Vol. 2 No. 8
{AMISH COMMUNIT Y NEWS}
School Memories By Barbara Ann Detweiler
I was teaching school when this happened. I was 18 years old and my pupils were all occupied at their desks when I felt the floor roll under my feet. It felt like waves and it didn’t stop right away. I finally realized it was an earthquake, so I told the children, “Everyone, outside!” They did good staying in single file and the other room of children did the same. Of course, by then it was over, but no one was really in the mood to go back to work!
School Memories By Ellen Hershberger
Since this is the back to school issue, maybe it is a good time to relate a school happening. Our school was the one across from Sam Weaver’s on Newcomb Road. One afternoon on the way home, at the top of the hill there by Crist Weaver’s, we all decided to run down the hill with our eyes closed. Now, I’m just a little third grader who has been taught to be honest and not cheat. (Not that I’ve always kept to that in my weakness.) But in this case I did not cheat and I kept my eyes closed until I very much woke up in the creek that was at the bottom of the hill. I remember going down into the water several times until I grabbed a hold of the grass and pulled myself out. (That creek used to be deep enough that my brothers would go fishing.) My white cap and school workbooks floated under the bridge and someone retrieved them so that they could be dried and used again. I walked home just screeching and crying all the way, being covered with the brown silt from the bottom of the creek. Only my eyes showed and my teeth. The reason I was crying so hard was because I thought I had drowned! Mother gave me a drink of whiskey and I’ve never touched it since. They cleaned me up and, the next morning, my Dad took me to the Parkman shoe store and it seems he got me my first pair of tennis shoes. I was late to school and uncle/teacher Crist just shook his head.
September 1, 2010
School Memories By Rachel Miller
When I started in Mercer, Pa., we walked to a country school, all eight grades, English and Amish. I remember in the winter we were so cold when we got there that the teacher helped us get our wraps off. We had two miles to walk. But we were healthy, and the teacher was so good to us. That was the first and second grades. When I started third grade, I had to go to Stonebora, Pa. Consolidated School. We had to walk a half-mile or more to get the bus at the main road. That was in the third, fourth and fifth grades. After that, we had our Amish schools, and we walked two miles to get there. Those were the good old days. I liked school.
School Memories By Jacquie Foote
It was my first day in kindergarten. My Mom walked me to school and waited in the back of the room until we were all busy; then she and the other mothers slipped out. One of the boys in the row next to me noticed and began to scream! This started several others crying. A girl sitting near me took the opportunity to pull another girl’s box of crayons out of her hands and a fight ensued! And to top it off, another child had “an accident” on the floor! I was disgusted! An only child, I had mostly been around adults all my short life. My playmates were two sisters, one 8 years old, one 10, who lived in the apartment below us. They were always kind to me and treated me as if I were as grown-up as they. (Their names were Mary Belle and Donna Jean. Isn’t it easy to remember the names of those who are kind?) Well, I decided right then that a mistake had been made as far as school was concerned and I simply got up and walked out of the classroom … and out of the school. I walked right home and frightened the life out of my Mom when I appeared standing next to her at the kitchen table. She asked what had happened and I told her, saying that those kids were too young and babyish for me. Much to my chagrin, my Mom took me by the hand and led me right back to the school, speaking sternly to me the whole way. (As I recall, the teacher had not noticed I was gone.)
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