School Days
Well, since school has started back around here this week it has me thinking about those good old school days. Playing on the playground, trying to hang on to the merry-go-round without flying off, reading Fun With Dick and Jane primers, the smell of those purple copies, chalk dust and begging to bang the erasers. Then you always had that one strange kid who ate the paste. We all have memories of school, but have we ever thought about passing those memories on to others? I cherish knowing what those times were like for my parents and grandparents.
I always loved hearing my grandfather tell of his school days. It seems like yesterday that I drove him by his old school house. He wanted me to get a picture of it and I did. Sadly I lost the photo due to a computer malfunction (Lesson learned! Back it up!) and thought to go back one day to take another. Then tragedy struck in the form of Hurricane Katrina, and the school was completely destroyed. Thankfully, others had photos and I still have his stories.
As told by William Victor Ladner, "I started school in 1913. The old school house was is in the town hall. We had four classrooms and a stage. Every year I'd be in a play, once I was a Japanese. There was a pot bellied stove to keep the school warm and a big pile of pine knots that were used to light it. Whenever you did something bad the teacher made you kneel on those pine knots and boy did they hurt. At Christmas we had a tree with candles on it. It is amazing how that didn't burn down. Once a teacher hit me across the face with a switch. Uncle Semore Nicaise was on the school board back then and boy he got on to that teacher for it. Back then you could whip a kid, but you couldn't hit anyone in the face like that."
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