School children have long associated the end of summer with the first day of school, and fall begins as well, no matter what the date. When I was a school child in the late 1930’s, school began Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, which falls on the first Monday in September. Everybody in Texas knew that was the rule. In today’s world, with staggered school openings around the state and country, schools are apt to start anytime between mid-August and the end of September.
In our small West Texas town, Labor Day was celebrated every year with a community picnic held on the beautiful County Courthouse lawn. It also commemorated the beginning of the new school year. Ranchers donated Bar-B-Q beef they cooked for several days in deep pits covered with hot coals. This made the meat tender and succulent. Pinto beans, coleslaw, potato salad, sliced home-grown tomatoes and Bermuda onions, and dill pickles completed the tempting array of food. Long loaves of sliced white bread were at the end of the table.
Another table was laden with homemade cakes and pies, sliced and ready to serve which ladies of the town donated. It was a grand assortment, for each offering had been created from favorite recipes which was a matter of pride among the women.
Homemade ice cream was next to the dessert table in several wooden ice cream makers packed with layers of ice and rock salt. The ice cream mixture was in a container surrounded by the ice and salt. As the hand crank on the side was turned by hand, the ice cream began to freeze. Anyone who has ever participated in the makings can appreciate the time involved. First, the ice cream mixture is made with heavy cream, eggs, sugar and whatever flavor desired, such as fresh fruit, vanilla, chocolate, etc. Someone, usually a child, sits on top of a folded blanket or canvas which covers the ice, while others take turns cranking it. When the ladle gets hard to turn, it is time to remove it, otherwise it gets too hard, and impossible to remove. It is understood that the person who sits patiently during the process gets the first lick. The lid is then carefully replaced, and the ice cream stays frozen until it is ready to eat. Is it worth the trouble? Yes!
Tables and chairs, borrowed from local churches, were set up and covered with white butcher block paper. Paper plates, cups, and eating utensils were provided. Plastic hadn’t been invented yet! Iced tea and lemonade were served, and the town’s icehouse provided ice.
It seemed like everybody in town came. Children and adults renewed old friendships. Teachers, school principals and the superintendent of schools and their families had received special invitations because the celebration was in their honor, too. People saved seats by placing their purses or hats on the folding chairs where they wanted to sit. Children usually liked to sit together on the lawn under a big oak tree.
Taylor, Edith May, Betty Lou Shoemaker, Elizabeth Taylor,
Marjory Reba Nisbet, Nancy Christ, Lois Morris
It was easy to spot people new to the community because everybody knew each other. We usually asked their children to play with us in the games already in progress such as jump rope, tag and old favorites, especially for the boys, such as “Red Rover, Come Over” and “Snap the Whip.” We girls played sometimes, but it scared us if big boys played. Smaller children played “Drop the Handkerchief” and “London Bridge.” We also played “Snap the Whip” which was too terrible if one were at the end and would likely be sent tumbling. Sometimes we had a “Tug of War” with a long heavy rope when competing teams at each end tried to pull the other team over the line.
Soon it was time to eat and the Mayor asked a minister to offer the prayer. The noisy crowd quieted. After the “A-Men” was said, people quickly took their places in line. Local men in white aprons worked efficiently and cheerfully as they served the crowd. Soon everyone was seated in the folding chairs borrowed from local churches. Conversations ceased as people concentrated on their heaping plates of food.
Afterwards the Mayor asked the school superintendent to introduce members of the faculty, with special attention given to new teachers. We children listened for their names, guessing which might be ours. If we saw one of our former teachers from the year before, we later ran to greet them, sure to get a hug.
Soon it was time to go home. It had been a perfect day. I laid out my new school clothes and packed new school supplies in my new book satchel. I wanted to get to school early before the bell rang to be first in line for the second bell. I wondered when I would be lucky enough to help Mr. Joy, the janitor, ring the bell.
The new school year meant new teachers, new classrooms, new desks, new books and often new friends. Boys had new haircuts and girls new hair ribbons. Girls were usually more excited about school. They were also likely to have cleaner hands and faces than the boys who often arrived with soiled knees and dusty hands from getting down in the dirt to play marbles or scuffle with each other on the way to school.
We eagerly lined up, by grades, at the front entrance when the second bell rang. It was a very big bell, which hung from atop the old two-story hand quarried limestone building in the belfry. Mr. Joy, whom we all loved, rang the bell every morning at 8 o’clock sharp. That was the first bell and it seemed to say, “Stop your play! Pick up your satchels and get in line!” Nobody wanted to be late. When a boy or girl volunteered to help pull the rope, he usually let them. Most children who wanted to, had a turn.
Marie Watkins (top left) the music teacher who boarded with the
Babcock Family
to serve the growing community and surrounding area.
He also asked children to help with flag raising and lowering before and after school. He taught older children the proper way to unfold or fold the flag. It was a big flag and when it was unfurled in the wind it seemed to hold itself straight out so we could count the thirteen red and white stripes and the 48 blue stars. We grew to love and respect the flag for what it stood for because of Mr. Joy.
On Armistice Day we gathered outside to pledge allegiance to the flag and stood at attention exactly at eleven o’clock for one full minute of silence in memory of the servicemen who were killed in World War I. We sang America the Beautiful and our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. The music teacher taught us patriotic songs and other songs as well in assembly when the student body gathered once a week in the school auditorium. There we learned many songs including funny songs and “rounds” like Row, Row, Row Your Boat. We were divided into three sections. The first group would start with the words in the first line, next the middle group started on signal from the teacher, and finally the third group would begin, until all three groups were singing different words and tunes until the last group finally reached the end at which we would all dissolve in laughter.
We knew all the Christmas carols, spiritual songs like While Strolling in the Park One Day and A Bicycle Built for Two, which our parents had sung years before. Many of the songs were from The Family Songbook and The All-American Songbook used by most schools.
Our music teacher also introduced us to music appreciation. All classes in this remote little town learned about operas, symphony orchestras and their musical instruments both by their music on records (recordings) and pictures. We were becoming somewhat ‘cultured’ without our consent or knowledge, because she made it such fun.
One of the funny songs we liked in assembly was School Days which was written before our time but fun to sing. The words still come to mind. “School days, school days, Dear old golden rule days. Readin’ and ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic, Taught to the tune of a hickory stick. You were my favorite barefoot boy, ……. When we were a couple of kids.”
Edith at The Old Rock Schoolhouse (2016)
