The Rural Voice, 1987-09, Page 58JEROME
FEED & SEED
is
supplying a complete line of
new -life feeds
as well as
Custom
Seed Cleaning
Winter wheat,
winter canola,
and grass seed
JEROME FEED & SEED
Lucknow
(opposite the sale barn)
519-528-2447
LIQUID MANURE
Maximize your Potential Returns
with this Valuable Resource
• Fast, timely, economical
service
• Operator with 16 years'
experience
• Complete line of agitation
equipment
• 4 Terra -tired vacuum floater
spreaders
• No job too large or too
small
• For competitive rates and
superior service, call us.
Summer Rates now in effect
GREENER ACRES
Owen Sound
519-371-2345
Evenings call George — 519-371-2323
56 THE RURAL VOICE
NOTEBOOK
SCHOOL TIME
THE WAY IT WAS
CARL L. BEDAL is a writer
living in Magnetawan, Ontario.
Like many farmers' sons in the
Depression years, I attended a one -room
rural school. Forty years earlier, my
father had gone to the same school.
His attitude to learning was reflected
in his attention to our education. My
brother and I were expected to want to
leam. With the help of our teacher we
learned well, perhaps too well. It wasn't
long before I realized that I liked
schooling better than farming. But
that's another story!
My brother took to learning too, but
not on day one. According to him, after
his first half-day at school he ran back
home across the fields to tell Mom and
Dad that he'd had enough. I can assure
you that next morning he left hurriedly
for school, having received parental
guidance typical of the 1930s.
The schoolhouse nestled in a wood-
ed area along the sideroad that bordered
the western edge of our 100 -acre farm.
Tall windows graced two sides of the
one -roomed building. These provided
the only source of light, since at that time
electricity had not come down our road.
Floors were hardwood and reeked of oil.
Resting comfortably at the back of
the classroom was a large black box
stove. Two -foot lengths of split dry
hardwood were piled neatly in the vicin-
ity of the stove door. Sometimes our
teacher would stoke the fire, but more
commonly a student was asked to take
on the duty. The teacher signalled the
timing of these stokings by pretending
to shiver — or was it for real?
Our teachers were a courageous and
hardy lot. For $600 a year they toiled in
their goldfish bowl, watched by every-
one: students, parents, school board,
and inspector. All our teachers were
single women; most were very young,
often teaching in their first school.
Although inexperienced, they put forth
valiant efforts to teach us — and to
perform a myriad of other tasks.
They acted as cooks, for example,
graciously receiving soup bones from
parents who had butchered recently. In
the middle of the morning the box stove
became the cook stove, with soup bub-
bling merrily — one more noisy distrac-
tion in an already noisy room. But the
aroma of soup was a welcome change
from the odour of oiled floors. At noon
our winter lunches of dry peanut butter
sandwiches were helped along their way
by this hot soup. We would rush through
lunch so that we could go out to play.
Back in school, and all in the same
room, were students ranging in age from
6 to 16 years. At any one time, most
students were doing seatwork while our
schoolmistress held forth with one class.
The challenge for her was to live and
work with a horde of capricious students
from nine until four. Only aparentcould
imagine the dificulty of this task.
At the end of the day our teacher was
the last one to leave. She could be seen
trudging up the gravel road on the way to
her boarding house — a farm home.
There, at least, she was in the company
of adults, but never really alone. The
party telephone line, the teacher's only
link with family and friends, was a
mixed blessing, particularly when she
wanted privacy. Her only escape was to
leave the community on weekends, a
respite she must have yearned for long
before Friday.
Because our school was located in a
woodland nook in the midst of farms,
nature greeted us on every side. Nature,
therefore, became the focus of many of
our activities. In warm weather we took
our art classes outdoors to sketch our
beautiful surroundings. Arbour Day
was the official recognition of the part