Hello from Little Creek on this beautiful Monday morning. I can’t believe that October is almost over.
Burr and Kevin, my sons, Joseph, my grandson, and Mark, my cousin, put my wood pellet stove in on Saturday. I am most thankful.
My family, most all, came Sunday for chili and hot dogs after attending church.
We had good services both at Sunday school and church. My sister, Jean, with back up and moral support from her daughter, Jamie sang. She sang an old song I remember hearing long ago with my dad singing bass. We had almost forgotten it, so Dyanna found the song on the internet. I look forward to Sundays and being together in study and worship.
Ron and Barb Smith called from out west and asked to be remembered Sunday. They are in our prayers. Nina also called and requested prayer. We miss her and Annie, but happy they have a good place to live with conveniences they didn’t have here.
Karen took me to Springfield for a doctor appointment on the 12th. My appointment was with Dr. Baron, my pacemaker doctor. I got a very good report and was told there was approximately 8-1/2 years left on the life of my battery. Much improved length of time from when I first had my pacemaker put in. Everything is constantly being improved in the medical field with price of treatment out of reach for so many who can’t afford insurance.
Charlie came one day bringing a sack of nice sweet potatoes.
Jim and Jean Frye had Kevin Taber visiting Sunday and after church for dinner. They had Danny and Jamie Dry, Benji and Cori Dry, Cody Wallace and Rusty and Sarah Frye with Miss Autum Miller.
I have been reliving days of old all week through the pages of my book of Ozark County country schools of which there were more than 90 scattered round amongst the hills and hollers. The book is titled “Lard Buckets and Paper Pokes”. It began with the idea of Susan Amyx Ault and brought to fruitation with the editorship of Janet Ebrite Taber. I appreciate the hard work involved and I treasure looking back with the pages of this book bringing to life (as Susan and Janet) expressed their words “ a mind journey back to a time that no longer exists, except in memory.” They say in looking back that “it seems that miraculous things happened in the one room schools, things worth remembering and recording. This is a compilation of memories written by teachers who taught or those who attended in the one rooms schools of not so long ago. There are photographs as well as stories.
In most all the stories the things in common were memories of the big old wood stove, the outhouse, and the lard buckets and paper pokes we all carried for lunches eaten together in the fresh air or inside around the stove when weather changed to cold. We all had similar lunches of biscuits and eggs as common fare. A comment I found repeated in many of the contributions was how we considered ourselves lucky to have attended a one room school. As Connie Davidson wrote, “there was a closeness and depth of friendship made in those early days that is not possible in today’s society.” And a striking difference in comparing schools of then and now is the ‘class’ distinction. Everyone back then was ‘in the same boat’ so to speak and so there was no worry about clothes or background. Also, there was no homework. Kids in those days had chores at home and so the lessons were complete and thorough and if a student needed extra attention it was given. Oh, my memories are happy and also sad because when the schools were consolidated that was the end of an era, another time that can never return.
As I wrote at the end of my contribution in the book, “Soon all the old school houses will be gone, as will those of us who learned our lessons there. But as long as one or two still dot the landscape and a few of us tell of times past and school days back then, we will find there are still lessons to be learned from those long ago wonderful days.”
You might find the names of some of the school interesting:
Silver Shade, Romance, Barren Fork, Tranquility, Igo, Mt. Pleasant (or as some called it) Mt. Lebanon, Council Grove, Needmore, Lone Pilgrim, Pleasant or Seedtick, Longrun, Barefoot, Never Fail, Eighty-Eight, New Harmon and Nebraska.
These are just a few of the names. For much more you’ll just have to get the book.
Karen and I drove the Glade Top Trail the other evening. I find it hard to attend the dinner there at the picnic site. From way back when the picnics started we never missed. But everything is different now and age puts a limit to our ‘comings and goings’.
Until next week, let’s all enjoy what’s left of autumn in our beautiful Ozarks.
