Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1917-05-09
RIDING TO SCHOOL IN THE BUS.

The complaint raised over the time
occupied by the children farthest
away from the central school in go
ing and coming, the hardships of cold,
etc, are amusing than convincing to
some Of us older men who went to the
'deestrick" school forty odd years
ago from the far corner Of the dis
trict. It seems that the faraway child
rem must take the hack about 7:3O.
which means about an hour of travel
in spring conveyance under shell
ter
In the days referred to that trip
would have been fun alive. To have
been sheltered and to have picked up
here and there other kids would have
been picnic, no less, Why we used
to start for the two mile trip across
the fields by 1880 and use shank's
horses all the way. The custom of
hitching up and taking the children
to school hadn't occurred to father
then. We did our chores, grabbed the
dinner pail and liked out. To stay
home from school on account Of
weather was considered the hallmark
OF the mollycoddle in those days
Boys and girls alike plowed across
the fields to the school house No
body thought much of it, Nobody
spoke of heroism or the like. 1t was
just common like other things, all in
the days work, and we went.
Once there we grouped about the
big box stove which the teacher had
showed the best part of an eighth of
cord of fourfoot red oak, and
warmed first one side and the other
Sometimes the teacher delayed calling
school to enable us to get the snow
Off our clothes and the frost from our
bodies. But most everyone was there
every morning, there and happy at
that.
The school house: 1t stood at the
cross roads in the bleakest situation to
be found. 1t had side cracks through
which good thrOwer could throw a
cat, and in the door through which
slate pencils rolled to disappear. How
ever they were seldom lost, for aper-
D16IJY
and large enough to admit a box or
twO-hundred-pound shote The old
stove stayed redhOt all day, and we
went up in relays and sat by the fire
to avoid freezing. And yet. when we
remember the time and the fun we
had and all the spellings down and our
nc1p1ent loves and losses and all that
went with a country school, nobody
could be found who will not admit
that those were red-letter days. Of
course Flooding home over the drifts
with the chores ahead Of us had its
weary side, but we all got up ready
for school the next morning.
There is altogether too much worry
over the school child Of this day. It
will not hurt him to spend an hour
on the way to school, Perhaps he
would be better off if he had to walk
an hour instead of ride it out. He is
well clothed. He doesn't make the
trip in pair Of copper-toed cow-hide
boots without OvershOes, and his
clothing is warm instead of Jeans
pants and "wamus" and a blue den
I'M shirt. There wasn't as much sick
ness then as now, there were no more
deaths from pneumonia. or any other
diseases incident to exposure.
We guess that the child Of this per-
iod can stand it to ride to first class
school in steam or furnace heated
building of modern construction, with
out utterly destroying him and the
race. Those who walked forty years
ago are still doing business at the old
stand.-SeIected