Christmas in a One-Room Schoolhouse

Being a child in the 1940s and 1950s was living in a different world from what we know today. My own grandchildren would probably not believe how we lived back then.

I started school when I was six, we had no preschool or kindergarten. I started school at the Fairview Grade School, which is located on State Highway 82 above La Farge. My teacher was Doris Sime and she was a wonderful teacher. Teachers were amazing back then. They worked long hours for very little pay. I attended one room schools where there were grades one through eight, all taught by one teacher. She was our music teacher, pianist, art teacher, teacher of all academic subjects, social organizer and nurse when we were hurt. 

We had no indoor plumbing in those days, both at school and at home. Winters seemed so much more severe, too. There were no buses back then, we had to get to school the best way we could. I remember there was one boy in our school, whose father owned a sleigh. He never missed school in the bad weather, his dad was always able to get him there with the horse and sleigh. We had no hot lunch program back then, either. Lunch was a cold sandwich, homemade cookies, maybe a small mason jar of milk. In the winter, we would bring mason jars of soup to school, and Teacher would warm them up for us on the hot plate in our room. Our wet soggy mittens and snow pants, she would dry on the heat register. 

We always went outside for recess and noon hour, I think this was to give our teacher a break. We got plenty of exercise and fresh air and played many games that today’s children probably have never heard of. Games such as Prisoners’ Base, Three Deep, Four Square, and Red Rover, and of course, softball. When the big snows came, we went sledding and sometimes we were gone so long that our teacher would have to ring the bell to remind us to come back to our studies! When the weather was too bad to go outside, the girls played jacks and the boys played marbles. I was pretty good at jacks.

We had no school custodian at our little one room schools either. Teacher would come early and get the heat going in our furnace. All the housekeeping chores were done by our teacher and the children. We took turns each week having a “duty”. There was a whole list of “duties” to be done each day. There was water to be pumped from the outside pump and brought inside, blackboards to be washed, erasers to be clapped outside, floors to be swept. We all worked together and got it done.

Christmas was one of the most special times of the year for us 1950s children. Our school was the center of our community back then. Any event at the school brought the whole community in attendance. We spent several weeks preparing for our Christmas program. We practiced over and over, our songs, skits and little “pieces” that the younger children memorized to recite for our program. As we got closer to the big night, we hung sheets to make a stage with a curtain and a backstage area. We put up our Christmas tree, most of the ornaments were homemade by us children. During our art class, we had been preparing homemade gifts for our Moms. As we got closer to the big night, our excitement grew and grew. 

At last, the big night arrived. I and my little friends were especially happy, as we all had new dresses for the big event. We put on our program, all went smoothly, and almost everyone in the neighborhood was there. Santa Claus even made an appearance, and presented each of us children with a brown paper bag, which we had to save till we got home. It contained popcorn, hard ribbon candy, and an apple, sometimes an orange, and we were happy with that simple little gift.

Our next big event was our spring picnic at the end of the school year. Everyone dressed up for this, too, and the men of the community, most of them farmers, even gave themselves a day off. They played softball with the children while the mothers prepared a delicious potluck meal inside for us all. The food was wonderful and there were many tears shed, as we might not see some of our friends till fall. And it might be the last time we would see our teacher, so if she was a well-liked teacher, tears were shed for her, too.

I am so happy to have been able to attend a one-room country school for my first eight years of education. It gave me many, many wonderful memories, and a good education, too. I wouldn’t have wanted my childhood any other way.

 by Sheri Ballard