Schools are opening, albeit under varying circumstances due to the pandemic; but I want to ponder the changes through the years with the opening of school.
For instance, my father attended a church supported school where his uncle was the teacher and carried the yardstick all through the day of classes! My mother walked a mile up her residential road to the one room school where she was a first grader among seven other grades.
I rode a bus to first grade classes. This was a brand new experience for me and I remember being a little scared. Things went well for the first few days. I had a nice teacher who carried a yardstick just to point out her lessons on the blackboard.
One day she was discussing colors and pointed to one color and asked me to identify it. I went blank and she tapped me gently on the head and suggested I should study my colors.
When I arrived home I announced I was never going back to school — but that didn’t work and my mother accompanied me to the road when the bus arrived the next morning and the driver got out to escort me into the bus. I adjusted to school but to this day I do not like the color purple.
I’m praying for a successful year for all students at all levels of education this year.
Looking back
80 years ago: the Morrow County Fair Board decided to hold its first night fair. The three day event featured three days of horse racing, three professional acts daily and musical entertainment, which included the Mount Gilead School Band and the Mt. Zion Band, both to play at the grandstand while all county bands would play at “the tent.”
Crystal Ice Delivery had arranged for the Levering Family Orchestra to play. There was also to be a pumpkin show and a school parade.
Cardington High School was planning its homecoming football game to be held later in the month. The Pirates were slated to play the Big Walnut Wildcats. Homecoming Queen was JoAnne Westbrook.
70 years ago: On the opening day of school, the Cardington School set an all-time attendance record of 741. This total included 385 boys and 356 girls.
Shirleen Philbrook, recent Cardington graduate, enrolled as a nursing student at Taylor University, Indiana. Sally Dunham, of Cardington, was selected as the social editor of the school newspaper at Ashland University.
60 years ago: Ruth Zeigler and Erma Snider, both of Cardington, were named as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the newly organized Morrow County Democratic Party Women’s Club.
40 years ago: First Day enrollment in the Cardington-Lincoln School District was 1,129. Patricia Jenkins Bracken was named to fill the vacant village seat formerly held by Cecil Maxwell. She was the second woman on village council, joining Barbara Cowles.
