The Idyllic Pre-War Life, Rural North American Schools

[Gunsmoke]

In the 1920's and 1930's while the big cities and large towns were having their car shows and salons that Walt G and others speak so wonderfully about, bustling with  business and entertainment and engaging in the "rat race", growing up in very rural areas was such a serene and some might say idyllic life. I recently found this exquisite set of high quality photos of a day in the life of my local rural one room P-10 school in 1936. (I believe these were taken by my Uncle (b1919), who would have graduated from this school a couple of years earlier).Since school transport was unheard of in these days, at least in our area where many families did not have cars, everyone walked to school (usually about 2-3 miles up hill both ways!), and occasionally some older kids (14 or 15 years old) brought the family horse and wagon, picking up their chums along the way. This was Homeville Rural School in Nova Scotia, which operated from about 1900-1955. My Mom (b1921) was oldest student at this time, in grade 10, shown here in bowtie. As might be expected, large families in the day meant as many as 4 or 5 students from the same family often attended (a local Turner family has 5 students in these photos). I attended here up to grade 4 after which the school closed. It is wonderful to see the students got their physical education in spite of the limitations, on the main gravel road in front of the school. While I recognize this topic is not antique auto specific, I post it to remind everyone of the environment which many Americans (USA and Canada) enjoyed in the mid-'30's post depression. 3 square meals and a warm bed meant a lot. Perhaps others have similar photos of a time long passed.

Edited July 9, 2022 by Gunsmoke (see edit history)

[John_S_in_Penna]

Very nice pictures, Gunsmoke!  If the town

has a historical society, please make sure they

get excellent prints for a permanent record of

your area.

 

I've read a lot of old articles.  No era was perfect.

All decades had examples of great wrong, and also

of great good.  A person's family and inner peace

are what bring the serenity you describe!

[Terry Harper]

My Dad was schooled in a rural one room school house here in Northern Maine. One morning chore he had was to start a fire in the wood stove. For his troubles he earned but a few cents per week. Then they swapped out the wood stove for a kerosene hot air furnace installed in the cramped crawl space beneath the school so my Dad was out of a job. 

 

Shortly thereafter the furnace quit working. Try as they might they could not get it running again so my Dad got his job back. Many, many years later he admitted that he had carefully sabotaged the furnace so he could have his job back.

 

 

[Xander Wildeisen]

Indigenous children did not share that same experience. Always good to recognize and see history from all angles. Looks like you had a good childhood. Fun growing up outside with very little boundaries. Always something to do.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Good pictures.  My memories of one room school in the late 1940s is becoming foggy.  I don't remember them as bad.

 

  These kids had hardly a smile.  One lad seems to have found his.

 

  Ben

[tcslr]

If your mother was born in 1921, and this is at 10th grade, this picture was about 36-37. I don’t think kindergarten was a ‘thing’ then.

wonder how many of those boys served in the war. 
 

[Robert G. Smits]

Thanks to Gunsmoke for jogging my memory. Here is a school photo from 1945 where I went to school through eighth grade. Although you mentioned we had to walk uphill both ways you forgot to mention that it was snowing. At least I have a car in my photo. Life was simple back then. We didn’t get electricity at our home or school until I was in 3rd grade. Back then kids had friends and talked to each other. 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Robert G. Smits (see edit history)

[Robert G. Smits]

The little guy on the left went on to become president of one of the largest insurance companies in the USA.  Second from the left owned a multi state construction company and four attained post graduate college degrees.  I don't think the education system has improved much.  

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Anyone have a photo of the teacher's car or any parent's cars?

[1912Staver]

In the late 1960's one of my primary school teachers bought himself a brand new 1968 Corvette, another slightly older teacher had a very nice Jag MK 2. Most of the other teachers cars were pretty ordinary. A couple of VW bugs and one Morris Minor come to mind. And a Mini Cooper, by grade 7 we could all grab onto a bumper or fender well  and turn it 180 degrees in the teachers parking lot. It's a wonder we didn't pull the bumpers right off it.

[Marty Roth]

My school band leader (as well as private trumpet teacher) drove an Allstate version of the Henry-J from Kaiser-Frasier.

 

Through my 1956-1960 high school years the vocal teacher, a dramatic-looking redhead, drove a red and white 1955 Cadillac Coupe deVille, and and parked on the elevated paved circular drive at the front entrance.

 

Later 1965-1966 time frame, when I taught school, I drove a 1958 Renault Dauphine, and then a pair of 1959 Chevys, one a blue 3-on-the-tree 6-cylinder Del-Ray, and the other a black Biscayne 283, non-original 4-on-the-floor with Overdrive.

 

Most other teachers drove nondescript older vehicles - teachers were, and still are underpaid - part of the reason I changed careers after my first couple of years, and got into Information Systems Development, Design, and Administration with the leader of the industry at the time - IBM

Edited July 9, 2022 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[Terry Harper]

In High school our assistant principle drove an early VW Rabbit. On more than one occasion we discovered that a group of overly energetic high school boys could fairly easily wrestle it onto the top of a snow bank.... he was not very impressed.

