I Walked to School in the Snow Up Hill Both Ways

Dec 14, 2013 Sat0
1900Display on Google Map
Peddler Gap School House, Upper Sandlick, Morgan County
Peddler Gap

EDIT Nov 2014 *** Note *** After reading this blog be sure to read a follow up post with more photos and a narrative from the teacher here.

During the 1965-66 school year I attended Peddler Gap School as a 1st grader. There were around 25 kids in seven grades in one room. We did not have an eight grader until late in the school year.

I have random memories of this time wrapped in the warm glow that many of us have that were raised in Appalachian foothills of eastern Ky. I remember swinging on the grapevine across the creek behind the school house. I got a paddling almost every day because for some reason David Young and I would often fight. I don't remember any ill feelings against him. What would 1st graders fight about? We never hurt each other. But we both often got our butts paddled anyway. I was a tough kid.

Once some women visited and told Bible stories and illustrated them with characters on a felt board. On a beautiful fall day kids from another school walked to our school and we played softball and games all day long. I think they may have been from the Burchett Flat School.

Everyone took their lunch and one day I just could not wait for the lunch bell. I eased a bag of potato chips out of my lunch bag and tried to quietly open them. I got caught. The teacher just made me go outside on the steps to eat them so I would not disturb the class.

1900
Burchett Flat School, I don't know the date.
Burchett Flat, Unknown

One day I had a terrible itch problem. I spent most of the day in the boys outhouse with my clothes off scratching my body. It was miserable day. That night Mom realized she had just started using Downy fabric softener. A long hot soapy bath in the tub solved the problem and we decided I was allergic to Downy.

1965 Sep
Me at 6 years of age with cousin Dinah Daniel
Bobby, Dinah

I received my smallpox vaccination at the school. I know now that vaccinations were a new thing at that time. My generation was the first to avoid many of the diseases that maimed and killed children just a few years previously. The smallpox vaccine caused a dime sized scab to form at the injection site. We were warned to not pick at the scab. It had to fall off on its own.

In those days it was common to hear sonic booms caused by military jets exceeding the sound barrier while flying up and down the Appalachian mountain range. One day we all rushed to the open windows to look for the jet after hearing the sonic boom. My smallpox scab was just hanging by a hair and as I was pushed against the window frame by the other kids my scab was torn off. I was terrified I would get smallpox because the scab came off too soon.

There was no school bus. All the kids walked to school or their parents took them. I don't remember how I got to school, but Mom says I walked most of the time. Google Maps today shows the distance as 1.9 miles. One winter morning we awoke to several inches of snow. It didn't matter, I still had to go to school. As a 6 year old boy you can imagine the grand adventure I had walking to school that morning, playing in the snow, getting distracted and very wet. When I got to school the kid assigned to build the fire in the pot bellied stove was just getting started on the fire. It seemed to take forever to warm up. Coal was used, not wood.

The road from our house to the Peddler Gap school went up one side of a hill and down the other to the school. So I really did walk up hill in the snow to school, both ways. But I had shoes. I have fond memories of those times.

1965 Sep
Me at 6 years of age with cousin Dinah Daniel and aunt Bonnie Daniel
Bobby, Dinah, Bonnie

I started my 2nd grade education at Crockett Elementary. My Dad or someone took me to the top of the Smith Creek hill to meet the bus to Crockett every day. No bus passed our house because the local kids were expected to walk or catch a ride to the Peddler Gap School. I guess my parents thought I would get a better education at Crockett.

The Peddler Gap School burned down that year during the Christmas holiday. The county board of education found an ancient school bus someplace and got it running. In Jan 1967 that bus started running up White Oak Branch and over into Sand Lick to take the Peddler Gap kids to Crockett Elementary. I had to get on the bus before 6:00AM in the dark. The bus had no heat and many of the windows would not close all the way. It felt colder on the bus than it did outside but we were tough and it was better than walking in the snow. For some reason my Peddler Gap 2nd grade friends were put into the 1st grade at Crockett Elementary. This increased the class size so much, Crockett had to have two 1st grade classes.

I remember when the phone line was run up White Oak Branch. We all got phones but four houses shared one four party phone line. Often you would pick up the phone to make a call and instead of getting a dial tone, you would hear your neighbors in the middle of a conversation. Some people took great joy in secretly listening to their neighbor's phone calls. If you wanted to make a phone call you had to wait until the other party was finished or ask them to hang up so you could use the phone.

I like living in the here and now but it would be a hoot to go back in time and spend one autumn day in that old school house.

EDIT Nov 2014 Be sure to read Country School Memories from my Teacher also. I was able to contact my teacher and he sent me some photos and a story about his experiences at the school.

Upper Cascades Falls, Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina




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