Ridgway High School - Elker Yearbook (Ridgway, PA)

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P M M EJ 57 CQ?

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I930 EDITDDIAL Thanksgiving Day puts me in a reminiscent mood. I am a boy again. l work on the farm during the greater part of the year, and then for a few short months I am permitted to attend school. Let me give you a short des- cription of the school and of the school-house. It was the little old red building standing on a small piece of ground, selected, I think, because of a swamp on one side and rocks on the other. Certainly, goats could not have found a living there, but it was thought to be good enough on which to grow child- ren. Holes were in the floor and sometimes in the door. the windows, the ceiling, and too frequently in the walls. A large stove occupied the center of the room, and if the woodpile held out, and the teacher could get enough wood cut, we could, in very cold weather, keep the side of the body next to the stove fairly comfortable, even though the opposite side approached the freez- ing point. Labor was cheap, and once or twice during the term, the teacher would say something like this: If you older boys will bring your axes and chop that wood into stove lengths, I shall give you a day off, and I shall have some candy and some apples for you.'l Did they do it? You may answer. There were no lessons to make up. The apples were a lot better than the same kinds which any boy could have picked up in his own cellar. There was not a small boy in school who did not wish that he were an older boy too. The Friday afternoon l-the old fashioned spelling matches, the speeches which every one had to say whether he wanted to do so or not. Yes, I can recall some of mine at this late day, an evidence of the fact that what you learn when you are young, will remain with you, and will be for better or for worse. Aren't the little clears just too cute for anything, said some of the fond mammas who thought it worthwhile to spend an hour with their child- ren in the school. Let me quote for you the first few words from two or three of the writer's lirst attempts at oratory: Twinkle, twinkle, little star - The boy stood on the burning deck - VVhen I was a little boy, my mamma kept me in. but -. You know. or should know that we had a new teacher every year. That meant that we had to learn a sufficient number of speeches to last a year. After that, it was simply repetition. The teacher was hired because he was big enough to wield the rod with good effect. I am very well acquainted with eight boys who escaped lick- ings at school because their father always said something that sounded some- what like the following: If you boys get a whipping at school, you will get a harder one when you come home. These particular lads knew from pre- vious experience that these were no idle words. Such contact with the wood- shed was to be avoided at all cost. Those were days when fathers ruled the home. This particular father saw that every lad, here mentioned, did a certain amount of study five evenings of every week. He also saw that each one had sufficient work to exhaust the surplus energy, which, if not used wisely, might lead a boy in the wrong direction. Young people, compare those good old times with present conditions and then draw your own conclusions. 8

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