[Crusty Trucker]

 

Don't forget the HICKORY STICK!

Edited July 9, 2022 by Crusty Trucker (see edit history)

[tcslr]

Best class I ever had was 8th grade. Mr Freidhoff. Math teacher.

he would bring in his 1931 8-57. He taught the ‘math of cars’. We learned wheel base, displacement, curb weight, HP,  etc., it was wonderful. 
 

[Gunsmoke]

Now some of you will not believe this but here goes. Our rural school pictured in opening post was about 3.5 miles from the nearest small down. I lived along that route, 2 miles from the school. For 2 years around 1953/54, our teacher was from that small town and on many days, she walked to the school as well, covering 3.5 miles. She was in her late 40's/early 50's and in bad weather her husband or father might drive her. We would wait at the end of our driveway and walk the last 2 miles with her. I never heard anyone complain the way pampered students today do.  

[f.f.jones]

Back in the early 1960's an aquaintance of mine was a middle school teacher in Fresno, California. He had a serious interest in classic cars, but on a teachers salary, it was difficult to find an affordable car even then. But luck was on his side. Looking through the classified ads in a two year old magazine, he found an ad for an L-29 Cord for sale in the San Fernando Valley, further south in California. The price and description seemed reasonable; he'd have to stretch the budger somewhat, but $2500. did not seem impossible.

He called the seller on the chance the car might still be available or that he could be directed to the buyer if it had been sold. Upon calling, the seller said there was little intertest in the car when it was advertised, so he'd covered it and kept it in storage, not trying to sell it again. The teacher made arrangements to inspect the car as soon as he could and proceeded south to see what he could see.

When he arrived, the seller walked him to a storage shed and rolled he doors open. Under the covers was the car pictured below, in pristine condition under the covers. 

The car was a 1930 Murphy-bodied L-29 Town Car used by the famous actor John Barrymore, and once owned by the movie studio for which he worked. The seller said he was anxious to sell the car and offered it to the teacher for $1500! Needless to say, the deal was immediately consumated. After some very minor maintenance, the car was driven back north to Fresno.

To make this long story a little shorter, the teachers name was Nyle Reed, who sadly passed away around 2015, after many, many years of enjoying his Cord. To my knowledge, after some period of storage, a very knowledgeable Cord expert contacted Nyle's widow and restored the car to running condition - no cosmetics required. Ms. Reed drove the car for the first time ever after it was running reliably again and has shown it in many Southern California venues.

This is all well documented on the internet, pictures, interviews, etc. Most interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

[Twisted Shifter]

3 hours ago, Gunsmoke said:

Now some of you will not believe this but here goes. Our rural school pictured in opening post was about 3.5 miles from the nearest small down. I lived along that route, 2 miles from the school. For 2 years around 1953/54, our teacher was from that small town and on many days, she walked to the school as well, covering 3.5 miles. She was in her late 40's/early 50's and in bad weather her husband or father might drive her. We would wait at the end of our driveway and walk the last 2 miles with her. I never heard anyone complain the way pampered students today do.  

Was the road uphill both to and from school and covered in five feet of snow like where my dad went to school?😉😉 

[MotiveLensPhoto]

Only car I remember from school was a cute little red Opel GT. Made the hottest teacher in school just that much more so.

[Ozstatman]

2 hours ago, Twisted Shifter said:

Was the road uphill both to and from school and covered in five feet of snow like where my dad went to school?

And backwards and barefoot too!😉

Edited July 10, 2022 by Ozstatman (see edit history)

[Dave39MD]

My Grandfather started teaching school in a one room school house in upstate New York in 1900. He married my grandmother after she graduated from his school. Just horses or walking for many years. His first car was a 1914 Ford and then a 1921 Dodge but they came after they moved to Long Island. He taught in the city school system for over 30 years. He kept a camp in upstate New York and the picture I've posted before shows the Dodge and 39 Chevy after he retired from teaching to something easy like sawing lumber. He is on the far right.

 

Dave

[Robert G. Smits]

8 hours ago, Twisted Shifter said:

Was the road uphill both to and from school and covered in five feet of snow like where my dad went to school?

What is the chance your dad went to the same school that I did? Can you imagine telling todays kids they have to walk 1-2 miles to school?  Today Moms drive the kids 3 blocks  to school.   Seriously this thread is a great illustration of the advancement of technology in less than a century and now some of us are driving EV's.  I can barely remember when my dad farmed entirely with horses.  He bought his first tractor in 1944 or 1945 but kept his favorite team of horses until they died of old age.

[ia-k]

9 hours ago, Twisted Shifter said:

Was the road uphill both to and from school and covered in five feet of snow like where my dad went to school?😉😉 

My dad had that PLUS drifts as high as the top of the power poles!!!

 

Several local historical museums and show grounds (for antique power/tractor shows) have a one room school house on their grounds. One of them for many years had a lady who was a teacher at that school back in the day. People waxed nostalgia about the "good old days" but she would remind them about no indoor plumbing and how with the wood burning stove the students up front (and teacher) would be over heated while the student in back would be freezing. Reading through the textbooks it was, in some ways, a much simpler time.

