The Lucknow Sentinel, 1964-05-20, Page 8ti
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PAGE EIGHT
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THE I.UCKNOW SENTINEL, L.1410,1/0W, ONTARIO
Pens Interesting Story Of little "Red Schoolhouse" 'Day
And Boyhood Memories Of Farm Life In Ashfield
(By Elmer J. Parrish),
SS. No, 10 Ashfield, in a few ed . the . night before and it was
decades, will be an unknown ex-
pression, ' Even today it has no
meaning. because/'this schoolsec-
tion has . been absorbed in the
North Ashfield School - Area. But.
to those of us whowent to the
old school, situated a mile and a
half east of Lanes, on . Concession
10 Ashfiei'd, . fond ' memories will
continue to exist as long as, we
remain on . this celestial ball. •
\ Now when we drive down ;the
10th, a vacant spot is all that
remains. where . the frame school
sat for a great',number of years.
When it was built .1 do not know,
but , it was ..before; the turn. of the
century. It was sold to John. How-
ard and now serves as . a utility
building on his farm just north of
the : location where the school sat.
With its departure. went 'an era
of the : little red school house , in',
Ontao (although it was painted
white).
' 1 Even this year, 1964, is to. see
the passing ; of the single unit
school section in Ontario. Legis-
,, lation has been passed to make
Township; School' Areas the smal-
lest unit ' ' of. administration. The.
old must give way : to the . new.
Whether it is Wire .efficient `.than
the old will never be really . pro
le ven because there . will be none
left to ; make comparison: .
The ' new must be . made to work
because there is ,no turning ` back.
, The fact remains, as always; that
d �' the student being willing to learn
and the teacher : being . efficient
at teaching, makes for good ed-
ucation, be it a little .redschool.
house or a new, `multi -room 'school.
`The'.fact also remains. that ' many
who ' attended these . one room
schools made . worthwhile contri
butions inthis and . other ' coun
tries
My'memories ' of S.S: No, ` 10
o � ..
go. back to about .1905 when ~I re-
call
callgoingto•ch ,....lwith.:
my unMartha`(Mrs Bender
now •living in Florida. 'I' just went.
for the day. Why, I do not know.
The teacher was . Wat Hackett.
That day remains vivid , .in my
memory.
We had a . mile and a half to
walk to school. and :I : never re-
member my dad giving us a ride
to' school. How times have chang-
ed. However, in the '.fall ' of .the
year .we ".got -many rides' to school
along vthe-.iOth with-. people..: from
farther west taking wagon .• loads
of grain to the elevator. in Luck-'
now. The grain was hauled in
3 bushel bags piled on the wagon.
These are things the present gen-
eration have never. seen. The wa-
.gons were quite-. high andsteel
tired. Rubber_"tires were unknown.
A; trip to town was ail'' all .day.
job . with thebags all, being load -
:}t
1 •
in the morning 'rides were avail-
able on the loads of . grain.
The fences' along the roadside:
were pearly all of cedar Tail ` con-
struction and during .the, winter
the road filled level right ' across
from fence to ,fence, 4, 5 or 6
feet deep.
Breaking the roads after each
storm was a ' necessity fpr sleigh
Wand ' cutter . traffic as they were
the only 'means of transportation.
Since there were always colts to
break in, it was. the ideal place
to do' it.. Hitch one with a well
broken horse to a'set of sleighs
,and start breaking a' road. A few
trips like this, and. 'a colt would
be fairly well; conquered.
The "Pitch Hole"
-One of the . hazards of:. winter
driving with a sleigh . or cutter
was the "pitch hole.'.' This' started
from a :hollow between 2 drifts,
across the road. Each ' time a
sleigh or cutter went through :it.
gouged the. hollow a . little deeper:
The horses didn't like.. these any
more ,than the driver because the
whiffle -trees would hit the horses
on : the '.heels and in. order . to ' avoid
this they would 'often try toget,
across the pitch hole in a hurry.
or try. ;to go around it. This could
result in an upset 'load, which
wasn't good and might cause in-
jury or a run away,. The more a
road was travelled, the worse the
pitch holes got. ' -
After a thaw, the roadway
which was packed, would become
higher than the snow at the side
of the track . and driving became
hazardous. The "farmers used to.
hitch a • walking , plow on . the back
bunk of a set of sleighs and plow
the' roads. _ This was real . hard -
work, trying to hold the plow
handles in the hard packed. snow,
but.. it helped make ,a new -track
so that • the/ sleighs :and cutters
woulda't s 'de all over ;tkie" face:
This fresh plowed snow road made
very 'bad ' walking •to . school, so
at times 'we. struckacross the
fields.
