Living in Country School Days
What a different time from then to now39 total reviews
Comment from Debbie D'Arcy
They were the good ole days weren't they! But I think life was probably as political then as it is now. It's just that we were switched off to it all in gloriously ignorant bliss or had this trust that we were being looked after by trustworthy individuals and authorities. A lovely, nostalgic trip down Memory Lane! Thanks for sharing, Debi. Debbie
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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They were the good ole days weren't they! But I think life was probably as political then as it is now. It's just that we were switched off to it all in gloriously ignorant bliss or had this trust that we were being looked after by trustworthy individuals and authorities. A lovely, nostalgic trip down Memory Lane! Thanks for sharing, Debi. Debbie
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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You know, Debbie. You are right about the political stuff. I don't know about you, but us kids feared the nuclear bomb. We feared Russia and that was a lot to handle for kids. I never thought of that until right now. Yuck. That just crashed my old country school party!! LOL...
But seriously, I never thought about that once when I was writing the story. But it was there. I think we would listen to our parents talk when they didn't know we were listening.
Anyway thank you for the wonderful review and words for my story.
Love, Debi
Comment from gramalot8
Oh, yes, the good old days! Loved your story, Debi. I grew up in a big city with big schools, etc...
But then after marriage and just as my kids were school age, we moved to a small farming community in Idaho. What a change that was for me. The whole town rallied around everything together. Very small classes for each grade. Elementary was on the West side of the campus... the gym and football in between... with combined Junior High and High School building on the East side. Long story short... my son's graduating class had 30 students in it... You weren't involved if you didn't support every school sports activities even if you didn't have kids playing... or even kiddos still in school.
But... I cherish the opportunity I gave my kids for growing up in such a close, caring community.
Thanks for sharing your story with us.
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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Oh, yes, the good old days! Loved your story, Debi. I grew up in a big city with big schools, etc...
But then after marriage and just as my kids were school age, we moved to a small farming community in Idaho. What a change that was for me. The whole town rallied around everything together. Very small classes for each grade. Elementary was on the West side of the campus... the gym and football in between... with combined Junior High and High School building on the East side. Long story short... my son's graduating class had 30 students in it... You weren't involved if you didn't support every school sports activities even if you didn't have kids playing... or even kiddos still in school.
But... I cherish the opportunity I gave my kids for growing up in such a close, caring community.
Thanks for sharing your story with us.
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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Hi there gramalot. Thanks so much for reading and your review for my country school story. I love hearing all the recounts of the different schools that everyone went to and the differences and similarities. They have been fun to read. Thanks again, dear friend. Love, Debi
Comment from Verna Cole Mitchell
I really enjoyed reading this account of your school days. I was a preacher's kid and moved every three or four years. It was always hard to make my way in a new school because I was quite shy. Being a teacher changed that! I love, especially, your paragraph about the simpler times. Though I was always in a city school with lots of classrooms and teachers, the times were still very much as you described, considering the safety for children.
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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I really enjoyed reading this account of your school days. I was a preacher's kid and moved every three or four years. It was always hard to make my way in a new school because I was quite shy. Being a teacher changed that! I love, especially, your paragraph about the simpler times. Though I was always in a city school with lots of classrooms and teachers, the times were still very much as you described, considering the safety for children.
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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Hey Sweetie, I can see you being kind of shy!! Thanks so much for reading and your review for my country school story. I love hearing all the recounts of the different schools that everyone went to and the differences and similarities. They have been fun to read. Thanks again, dear friend.
Have a blessed Easter! Love, Debi
Comment from BethShelby
There are many things about those days that make them the good old days. I never went to school where there were many classes in one room but my children did because they went to a small church school. The pledge, the song and the prayer were always the way to start class. I found myself today quoting something my grandmother used to say sixty years ago. I really enjoyed reading this. Your childhood sounds more my mothers with all those siblings. I was an only child.
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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There are many things about those days that make them the good old days. I never went to school where there were many classes in one room but my children did because they went to a small church school. The pledge, the song and the prayer were always the way to start class. I found myself today quoting something my grandmother used to say sixty years ago. I really enjoyed reading this. Your childhood sounds more my mothers with all those siblings. I was an only child.
