At our September meeting I had talked about creating audio tapes of the stories of the lives of Greenfield residents.  The idea is to have family members or friends interview someone about their lives.  These stories can center on a significant event in the person's life or can be broader to give the listener a sense of how life was lived in a particular period of time.  If you are interested in helping with this project, please contact me.  My email address is [email protected].  Elizabeth Conant has already offered some of her studio space for this project.  There are many decisions to be made so that we can have a program that will work for our community.  Hope to hear from you soon, Mary Vetter.

Over the years the Town Historians Office and the Society have been donated photo of places and people in Greenfield.  Some come saying a lot about the place, time and people but some come in without a voice.  We are hoping you will take a moment to view these photos and tell us what you know about them.  You can leave a comment here or you can contact Ron Feulner at the Town Historian office. The first picture is from our Porter Corners Photo Album and the second picture is from or Middle Grove Photo Album. 

Back to School
By Mary Vetter

While thinking about the September newsletter, I was reminded that all over this country and including here in Greenfield, kids would be beginning their first day of school or returning for the first day of another year and it gave me pause.

I thought about how different this school experience would be from the school experience of children 50, 60 or 70 years ago.  So I decided to ask a couple of people at the Town Historian’s office to reminisce about their early educational experience.

Ron Feulner, our town historian, started school in 1943, a full year younger than he should have because the girl next door convinced his mother that she would look after him.  I doubt that there is a school superintendent alive today that would allow a parent to do that.  He attended the Middle Grove School on Cemetery Hill.  It was a one room school where grades 1 through 8 learned their lessons.  The district could use the land as long as the school remained operational.  Once the school closed, the land would revert to the Cemetery.  Ron recalled that in later years former students bought plots right on the site of the old schoolhouse. 

Water for the school was brought up from the pump at Wilbur Barney’s house.  At the school a metal dipper was used to fill paper cups with water.  The school was heated by a large wood stove that was surrounded by a heat shield to prevent burns.  Off the cloak room a single chemical toilet made up the sanitary facilities.  The paper cups represented a step up from the common water dipper described by Clayton H. Brown on page 40 of his book “Greenfield Glimpses.”

The shenanigans of three hooligans, just waiting to turn sixteen so they could ditch school all together, conspired to make Ron’s first year of school miserable.  In one incident, the teacher felt that everyone had behaved and left the school to go into town to buy all the students Eskimo Pies.  While he was gone, the older kids soaped the windows and created some damage in the schoolroom.  When the teacher returned, he forgot the treats and set the students to cleaning up the room.  The forgotten pies melted in his car.  In contrast to what might happen today, no criminal charges were brought and no one was expelled from school.

The dismal year inspired his mother to run for trustee.  Some of the changes she championed brought positive changes to the little school and after that first year and with the help of a new teacher, he learned to love school.  The room sported a long row of shelves full of books and Ron set a goal to read every one of those books. 

Learning took place with the following practice:  each grade had a lesson in the front of the room with the teacher.  They were then sent back to their seats to work on assignments while another grade took a turn at the front of the room.  Every student in the room not only learned their own lessons but absorbed the lessons they heard being taught around them. 

Joyce (Burton) Woodard, our Deputy Town Historian, fondly remembers starting first grade at age 5 in Porter Corners.   She began her first year with just three other students.  It was a bigger school than the one Ron attended and grades were separated into different class rooms.  Like Ron, she remembers shelves of books that she read and re-read.  She also recalled listening to the lessons of other grades and absorbing those lessons.  She remembers a school nurse visiting several times a year to check for head lice.  Well I guess some things never change. 

She wrote a lovely piece recalling her early school days in which she remembers lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic with Mrs. Lucy Ballou as her teacher.   While there were no gym classes or music lessons but they did have drawing and in later grades history and some science.  School parties and plays rounded out the school year.  Significantly, she remembers feeling safe at school despite the war that was raging around the world.  Everyone knew everyone.  The children in her class were the children she played with after school.  Her childhood was filled with companionship and loyalty.  She never felt deprived.

So unlike yesterday’s young Greenfield students, today’s students probably won’t be walking to school, water will likely come out of a plastic bottle not out of a pump and they will not be privy to the lessons of other grades.

Yet their school years will be filled with parties and plays.  Some will struggle with hooligans in class, but like Joyce and Ron many young minds will be inspired by the dedicated teachers they meet throughout their school years.
 
Note:  This article and Joyce Woodard’s reminiscence will be posted on our web page.  Each will have a comment section so that you may leave your own memories or comment on the articles.  Please share these articles with those you know who do not use the internet.

PORTER CORNERS SCHOOL 1943

By Joyce (Burton) Woodard

I was born in 1938 and therefore when I became 5 years old I started first grade at the Porter Corners School on North Creek Road.  I walked to school from my home on Porter Road with my older sister and the neighbor children.  The school housed 8 grades in one building.  All of the students lived in Porter Corners. Some of the boys did ride bicycles to school.

The total number of students ranged from about 25 to 30 students in the eight grades and there were two teachers.  In my first grade year there were four of us in the grade, myself, Millicent Rowland, Bobby Kanar and Clifford Young.

We were in the “Little Room” which was separated from the “Big Room” by the girl’s bathroom.  The boy’s room was in the basement and girls were not allowed down there. Our room was very comfortable with lots of windows with sunlight pouring in.  There was a large blackboard behind the teacher's desk. We had single desks in a row.  I remember the bookcases along the wall by the windows full of books.  I loved reading and became an avid reader reading and re-reading those books.

My first teacher was Mrs. Lucy Ballou.  She taught there for 14 years. We were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Later on in the other room we had social studies or history as it was called and some science.  We had school parties and a school play at Christmas time.  We did not have scheduled gym, music or art classes but we did drawing.  A great advantage in my opinion was having three grades in the same room.  When our teaching time was finished we were supposed to practice our letters or numbers.  However, since the teacher was teaching in the same room we could hear her and certainly learn what she was teaching. We had a visiting school nurse a few times a year, checking our weight, eyes, ears and of course for “head lice”.

We had recess outside after lunch.  We played Dodge Ball, Hide & Seek and Baseball.  I was terrible at baseball.

We felt safe at school since we all knew each other and we were also playmates after school. We were too young to be affected by World War II which was going on, but we did have some drills both at school and at home. (blackouts at night). Most of us had a radio, a home telephone and automobiles in our families.  There was no shortage of information among the community.  We were a self-contained community having the store, church, post-office and school.

A few years after I started school the “Big Room” was divided in half and grades 4-6 were in one room and grades 7 & 8 were in the other.  After grade 8 we rode the bus to Saratoga Springs High School on Lake Avenue in Saratoga.

I feel lucky to have lived in that time period.  Maybe today's students have more technology but we never lacked for companionship or loyalty and never felt deprived.

Our first articles will be published on September 20, 2016.  So come back to read and enjoy.  We also welcome your comments and hope you will share what you find here with your friends and family, particularly those who may not be online.

Thanks,
Mary Vetter
President