In 'those. days we, didn't : have
any ice ' rinks, ' but/ there were us-
ually. a few ponds in .the fields
near the schools where' we, skated
and played shinny. Hockey sticks
as we . •know them. now, either
weren't made . or ive `couldn't. af-
ford,
fford, ahem. If you remember the
old..buggy top on ' a single buggy,_
you will remember /the°' "ribs that:.
held the. top up. We used to: make
shinny sticks out of the ribs of a
buggy top that had been wrecked.
I . renxember the first. pair • of
skates I ever . had. In those days;.
you bought the skates and boots
separate. •My'' dad bought me '.a
pair of these skates.: They • were
much to. big for my . boots, but
•
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one ,set of skates was to do me
for a Jong time, so they were
put on my : boots with . screw nails.
and " they stuck out quite a piece
over the . toe. However, I learned
to skate on them. ;I thunk.. these
were the only skates, at school.
• We 'went back on a pond in
Mike 'Bowler's field; called . up.
sides and were having a •game
of shinny. "We didn't have a ,rub-
ber
rubber puck, but were: using ,frozen
horse buns for a puck. I remem-
ber someone took a wild swing
at this "puck" and hit mesquare
on the end of the nose. Being
awkward on these skates, down.
I went, nose bleeding. and by the
time ' 1 got" back to school, I was.
blood from. head to foot.
In summer, we played football"
(soccer) at ' school and used ` to
play teams from other' , schools.
Pump, pimp, pullo-way was an-
other one of our pastime games.
We also used to go back to the
Curry Creek for -a swim at noon
hour, no .bathing suits. Today, we
would ' call it in the nude. We.
called it, ''in our bare skin.
I well remember my first ex
perience of hearing about politics.
There` was an election on I don't
know what one, but ' `I was just
one of the smaller boys. The big-'
ger boys 'from 'west' :of ` the . school
seemed to be rooting for' the grits
and the . boys from the; ; east - of
school were rooting for the' tor-
ies. Being from the ' west of . the
school, I joined • up . with the grits.
I well remember the &guineas
about the virtues of both parties.
One of . the slogans. was that: "The
grits .;live in glory` and the..tories`
live , in 'grease
One of,. my., teachers was my
Aunt Martha, who taught there
for 'a number of years. She walk-
ed over a mile morning and night
— no cars to drive in those, days.
She was quite a fast .walker, and
it was • quite 'a job . keeping up
to. her, ' so I .. hada-fin 'acquire the
art of fast walking, too.
Recalls Teachers,
I don't remember . who all my.
teachers were, but one. was Bailey
Stothers, a `brother 'of . Steve',, now
of Lucknow. He : was., a big fellow,
but he had ''a big ' job as . there
were ' a lot . of pupils and . some of
them ''big -fellows: ' He also had a
big temper. If someone was be-
having in a manner of which. 'he
didn't approve ' and he "came. ; down
the aisle, -the culprit usually got
his ear or nose well twisted and.
was not , likely to behave.' badly
for a long time after.
There was a Miss Fargey from
away down • in . Hastings County.
She was a husky, 'red' head,: who
.could':also. get her dander up,: but
she was a' good teacher and stay-
ed for a few years. : • .
One of. my' first teachers was.
Mrs. George Lane (Luella Cun-
ningham). She, too, was a good
teacher and remained at . No. 10
for a number of years and later
married George' Lane.
My last teacher was Margaret
Ritchie. from Zion. She also was
a good teacher. She• later went to
Western Canada.
Families'. Have Changed
The personnel in the section . Has
changed radically in 50 . years.
Many of the pioneer nfamilies have
moved ,away ,or a passed from
the scene entirely, Starting at the
west end of the section, there
were: Taylors, Littles,- Jana iiesons,.
Johnatons, Sinnets, Cairds, Nel-
sons, Bowlers> To the east,. there
were: Virus, Sherwoods, Mullins,
Campbells,.` Baldwins," Johnstons,
Reinharts,Smeltzers,. Lanes, Fer
gusons; Sullivans, Doyles and pos-
sibly others 'whose names no Ion -
ger are in the section.,
No doubt the education that they
received at S.S. No. 16 served'
them. well wherever they went to
make a livelihood :