Georgie’s Memories – Part 5: At School

Elementary School

I started to school in September 1924.  There was no kindergarten then, no school buses.  The 1^st Grade had a room to themselves but most rooms had 2 grades in them.  There were no lay teachers – the school was run entirely by sisters.  They were the Franciscans of Perpetual Adoration and the mother house was in La Crosse, Wisconsin. 

We had no Audio-Visual aids, special education, gifted programs, physical education, etc. etc.  We received an excellent education which included lots of history, music, Latin, business subjects (shorthand, typing, business practice, bookkeeping) besides English, Science, and Religion.  We were indeed fortunate to have such dedicated teachers.  At that time there was no rule about what age children started school.  Some started at 4, others at 5, 6 and I was almost 7.  The grade school building was constructed in 1884, the same year my dad was born. 

High School

High school was held in a corner brick building which had been a store at one time.  It was operated by my Great Grandparents Kempker, parents of my Grandma Teresa Link.  By accident my father was born in this building.  My grandmother was spending the night with her parents, went into labor and gave birth to her first child, my father, William John Link. (Ed. You can read more about it here.) The high school was enlarged while I was in grade school and has been added to again since then, including a new gym.  When I started school plumbing had been recently installed.  The outdoor privies, one for boys and one for girls, were still on the playground and still were used when everyone was out playing.  They were built circular and each stall was pie shaped (see illustration).

At that time there was a parish hall south of the church.  The floor was shallow wide steps wide enough to hold chairs and these steps descended to the front where there was a stage.  Before basketball, plays were popular, and the hall was built to accommodate them.  This floor was torn out when the hall was remodeled and a hardwood floor was installed for basketball and dances.  Grade school floors were wood and swept daily with sweeping compound, a mixture of sawdust with some kind of oil which helped to keep down dust.  In most rooms two children sat at each desk.  There was a common inkwell.  We used pen points and dipped the ink.  Everybody had a pencil box and a pen point wiper.  Somehow, we did Palmer Method (cursive writing) exercises with these and earned Palmer Method buttons and certificates.

Lunch break and recess

There were no hot lunch programs.  There was an hour for lunch so if you lived in town you went home for it. Children from the country carried a lunch, some in a lunch bucket, some in a lard bucket or syrup bucket.  There were 15 minute recesses both morning and afternoon.  There was a well on the west side of the grade school and a tin cup hanging on it if you were thirsty.  Almost everyone had a folding tin cup of their own as the school was trying to teach good health habits.

Mass and communion

We were very respectful of the Sisters.  When we met Father Grothe, our pastor, we moved off the sidewalk and said “Praised be Jesus Christ, Good morning (or whatever) Father.”  Being sent to the principal’s office was a disgrace and real hard nose cases were sent to Father Grothe.  Children were expelled once in a while.

I think school started about 8:30 am and dismissed at 4 pm.  There was a Mass at 8:00 am in church when the weather was temperate, in the chapel in school when it was cold and in the chapel in the sister’s home on Saturday.  At that time very few people received Holy Communion at daily Mass.  More received on Sunday after going to Confession on Saturday.  A large number went to Confession and received Communion on the first Friday of every month.  Children made their First Confession and Communion when they were 7 and made their Second (Solemn) Communion when they were 8.  This was in the spring.  Girls wore white dresses and veils, at that time fasting from food and drink from midnight.

 At 40 Hours Devotion all the school, girls in their 1^st Communion dresses or a white dress later, marched in the opening service on Friday morning and again at the closing on Sunday night.  On First Friday and at 40 Hours children went home for breakfast or brought their breakfast.  My Uncle Ben’s children, my cousins, often came home with us for breakfast.  My Aunt Teresa would send eggs and we would have as many eggs as we wanted with homemade bread and jelly.  This was always a happy time.