| SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION |
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| The Community Schools were placed near
the center of the Common School Districts so
that the students could walk to school from all directions. The furthest
distance that any students lived
from the school house was about
three miles. In the early years, before the advent of the automobile, the teach- er would ride in a horse and buggy or ride on a horse and the horse would be kept in the school house barn until time to go home again. In good weather, the students would walk to school, and in bad weather, parents would bring them either on horse back or in a buggy. In real bad weather, there was no school. |
| Even though the automobile became obtainable
after World War I, and teach-
ers could buy one, roads were still horse and buggy roads. In the rainy season the roads became impassable, and the teachers were forced to board with school patrons so that they were within reach of the school. For many years, teachers roomed and boarded at our family home. That was a real strain on my deport- ment, I had to be on my good behavior at home as well as at school. |
| The students’ walking to school was not
only good exercise and good for communing with
nature, but it also gave them some latitude to get into mis-
chief. During the cold winter months when the water would freeze on the ponds, the students who arrived at school early in the morning would go into the neighbor’s pasture and skate on the farm pond. One or two students would always stand on guard on the road and watch out for the teacher. When they saw him or her approaching the school house, the alarm was given by the guards and the skaters would hurry back to the school grounds so that they would not get caught. |
| Another benefit of walking to school was
an annual event which came with the Spring. Every Spring for many
years, the old “Donkey Man” would appear. He would park his
old two-wheeled donkey cart alongside the road
in his favorite spot which was on the Skull
Creek Road leading from the Skull Creek Bridge up to the hill where the
school stood. He would park his cart about half way up the hill on
the side of the road. His two
donkeys would be staked out to graze the bountiful Johnson grass that grew
along the side of the road.
The donkey cart was built in the style of a small covered wagon
which contained the “Don-
key Man’s” meager possessions. I was always intrigued by the “Donkey Man” and his presence there. He was so mysterious to us children. We wondered where did he come from, who was he? (Of course, I did not ask and no one ever told us!) He did not have much to say to us as we walked by and sometimes tarried a little to watch him. He did his cooking over a campfire for which he gathered wood from along the road. He cooked in a cast iron pot and heated water in a can to make tea. He baked flour biscuits and drank hot tea. At times, he ate some canned food, but I do not recall seeing much meat being cooked. |
| The “Donkey Man’s” apparent meager income came from sharpening scissors, knives, hand tools, and doing small odd repair jobs which he did next to his cart. His cart contained his bed and was covered with a wagon sheet over hoops. He took good care of his two donkeys, and they shared morsels of the biscuits and what meager food he had. |
| Even many years later I wondered who was
he? What ever became of the “Don-
key Man?” It was whispered that he was a runaway from far away New York. A drop out from society? Perhaps the original “Hippie.” He represented a great curiosity for a little farm boy walking to school. |
| Improved transportation came with the times.
First there was donkey and horse transportation,
then came the automobile for teachers - the Model T Ford Model A,
etc. And in the final years, students
were transported between the neighbor-
ing school Shelby and Skull Creek. With World War II came wartime ration- ing, shortage of teachers, and other factors which forced the Skull Creek and Shelby Common School Districts to consolidate during the 1942 - 1943 school term. A panel truck which served as a school bus was operated daily by Mrs. Madeline Schmid. She carried the Shelby upper grade students to Skull Creek and took the Skull Creek lower grade students to Shelby. This operation lasted until the 1944 - 1945 school term ended, and then the Skull Creek School was closed forever. |
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