[Gunsmoke]

On the subject of teachers and their cars, in the late 50's my Dad (a mechanic) drove a black 1955 4 door Mercury. My older brother had heard my Dad's praise for the quality of these cars, and in spring 1963, our final year of high school (we graduated together but that's another story!), he spotted and fell in love with a black 1956 Mercury Hardtop in the teachers parking lot. It was owned by Mr Kennedy our popular history teacher.

 

I headed off to university that fall and he went to work at the local Steel Company, earning a paycheck. Unbeknownst to me, during the winter he had been in touch with Mr Kennedy about buying the Mercury, and in the spring of 1964 bought the car. In our small town it was by far the nicest thing on wheels, and I recall him washing and polishing it all the time. This photo off internet is identical to his car. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

, and a good one. After gr, 

[28 Chrysler]

When I started school it was a 2 room school house  with a common cloak room in the front and a storage room in the back that led to the two restrooms.

The first week of my first grade our class was invited to the other classroom to watch a bare-bottom spanking. Discipline had been set for the year, no one dared to out of line. 

[8E45E]

23 hours ago, Xander Wildeisen said:

Indigenous children did not share that same experience. 

Currently, a BIGTIME scandal here in Canada that recently came to light:   Unmarked Graves at Residential Schools in Canada: What to Know - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 

Craig

[TerryB]

I went to a Catholic school in a small town in northeastern PA in the heart of the hard coal mining region.  It was the only school in town.  Public schools were available about 5 miles away.  Most of the families in town were Catholic so nearly all the kids went to this school.  The school was taught by nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph that were generally from the Philadelphia area.  We had four classrooms in the school with two grades per classroom (1 - 8 grade) so four teaching nuns were in residence at the convent next to the school.  The nuns vows did not allow them to drive cars when I was in school.  People of the town gave them transportation or they rode the bus to the next biggest town to buy the few things they needed.

 

Eventually the religious order changed the rules long after I was a student and the nuns were allowed to have a single car at their convent.  As my local repair garage owner friend noted, this was a mixed blessing for them.  Most of the nuns were city raised and did not drive cars so they had to learn that small detail. And most didn’t understand how cars with chokes operated.  Some would pump the gas 100x and flood the car and others couldn’t figure out that in cold weather the choke would make the car go faster at idle and off they went way too fast into traffic.  My garage friend was always trying to keep the car running for them.  Finally the school closed due to student drop off and lack of teaching order nuns to staff it.  We all felt the streets in our town were safer when the school closed😀.

[Leif in Calif]

I used to live in the small mountain community of Truckee CA, near Donner Summit in the Sierras. I just checked and the local district still operates a

2 room school near the summit that is K - 5. In a big winter there could be drifts over the power poles, and the school busses have a special feature that drops crushed walnut shells on the rear wheels for traction. Those kids will all have good stories when they grow up. 

[MotiveLensPhoto]

Well, at least it was a school, not a jail.

 

https://www.il66assoc.org/destination/two-cell-jail/

 

Or a house with a jail cell IN IT:

 

https://nypost.com/2022/07/08/ohio-home-with-two-jail-cells-quickly-finds-a-buyer/

[TAKerry]

TerryB and a few others will know but there are still quite a few one room school houses dotted across the Lancaster country side. Some easy to find others not so much.

 

Terry, Frackville and Shenendoah come to mind when you described the town you grew up in.

[TerryB]

2 hours ago, TAKerry said:

TerryB and a few others will know but there are still quite a few one room school houses dotted across the Lancaster country side. Some easy to find others not so much.

 

Terry, Frackville and Shenendoah come to mind when you described the town you grew up in.

Close, Branchdale PA, west of Minersville on Rt 209.  Larger two story building in the upper center of the photo  is the school.  Baseball field is just to the right of the coal train in the photo.  Population in 2020 census had dropped to just 250 people.

[prewarnut]

   That picture reminds me of the description of late 19th and early 20th century life in PA as described in Set Up Running by John Orr. He describes his father's nearly 50 year career as a RR engineer in a small central PA town. The tracks would run right through and roughly the only way in and out was by RR unless you could find a stage to take you out. As the car made its way to the scene he recalls the inevitable event of people (probably in a Model T) attempting to race the freighter to the next crossing, much to the chagrin of the engineer who would not be able to stop if needed....A very different, detailed description of running locomotives from an engineer and fireman's perspective along with early Americana if anyone is interested.

[Paul Dobbin]

       Teacher's cars?    My father taught High School in EauClare. WI beofre WWII.  This was his yellow Model A named "The Rabbitt".

 

[Larry Schramm]

On 7/15/2022 at 10:55 AM, TerryB said:

Close, Branchdale PA, west of Minersville on Rt 209.  Larger two story building in the upper center of the photo  is the school.  Baseball field is just to the right of the coal train in the photo.  Population in 2020 census had dropped to just 250 people.

 

This picture reminds me of one of the scenes that GM used in their travelling Future Liners in the 30's & late 40"s.  Very idyllic.