School Days

Yesterday we drove to a rural Iowa farm that hosts a threshing bee each summer.  It was a beautiful later summers day to take in the large steam engines, saw mills, stone grinding flour, broom making, farm machinery pulled by teams of horses, black smithing and Civil War reenactments.  

One of our first stops was the one room schoolhouse.  Since I am in the midst of the Summer Schoolhouse ~ Lessons in Abecedarian series I just had to snap a few pictures with my phone to share with those of you who are stitching this series.

When you enter the school house there is a narrow little hall way to the left of the door.  In the corner on a shelf sits a enamelware pitcher and ladle and on the wall a row of cups.  The image of these cups just stopped me in my footsteps, it gave me goosebumps.  Such a simple photo, yet speaks volumes of school days of yesteryear.

 My sisters who are 8 and 10 years older then I both went to a one room country school house.  They went through grades 4 and 6.  The neighbors would take turns driving the kids to the country school. In the spring time they would ride their bikes.  The kids would all meet at the corner and then ride the country roads together, as a group, to the schoolhouse.  The school did have a phone and my sisters said it only ever rang one time.    It rang on the day President Kennedy was assassinated.  It was the teachers husband calling to tell her the news.  It's a memory of complete silence by the teacher and students my sisters will always remember...10 students.

One room school house which housed K - 6th grade.  One teacher taught all grades.  She was the math teacher, the reading teacher, writing teacher & the music teacher, too!

A horse-drawn "bus" used in the early 1900's in Iowa ...

 I imagine those kiddo's that walked 3 or 4 miles to school were pretty pooped by the days end...

As our summers day are starting to grow cooler and shorter, and it's about back to school time...
 I leave you with a peek at X, Y & Z  the final lesson from Summer Schoolhouse ~ Lessons in Abecedarian series.

 This has been an absolute delight to bring to all who have joined in ~  thanks for spending your summer stitching with me!

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda