Reflections Upon a Blessed and Exciting Life - No 5: Elementary School Joys

My elementary education was in the wonderful two-room Zion Lutheran School in Walburg, Texas. Maybe it’s because one remembers pleasant times and blots out the bad, but my recollections are all happy and joyful.

I eagerly anticipated school. My teacher “Teacher Bleeke” was a family friend. My dad was principal. My two elder sisters and some 10 cousins were schoolmates. All the other pupils were from the same Lutheran Church-German community. I had a strong self esteem. I was eager to learn.

We lived almost next to the school in a “teacherage”. This is like a “parsonage” except it was for teachers. It took just five minutes to get to school in the morning. I had “dinner” at home every day at noon.

Recess was always a highlight. Softball was the recess activity of choice. We always chose teams and the competition was friendly but fierce. Morning and afternoon recess times were often extended and the lunch hour was always an hour. By the time I was in the fifth grade we played softball games against public neighboring schools (but we were not allowed to play the Catholic school team only 4 miles away. We were German Lutherans. They were Czech Catholics and in those days we stayed apart.

The school usually provided one soft ball and one bat. The ball was supposed to last for the whole year so it was often restuffed, repacked, and restitched. Once I was the team hero because I got us a brand new softball. I scoured the congregation and amassed enough Post Toasties cereal box tops to get a free softball. I still remember the first day I passed it around to all my teammates. It was for us our one and only opportunity to feel a perfectly new softball.

It was also while I was at Zion that we got the first ever set of swings for the school. When we weren’t playing softball we rode the swings or played marbles (playing “for keeps” was forbidden and all “won” marbles needed to be returned at the end of the day.) Other games included Andy Over, Red Rover, and a little basketball. Strange as it now seems for one growing up in Texas, I do not recall us playing football though every Saturday had me listening to the Texas Longhorn games on the radio.

The school building and classrooms were simple. The toilets were plain old ‘outhouses”. When it was cold the older boys stoked the stove in the center of the classroom with coal from the coal shed. We boys also took turns pulling up fresh water from the well and putting it into central outdoor containers. We were supposed to bring our own drinking cups but most of us forgot them so we all shared a common cup.

There was no school bus. Those who lived within 3 miles walked. Some rode horses or came in horse drawn “buggies”. Others were brought by car, usually a Ford Model A or Model T.

A major fun day was the school picnic held near the end of the school term. It began the night before when “the men” spent the night making bar-b-que on the immense outdoor pit. The 400 pounds of wonderful meat, which was slowly bar-b-qued for 12 or more hours, was sold for the dinner. There was a concession stand and my memory is that I received an incredible large amount of money to spend, 2 cents. That was enough for 5 ice cream cones or 1 bottle of pop, 1 package of gum, 1 candy bar, 1 ice cream cone and 1 lemonade. It took a week to plan my budget!

At the picnic the church brass band (which my father directed) played from their specially designed bandstand. In election years political candidates were invited to shake hands and make short speeches. I always remember the one question all adults asked of the candidates, “What is your position on child labor laws?” The rumor was that congress was about to pass strict “Child Labor Laws”, one component of which would forbid farmer parents from having their children pick cotton or even milk cows twice a day. Everyone at the picnic was anti child labor laws.

Of course school was more than fun and games - and I’ll get to that in my next blog - but the point here is “I loved school – every day!”