral history is represented by the stories in this chapter: a sampling of sketches of life in Kentucky’s one-room schoolhouses. Here the reader will find a mixed bag of anecdotes , variously humorous, poignant, frightening, and even tragic. Taken together, they provide a priceless portrait of the bulk of life—the unplanned part—in rural schools. Barely Heard School Bell As a student in a one-room school, sometimes we would go out on a long distance from school [during recess]. At the end of recess the teacher would ring a bell, which was the signal for the students to come back in because it was time to start recitations. One day we were out playing, and the teacher rang the bell. We all went in except one boy that didn’t come back in. We were back in there for ten or fifteen minutes and he later came in. His name was Leonard Eaton. He was a friend of mine, and I think I was his idol. I was a little older than he was, but he liked to sit with me. When he finally came back in the house, the teacher said, “Leonard, why are you late? Did you hear the bell?” He said, “Yes, I heard it.” She said, “Well, why didn’t you come on in when the bell rang?” He said, “Well, the reason I didn’t come in is because I just barely did hear it.” [Laughter] We all laughed at that, but that was his excuse for not coming in immediately. J. Robert Miller, Rock Bridge, September 18, 2008 74 Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers Educational Tangles I remember these two girls that brought their crocheting to school. One time this boy got unruly, and Miss Gertie, the teacher, couldn’t do a thing with him. So he set down between those two girls and got tangled up in their crocheting. What happened was he got wound up in their thread. I don’t know whether they did that on purpose, or whether they had their crocheting out there with their thread. They probably didn’t aim for him to get tangled up in it. The teacher got him out from between the girls, and set him down in another place, but I don’t think she spanked him. Blanche Demunbrun, Glasgow, September 30, 2008 Expensive Pie I remember a joke on me as a student there at Merryville School. When Alma Miller was teaching, she had a pie supper. My friend William Denton Miller and I were small boys in about the fourth grade, I guess. We each decided we wanted to buy a pie at the pie supper. We each had a quarter in money; that’s all we had. It seems like Frank Miller was the auctioneer, and he held up the pie. Somebody started the bidding at ten cents, then somebody bid fifteen, and the pie that William Denton Miller bought cost him twenty cents. When they put up the next pie to sell, I thought that I’d bid on it. It started out ten cents. “Who’ll give fifteen?” When somebody bid fifteen, Miller said, “Who’ll give twenty?” I yelled out, “Twenty!” “We’ve got a twenty-cent bid, now who’ll bid a quarter?” And I said, “Quarter!” [Laughter] Everybody laughed at me because I bid against myself! [Laughter] That was unusual, but it was all in fun. That’s an event that I remember very well. J. Robert Miller, Rock Bridge, September 18, 2008 No Shots, Please There were not a lot of events at school that brought in parents, but on shot days when the nurse would come to give medical shots, a lot Vignettes of One-Room Schoolhouse Life 75 of parents would come and sometimes bring their younger children to receive shots. I can even remember the mothers getting shots, but the dads didn’t get them. The little schoolkids would always cry before, during, and after receiving shots. They were scared to death of that nurse. Some of the kids would even want to run away from school while she was there. I think the nurses expected that to happen. Bige R. Warren, Barbourville, November 20, 2008 Taking One’s Medicine The county health nurse came to school to...