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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Hi Beth! Thanks so much for reading and your review for my country school story. I love hearing all the recounts of the different schools that everyone went to and the differences and similarities. They have been fun to read. Thanks again, dear friend. Love, Debi
Comment from Wayne Fowler
Well done!
Your piece reminded me of my own, very similar upbringing - a one-room school in Michigan with one teacher, Mrs Sweet, and 28 kids. My younger sister was her very first kindergartner. We had eight grades. For ninth you had to get yourself to the high school ten miles away.
We also moved a lot - 7 different schools. And not a single friend that lasted a single move. No wonder I quit after 11th to join the Marines.
Thanks for reminding me why I kept my kids in the same school (system) for all 13 years for both of them.
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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Well done!
Your piece reminded me of my own, very similar upbringing - a one-room school in Michigan with one teacher, Mrs Sweet, and 28 kids. My younger sister was her very first kindergartner. We had eight grades. For ninth you had to get yourself to the high school ten miles away.
We also moved a lot - 7 different schools. And not a single friend that lasted a single move. No wonder I quit after 11th to join the Marines.
Thanks for reminding me why I kept my kids in the same school (system) for all 13 years for both of them.
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 26-Mar-2024
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HI there Wayne, Thanks so much for reading and your review for my country school story. I love hearing all the recounts of the different schools that everyone went to and the differences and similarities. They have been fun to read. I can most definitely see why you made sure you stayed put for your kids school years. Thanks again, dear friend. Love, Debi
Comment from Mustang Patty
Thank you for sharing this. It is difficult for all of us to look back at how we grew up and wonder what it must be like for our grandchildren, who spend so much time inside. They live in fear because they have to have 'gun drills,' and I just heard that most 4th graders don't know how to read.
Yes, the 'good ole days' were just that. And after us, there won't be anyone to remember,
~Mustang~
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Thank you for sharing this. It is difficult for all of us to look back at how we grew up and wonder what it must be like for our grandchildren, who spend so much time inside. They live in fear because they have to have 'gun drills,' and I just heard that most 4th graders don't know how to read.
Yes, the 'good ole days' were just that. And after us, there won't be anyone to remember,
~Mustang~
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Patty, I thank you for your lovely review, kind words and the honor of your six stars. You are so very sweet and I love that you shared that you have the same fear that I have for my grandkids. How can we not fear this world for what it has shown us. Thank God we can release our concerns in our writing.
Thanks again, my dear friend. Love, Debi
Comment from Ric Myworld
Yes, those sure seemed like the "Good Ole Days." And what breaks my heart the most is that children of today are missing out on those quality times that mold them. Thanks for sharing.
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Yes, those sure seemed like the "Good Ole Days." And what breaks my heart the most is that children of today are missing out on those quality times that mold them. Thanks for sharing.
Comment Written 25-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Yes, isn't that the truth. I am glad we live out in the country. We have a decent size crop farm that we rent out the land now, but my kids learned to pick rocks and do their share of work and play along with it. And I ended up with three very successful kids and they are raising good kids. But we all live in the country, lots of fishing and hunting family. We are keeping it as much as it is possible for them to not ever be bored. They all have iPhones and so do we, but I feel they have a better chance in a rural community.
Anyway, that's my story and I am sticking to it. Haha. Thanks for the kind words for my story, dear friend. Love, Debi
Comment from locust
Another well written post Debi! That way of life sounds foreign to me as someone who has grown up in the era of those kidnappings and school shootings. You painted a lovely picture with the right amount of detail. I would love to read some short stories from those school days! I'm sure you have plenty of good ones :) Thanks for another great read! I hope you have a fantastic day!
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Another well written post Debi! That way of life sounds foreign to me as someone who has grown up in the era of those kidnappings and school shootings. You painted a lovely picture with the right amount of detail. I would love to read some short stories from those school days! I'm sure you have plenty of good ones :) Thanks for another great read! I hope you have a fantastic day!
Comment Written 24-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Awe Locust, thank you so much for the wonderful review and very kind words. I know you are a lot younger than I am, but I have felt a connection from the start. Maybe it is our similarities in writing. (Maybe not this one) LOL
But poetry for sure. I am submitting for publication on another site. If I get in I will let you know where to go. Thanks again my sweet new friend.
