[Vision2020] Thank You

[Richard Schmidt]

We went to a "modern" 3 room school (K-7) in the little town of Snover, MI. 
We had indoor plumbing which was quite rare for small schools in those days. 
Most other country schools were of the one room variety with 2 outhouses out 
back. Most had a well with a hand pump. We lived on a farm 3/4 mile south 
and walked to school. Dad & Mom didn't drive us because it was a short walk 
and gas was rationed at that time. Some kids walked up to 1-3/4 miles to 
school uphill both ways through 6' snow drifts (the uphill both ways and 
through 6' snow drifts is a little deep)!! Country schools were located 
fairly close together so kids could walk. In Michigan, counties are broken 
up into townships and our township was 6 miles by 6 miles. We had 4 one room 
country schools and our 3 room school in the township.

I lived in Tennessee a few years ago and remember an old timer talking about 
walking to school 4-5 miles barefoot as they couldn't afford shoes. They did 
have shoes to wear in winter though. You knew it was the truth because very 
often you would see pictures of the whole school of kids taken in front of 
the school and many did not have on shoes.

Dick

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brent Bradberry" <bbradber at moscow.com>
To: "Richard Schmidt" <44schmidt at earthlink.net>
Cc: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>; "Moscow Vision 2020" 
<vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Thank You


> Richard - We are nearly contemporaries. I started school in Sept 1944 and 
> remember the daily  pledge of allegiance (and stumbling over the words). 
> I don't remember any  hand  gestures other than  the "hand over heart", 
> but I do remember some classmates who were Jehovah's Witnesses. I think 
> that neither I nor they knew why some of us said the pledge and others 
> didn't. For us little kids it was just one of the mysteries of life.
>    I also remember clearly, several years later, when the words "under 
> God" were added. I don't recall any great hoohah about the addition, but 
> it took a long time to relearn the pledge.
>
> Richard Schmidt wrote:
>
>> Tom,
>>  Thanks for passing this on to everyone. I'm an old guy and when I 
>> started school in September 1943 we sang "God Bless America" and then 
>> said the Pledge of Allegiance first thing every morning. Our teacher 
>> played the piano and also had a son fighting in Germany. At that time 
>> when the pledge was said we started with our hands at our sides and then 
>> when "to the flag" was said we extended our right arm with palm up on 
>> about a 60 degree angle towards the flag. Our politicians who were just 
>> about as stupid then as they are now decided we shouldn't do that any 
>> more as they didn't want it to be confused with the way Hitler and the 
>> Germans saluted with their right arms extended up on about a 45 degree 
>> angle with the "palm down". We then started covering our heart with our 
>> hand when the pledge was said. This is the first instance of "political 
>> correctness" I can remember. I don't know if there are any other old 
>> timers out there who did it that way or not.
>>  Dick Schmidt
>
>
> -- 
> Brent Bradberry, Ph. D.
> Professor of Mathematics, emeritus
> Lewis-Clark State College
> Commander, U. S. Navy (retired)
>
> 1258 Wallen Road
> Moscow, Idaho 83843-7445
> (208) 882-2830
>
>