School is Out, Forever

You can double click on any picture here to see better detail.
This is the Fern Chapel School, which operated from 1913 to 1949. One room, all grades. School here meant you were under the watchful eye of Barb's grandmother from Monday through Friday. Saturday nights the desks were neatly packed away to make room for the dancers in all of us. There were 5 standard steps used at the dances, can you guess which ones?

Live music was not always available, so you could bring your own music to play on the Victrola, which was upgraded in later years to this little gem:

Makes you kind of glad for Mr. Jobs and his little inventions, eh?

After the Saturday night dances, the men brought in the desks and benches for Sunday Services. A traveling preacher would come along once in awhile, and someone would play the pump organ until her legs wore out. You had better be saved by then, or you had to come back the next week. The stool was in Barb's house when she was a little girl taking piano lessons.

The local library, and few favorite story books shared among friends.

Welcome to the lunch room. The water urn was thrown in Medicine hat and brought by a teacher in the early days. The pails (look closely at them) were used as lunch boxes when paper sacks were expensive. Some of the pails were shared by students form the same house hold. On good weather days you could eat outside. in the winter, you could sit on the bench, or at your school desk.

After lunch you could... Boys on the right, and girls to the left about 30 feet or so.

The field was also the local ball diamond and parade ground.

The stove is original. The flue had to be replaced about 30 years ago. If you noticed the trees in the shot above, you can see there never was a lack of fuel to keep the school house toasty warm, even in the dead of winter.

This is how most of us see old school houses, photographs of old relics lost in time, or to time. Id Elk Point, the past is preserved for the future to appreciate. I believe it is good to know one's roots. I believe that change for the sake of change is not the best policy. The children and youth of Elk Point now have a more modern school, but is it better?