Love, Debi
Comment from LateBloomer
Hi Debi, your story is a nice stroll down memory lane, a time when less was actually more. Many of us FS members can/will relate to this story.
Of special note:
--I felt sorry for my mom trying to teach and move a family of nine so often.
(That must have been difficult for your family. Why did your family move so often?)
--I haven't sung or said either in years. Yet, I still know all the words to both
(Many of the young people of today don't know the name of our National anthem--never mind the words. It's really a disgrace.)
--I remember that a nurse from the county came out once with some kind of shot for us, and it seemed to me that we did not get clean needles but instead she wiped it off with alcohol and cotton balls at that time.
(I'm guessing that it was the Polio vaccine. I got my in school. The first was a nasty shot, the next two were given in sugar cubes--Amen. I wasn't looking forward to another shot. Wow. How did you even know that there was something quite not right with recycling needles and how did you realize that she was recycling needles. Amazing memory for details.)
--we knew what it was like to play and act like kids and not live in fear of school shootings or kidnappings.
(Yes, it is very sad that children today have to have shooter drills and worry about being kidnapped, etc. The world is currently in a very sad situation.)
As children, we had freedoms that the children today will never know about or experience. They have a lot of stress and tension in their every day lives. Cheers to the good 'ol days when less was more. Xo. M
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Hi Debi, your story is a nice stroll down memory lane, a time when less was actually more. Many of us FS members can/will relate to this story.
Of special note:
--I felt sorry for my mom trying to teach and move a family of nine so often.
(That must have been difficult for your family. Why did your family move so often?)
--I haven't sung or said either in years. Yet, I still know all the words to both
(Many of the young people of today don't know the name of our National anthem--never mind the words. It's really a disgrace.)
--I remember that a nurse from the county came out once with some kind of shot for us, and it seemed to me that we did not get clean needles but instead she wiped it off with alcohol and cotton balls at that time.
(I'm guessing that it was the Polio vaccine. I got my in school. The first was a nasty shot, the next two were given in sugar cubes--Amen. I wasn't looking forward to another shot. Wow. How did you even know that there was something quite not right with recycling needles and how did you realize that she was recycling needles. Amazing memory for details.)
--we knew what it was like to play and act like kids and not live in fear of school shootings or kidnappings.
(Yes, it is very sad that children today have to have shooter drills and worry about being kidnapped, etc. The world is currently in a very sad situation.)
As children, we had freedoms that the children today will never know about or experience. They have a lot of stress and tension in their every day lives. Cheers to the good 'ol days when less was more. Xo. M
Comment Written 24-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Awe, thank you so much, my sweet sister, Margaret!! You are so kind and maybe a little surprised by some things I didn't tell you about myself before?
But I sure appreciate your sweet words and yes, it was a different time but we have to make the best of it. And having you in my life has made it so much richer; thanks for the generous six stars as well and everything!! Debi
Comment from Julie Helms
This is a lovely autobiographical memory of clearly better times. I wish things were still like this. I love the detail that you shared about your school room, the chores, and the children. You had patriotism and faith in the classroom, which has been forgotten for decades now, and recently under attack. I know not everything was better back then, but some certainly were. Thank you for sharing this very thought-provoking post. I enjoyed it. Julie :-)
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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This is a lovely autobiographical memory of clearly better times. I wish things were still like this. I love the detail that you shared about your school room, the chores, and the children. You had patriotism and faith in the classroom, which has been forgotten for decades now, and recently under attack. I know not everything was better back then, but some certainly were. Thank you for sharing this very thought-provoking post. I enjoyed it. Julie :-)
Comment Written 24-Mar-2024
reply by the author on 25-Mar-2024
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Julie, I can't thank you enough for the lovey review of my country school days. I am so sorry for the mistake. My eyes were damaged during a bout of shingles in my eyes. So since I was doing both at one time and you had reviewed them one right after the other, I put the wrong review in the wrong box. Please forgive me. And please know that reading my reviews are the greatest part of my day. I just don't get to them right away to answer. Thanks for your understanding, Julie.
I thank you again, my dear friend.
Love, Debi