Alturas School House-grade 1-6

I went to school at Alturas elementary school, near Bartow, Fl. It was the old-fashion wooden two room school with a big bell on top of the school house to ring the students in. For heat, there was an old cast iron pot bellied stove. It had to burn wood to put off the heat.  We had one teacher who taught all the classes.  Grades 1-3 were all seated together on the right hand side of the building with a partial wall with chalk board divided the left hand side. That had the 3-6 graders all seated together. They had their chalk board on the other side of the wall.  Our teacher was on crutches because she had polio.  She taught all the classes all day, walking from room to room. 

At noon, we went outside under the trees and ate our own home made lunch. After lunch we played a while, or sewed and did crafts we brought from home. We played circle games with balls, like soft ball. 

One thing I really liked was called Jump Board. You had to get the Dads to donate just the right length board - usually 8 or 9 feet long, at least 24 inches across and probably a inch and a half to two inches thick. That was laid across a log about a foot and a half thick. The board had to have some give to it but not much. Sixth graders had to be able to jump really hard and not have the board crack in the middle. One person would stand up on one end and another person about the same weight would stand on the other end and start jumping, bouncing the other person high up in the air. They would keep alternating jumping until someone went too high and lost their balance. That was quite a contest. These were country, healthy, strong kids. I held my own pretty good. 

We also, jumped rope, played jacks and marbles. I wasn't good at marbles, but did pretty good at jacks.  The boys practiced with sling shots. 

We all walked or rode our bikes to school.  I had a big accident the first day of school in the first grade. I was all dressed up in a pink ruffled dress. It had been raining and the clay road was wet and slick. I was riding fast down the hill to the school and I hit a slick spot and wrecked my bike, tore my dress, blooded my knees and cried my heart out. I had to go home and change clothes and get a bandage on the cuts. That will bust your bubble. 

But our teacher was so sweet.  I stayed in that school until the 3rd grade, then a new school was built near the old one. We moved over there. They should have never torn down the old school, but they did get rid of it, too bad. 

Better go now; more another day. Oh one more thing. Gil played drums in the band in the grade school in Indiana. When he got to high school, he played on all the sports teams. He was a guard on the foot team. That was his favorite. He said he would get bored. He joined all the sports teams and in the early years played drums in the band. I think that was neat.