| CLASSES |
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| Arithmetic classes, from grades one to seven, were always held during the first session in the morning. Number work was greatly stressed in the primary grades while the upper grades worked problems and exercises in the Anderson and Stone Arithmetic books. Often times the entire class would work individual problems on the blackboard. |
| Spelling classes followed after the Arithmetic
classes were finished. At around
10:00 A.M. there was a short fifteen minute recess for outdoor play. After the recess period, the reading classes commenced. The Johnson Readers were used quite extensively in the lower grades because they contained fairy tales. The upper grades used the Ellison Readers which dwelled mostly on poetry and nonfiction stories. The students of a class would sit on the recitation bench and each student would take his or her turn to stand up and read a certain passage aloud, after which the teacher would either ask the reader a question about the material that he or she had read or else make some clarification or comment about that passage. |
| At 12:00 P.M. all classes were dismissed
for the noon lunch period. The stu-
dents would take their lunch buckets and then sit in groups under the shade trees while they ate their lunch in picnic style. The remainder of the noon period was used in play activity of one sort or another. The weather and the mood of the students would usually decide what play activity they would en- gage in. Baseball and volleyball were the number one games, and in later years outdoor basketball became quite popular. In the earlier years, and as a change of pace, a variety of other games were played such as: Anti-Over, Blinde Koo, Prisoner’s Base, Hop Scotch, Red Rover, Drop the Handkerchief, Crack the Whip, Stink Base, Sow Triben, and Hide & Seek. The Hide and Seek game was a marathon variety where each player would hide around the peri- meter of the playground, and when the seeker was not looking the players would run from one cover to the next to see how many times they could get around the whole perimeter of the school playground before being caught. Intra-mural sports had not yet been heard of, and there certainly were no gyms or football fields. In later years, some inter-school baseball and volleyball games came into being. |
| In the Afternoon Session the primary grades
would have penmanship and draw-
ing while the upper grades would have their English classes. On certain days Spelling classes were held in the morning immediately after the Arithmetic classes. At 2:00 P.M. there was another short recess for the entire student body. Then, during the last session in the afternoon the History, Geography, and Health classes were held. These classes would go on until 3:30 P.M. at which time school would be dismissed for the day. However, if you performed very badly in your class work or if you did not get your homework done, then the punishment would usually be to have to stay in after school and do the undone. Of course, the more severe punishment would come when you got home late. I recall also that one time and one time only I let my friend and classmate talk me into going to his favorite waterhole and fishing for the big ones. My brother and sister warned me what would happen if I did not go straight home as they did. I did not listen because the intrigue of catching those big fish that my friend told me I would be sure to catch caused me not to listen. When I final- ly did get home about sun down, my father was waiting for me. He asked to see the fish I had caught which were a few small perch and mudcats and then I felt that razor strap again!! I never ever again did not go straight home after school to do my chores. |
| On Fridays, the last classes would dismiss
a little earlier so that the student body could
have sing-song or a spelling match. In the sing-song the entire stu-
dent body would stand in a group and sing familiar songs from the old “Golden Book of Favorite Songs,” a thin, yellow covered paper back book. Songs such as “America,” “America the Beautiful,” My Country Tis of Thee,” “Juanita,” “Old Black Joe,” “Massas in the Cold Cold Ground,” “Long, Long Ago,” “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” and other Stephen Foster songs were sung over and over again many times. In later years, around the Texas Centen- nial Celebration, the favorites became “Home on the Range,” “Beautiful Tex- as,” Texas Our Texas,” and of course “The Eyes of Texas.” |
| At 3:30 P.M. school would dismiss for the
day and everyone hurried home to do their evening
chores such as shuck the corn, gather the eggs, feed the chickens, hogs
and cows. Mild the cows
and carry wood into the house for the cook stove and heater.
Father would come home from the fields and
feed the horses and mules while Mother prepared
the evening meal. After supper, it was homework time and then bedtime.
There was no time to get into mischief.
The routines established early in life made for good
self discipline in later life when it be-
came time to assume the responsibilities that the world had waiting for each of us. |
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