Both Hazel and I were raised as country kids. Hazel was raised on a farm in Shiawassee County. My folks moved every two years to farms west of Durand, where Dad worked on the railroad.
But we never had Durand as a hometown The reason: Durand was the second largest railroad center in Michigan, which meant all those coal-fired engines, and their black smoke, discouraged, maybe eliminated, white houses. My folks liked white houses.
So my parents rented farm houses with some acreage so Dad could ‘farm.? That meant having gardens, some livestock and no close neighbors.
It also resulted in 1-room schooling in Knaggs Bridge and Garrison school districts.
1-room country schools also meant outdoor toilets, with the girls? outhouse on one back corner of the lot and the boys? on the other.
Today, if you were to enter our house through the garage you’d see a 1-room school outhouse 3-hole toilet seat mounted above the entry door.
One of the celebrated days in our lives came when Hazel brought home that very same 3-holer plank from one of her antiquing trips. I painted it brown and put full color grade school pictures of our children, Susan, Luan and Jim in each of the toilet seat holes.
Then, for fun, we added freckles, hair styles and pullover shirts. What a keepsake!
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Now, back to my primary subject this week: 1-room schools.
Up front was the teacher’s desk and heating stove, on which we sometimes dried our clothes or warmed our lunch from our mile-or-so away home. Lunch was peanut butter and jelly, or bean, or head cheese )or something else homemade) for our sandwiches and milk
One of the ongoing challenges was getting the teacher’s attention when we thought we had to go to the outhouse. Her timing of our needs didn’t always meet her schedule.
Recently I learned some teachers kept a count of student requests. Some had a leave-by-row system and others had a blackboard sign-out practice.
I don’t know what girls did with their ‘trip,? but some guys took the time to carve their initials on walls.
Some teachers had a twice-a-day limit. Some allowed their students to whisper requests in their ears.
In my 1-roomers, we had signals of one finger or two to express our needs. Some schools teach their students to use more creative signs of their needs.
But today or yesterday, the teacher, with her keen eye, sense of urgency, and years of experience is seldom outwitted by her pupils.