Big Branch School
One room schools were wonderful. Not many younger than 50 will ever have attended one. Not many older who has attended one ever will forget!
My adventure started at Big Branch School when I was 6. I can’t say that I remember my first day there. However, my memory still holds images and sounds from that first year of school. My first teacher was a young man named Skylor Day. He was tall, blond and handsome. All the older girls in the neighborhood were in a tizzy over him! I loved him and felt I was special to him. Where I was or not I don’t really know. When I went up to the table in the corner that had the water bucket and tin cups for a drink or went to write on the board he would always pat me on the head. Now, that is such a little thing to remember! However, just that small gesture made me never forget him or his kindness.
Our day started with a walk, rain, shine, sleet or hail, about a mile out of the head of our hollow to the school at the mouth of the creek. It was only one big room with a small cloak room on one side and a small front porch beside the cloak room. The main room had big windows all along the lower side and at the back end, opposite the window wall was a wall with one window at the end and the rest was solid and the blackboard hung there. In the front corner was a big pot belly stove.
Eugene Wooton was one of the older boys. It was his job to get there early and build a fire. Most of the time when we got there the fire would already be roaring. Sometimes he would be a little late and we would wait on the porch, playing and laughing. Eugene was a skinny boy with red hair and freckles. A flat top (hair cut) was all the rage and he had one. I remember some mornings it was so cold that by the time he arrived there would be ice froze in his hair. However, I don’t remember ever freezing waiting on him!
Our lessons would begin when the teacher “took up books”. I was always a quick learner so I would finish my work first and then listen to the older children’s lessons. In this kind of a setting, we soaked up as much as our intelligence would allow. I completed all the first grade material in the first half of the year so I was started on the second grade material and finished that too. I was skipped to the third grade in my second year of school. When any of the smaller kids had problems with an assignment, the teacher would ask one of the older kids to help them. In this way, they learned to serve others and be compassionate.
When it was recess time we all ran out to play. Sometimes the teacher would organize us in to teams to play drop the handkerchief, little white house on the hill, or red rover. Red rover would be considered to dangerous for today’s wimps! However, most of the time we played our own games. The boys made sleds with wooden runners. We would pile on four or five at a time and ride off a slick hillside. We played soft ball and freeze tag too. We all got along well most of the time. In the winter we skated with our shoes on the ice in the creek. Pearl Irene Morgan was our teacher at one time. She had told us to stay off the ice because it was too dangerous. We didn’t so she lined us all up an took a switch to us!
We studied english, arithmatic, history, geography and practiced reading our writing skills. I learned to read from the Alice and Jerry readers. I can still remember some of the lines and see in my head the image of Jip, the dog, running with his ears flying back and the little blond girl and brown haired boy following close behind:
RUN JIP RUN!
JIP CAN RUN!
SEE JIP RUN!
Short, simple and sweet, we learned to read by sight and repetition.
Most of the kids in class were well behaved and minded the teacher well. When I was in about third grade one of the youngest kids was Larry Pennington. He had a heart condition and was sickly. He was pretty rowdy and when the teacher got after him he would run off and go home. His house was just out from the school. The other notable holy terror was Larry Callahan. When he got in trouble he would run outside and slam the door and then throw rocks against the door so the teacher couldn’t go out! She always got him in the end , if you know what I mean!
Once a week the missionaries came and told us about Jesus. That’s where I learned about sin and salvation. They taught us about principles of living and values that stayed with me as much as anything else I ever learned there! The health department nurse, Martha Cornett, came about once a year to give shots. She was a short, stocky woman with a big voice! She would have made a good drill Sargent! Everybody dreaded her as much as they did the needle! You didn’t dare resist. Occasionally the superntendant of schools would visit and I have forgotten his name.
In the spring our field trip was a trek through the mountains to find various plants and flowers and learn their names. We had boxed suppers in the fall to raise money for Christmas. We put on halloween and christmas plays and our moms came, dads were at work in the coal mines mostly. Mine was a carpenter.
Many of the children who attended Big Branch School moved away. Grant , Sherman, and Hayes Lewis moved their family out of state. Charlie moved to Hurricane Creek, the next hollow over. We finally moved over to Hurricane when I was ten. I went to a one room school when I moved to Hurricane also. However, I will never forget those early days of discovering the joy of learning and friendship at Big Branch School.
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July 24th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Such a cool story! I think I have mentioned on here that when I was a child I would get mad at Mom because she made me go to school in Hyden and wouldn’t let me attend the one room school on Hurricane. I always thought I missed something special and now I know that for a fact lol. Thanks for a great story.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:13 am
I also can picture my first grade Alice & Jerry basic reader. “Run Jip Run”. I’ve been searching for that copy for years…still. I came across your blog during my search and enjoyed going back to those better days. Thank you.