Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-01-05
sCHOoLBOY DAYS OF LONG AGO.
"reminiscences Of Alderman Il. Il.
Caldwell of This City, Written
for Waverly Independent.

1
writing some interesting reminis-
cences of the early days to his OLD
friend, Jos. F. Grave, of the Waverly
Independent, and we reprint the fol-
lowing article, which will be read
here with much pleasure:
In former write-up of my child
hood days (1836 to 184O), / neces-
sarily omitted many items of inter
est, SO l will joe down few more.
The boys, as well as the girls,
were kept in dresses until they were
| five or six years old. The dresses
were made of linen and wool mixed
for summer wear. and tow and wool
mixed for winter. This cloth was
known as Linsey-woolsey, was home
made on hand looms, or weaving
machines, SO called at that time.
This fabric was generally woven in
very small plaids, in which red
seemed to predominant. Many a day
have seen my mother spinning
wool, linen and tow, which she sent
to a neighbor in our hamlet who
dyed the yarn and did the weaving.
This material was all grown or
raised on our rugged hillside farm.
| remember / wore dresses until /
was so large l began to wonder If
they would put pantalets on me and
call me girl, or trousers and /
would be boy.
An itinerant shoemaker came to
our house each fall with his kit and
made our shoes and boots for the
next twelve months-cowhide ones
for father, brother and me, calf skin
for mother and sisters. l remember
Crispen would stand US up at the
side of the room with our heels snug
up to the Dashboard. Then he would
run a rule under one foot to get the
length. This was all the measure he
took. He did not seem to care
anything about the fit; he wanted to
be sure they were long enough.
They were not made rights and lefts
as now and We could wear them on
either foot. OF course, we knew
nothing of shoe polish, but used
grease made of tallow and lamp
black, and we had to grease our
shoes every Sunday morning before
going to meeting-not church. Boys
trousers, even the first pairs, were
made full length, lined for winter.
Other garments were shirt and
short jacket coming to the waist.
Underclothes for boys were an un-
known quantity in those days /
never had any until / was man
almost grown, nor any overcoat. If
| went tC ride with father in winter
and got cold, l would get out and
run afoot to get warm.
The girls (and weren't they lovely
in those days?) wore knitted hoods
summer. The sunbonnets were
starched and ironed nicely and had
places all the way around to slip in
stiff pieces of pasteboard which were
drawn out when the bonnet was
washed. How pretty the girls look
ed to me when l began to sit up and
take notice. / remember I was deep
ly in love with some of them each
winter when / was IN school. If for
any cause that one girl would be
absent from school a day, life had
no other charm for me and l was
very unhappy. ! think, however, /
must have been very inconstant at
that time, for usually by the next
winter / had transferred my affec-
tons to some other charmer
Our school house was very large,
built Of logs, heated by very ample
fireplace, lily lighted with small win
dows with seven by nine glass of
a very poor quality. Benches with
no backs, made of slabs with sawed
side up, in which holes had been
bored and legs driven in. Around
three sides of the room, next to the
wall, was desk or slanting shelf
about two feet wide at which the
larger scholars sat to study, with
their backs to the teacher and the
rest of the school. l wish to say
right here before l forget it that
was never promoted to the back
seat. Our ink was homemade, our
pens made of goose quilts, as steel
pens were unknown, at least in our
baliwick. One of the accomplish
ments of a teacher was to make a
good pen from quill, and how often
we would hear the request, Teacher,
err, may / stand up to the fireplace
to warm my back?" or, Teacher,
may l pass the watar?" and MAY
go. out?"
The books in use in our school
sixty-five years ago-as near as
can remember-were CCbb's Ele-
mentary Spelling book (board cover)
from which the children were taught
letters, figures, spelling. reading. abb
breviations. multiplication tables and
other things. 1t was the only book
that a child had for the first two
or three years. Daybolrs Arithme-
tic, in which / never got as far as
fractions. Lindley Murray's and
Kirkman's Grammar were ever seal
ed books to me- Peter Parley's
samuel G.. Goodrich's) Geography,
of which / was very fond. especially
the illustrations, and Murray's Eng
lish Reader for the older classes.
The classes when called out to re-
cite were made to toe crack in the
floor, hence the term, "Toe the
mark Geography was the only
study ] took kindly to, and now,
when ] look back on my school days.
| feel some like the man who said
he never went to school but one
day, lost his spelling book going, and
the teacher did not show up that day
and so he could not help feeling that
his education had been somewhat
neglected. AS a boy, loved all
poetry that had a jingle to it and
could commit 1t by the yard or more,