School Days, School Days

"School Days" from 1907

I have been looking forward to writing this post for two months!!! This is from one of the first interviews I had with Aunt Grace and is my favorite for three reasons: 

1. I always loved school, loved teaching school and have many good memories myself.
2. The clarity and detail of Aunt Grace's memory is AH-MAY-ZING!
3. Aunt Grace just seemed to light up as she thought of more detail and stories to share!

Aunt Grace and Aunt Marge felt fortunate that because of where they lived, they got to go to school in Oswego and not the one-room schoolhouse. First thru third grades were in the little white schoolhouse, a two-room school that had a total of 30-40 students with 15-20 in each room. One class had all the first graders and half of the second graders while the other classroom had half of the second graders and all of the third graders. Fourth grade through high school were all in the larger school where the Oswego Post Office is now.

Her first grade teacher was Isabelle Ruble; fourth grade was Ila Harrison. She had the same teacher, Virginia Crossman, for second, third and fifth grades! Apparently she built quite a relationship with Miss Crossman who married Pete Campbell. Aunt Marge used to babysit for the Campbell children and Aunt Grace had the use of their cradle for all four of her girls!

Four of the Zielke children graduated from high school; the other four did not. George, Henry and Bertha attended school in Downers Grove before they made the move to Oswego. Each of them went through eighth grade. When Ray had to repeat first grade, it probably helped Grandma realize that academia was NOT his thing, because Aunt Grace doesn't remember that she was very upset when he decided to quit school when he was sixteen, probably the end of his freshman year.

Aunt Grace believes it was probably good that Ray did leave school because the boys he hung out with weren't of the best character. After Ray left school and no longer hung out with them, that group harassed Principal Melvin Attig so much that he committed suicide by driving in front of the third rail train! This young principal (only 30-40 years old) had been one of Mary Ellen's teachers at East High in Aurora before he became the principal in Oswego. The Oswego mayor's son, Andrew Pierce, was one of the boys in the group and probably a major reason that the boys were only punished with community service. 

Aunt Grace did well in school and got good grades, especially in spelling! She said she probably got an early boost on her education as she would sit at the table with Grandma when she was helping Ray with his schoolwork after failing first grade. Homework was always done sitting at the dining room table in the evening. She also remembers that there were no bookbags back then. You carried your books and sometimes they were pretty heavy. I suppose that's why boys got the idea to offer to carry the books for girls they were sweet on; an opportunity to showcase their muscles!

1927 Hardcover Edition
"Many stories of animals and birds, nature,
festivals and slumberland. 144 pages; a great book
for the young reader."

Remembering different subjects through her school years, Aunt Grace shared these memories:

Reading: They learned to read using a series of Elson Readers. Pictured above is the Primer; the rest of the books in the series look very similar. These were the pre-Dick and Jane books as Dick and Jane made their first appearance in 1930 in the Elson-Gray Readers. The Elson Readers consisted of individual short stories as noted in the caption above.

Math: There were no textbooks. The problems were written on the board and worked on paper. They also had worksheets created through a type of gel-ink pressed onto the paper; the pre-cursor to the dittos we can all remember.

Spelling: There were new words presented each week with a test given over the words, just as we all learned to spell. Aunt Grace loved spelling and got really good grades in it!

Penmanship: In those days, children were only taught cursive from the beginning and they practiced daily.

In the upper grades, more subjects were added:

Geography: Aunt Grace particularly remembers learning about the Tigris and Euphrates River System in western Asia. She wasn't certain why that memory stood out.

Euphrates River
Iraq

Science: No memories to share there, other than the fact that she didn't like it!

Music: In fifth grade they started music lessons. There was a piano in the classroom and Reeve Thompson was the music teacher.

English: Aunt Grace LOVED diagramming sentences. In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she believes that had she continued her education, she probably would have become an English teacher!

Sentence diagram for
"Giraffes can clean their ears with
their long tongues."
Can you name all the parts of the sentence?

Mathematics: Aunt Grace made it through Algebra, but called it quits at Geometry! Math was not one of her favorite subjects. She spent a lot of time with her friend, Lyle, who helped her get through Algebra. Looking back, she's certain that Lyle was gay. It wasn't anything she suspected back then. In those days, no one said anything or talked about it, although she believes the boys at school probably knew.

Home Economics: The girls took three years of Cooking and Sewing classes back then. The school board purchased the "Home Ec House" a block away from the school and the girls would go there for class. The cooking classes were taught downstairs while the sewing classes were taught upstairs where they had high sewing tables. There was also a meeting room upstairs.

A Home Ec Classroom

In addition to cooking and sewing, Home Ec classes typically taught girls how to care for themselves and their homes. Aunt Grace remembers that on the first day of class, Mrs. Schmidt gave the girls an assignment to go home and cut out pictures of deodorant from magazines. Poor Grace didn't know what deodorant was and the only magazines they had at home were The Farm Journal. So, she cut out pictures of Lysol! To help you understand why she would have chosen that, I'm sure the discussion about deodorant included hygiene. The following is a Lysol ad from a Farm Journal in the 1940s!

Finally, there were typing and shorthand classes. These classes were beneficial for girls looking toward a career after their school years. Some girls went on to the Metro Business College for 6 months to enhance their skills. Aunt Grace had to take a typing test to get her job with the Civil Service during World War II, so the skills she learned were definitely to her benefit. 

A typing class in the 1940s

Aunt Dorothy was the only one of the eight who went on to college after graduating from high school. She attended Northern Illinois University in Dekalb where she lived in a house with a group of other girls. There were 4-5 bedrooms with 2 girls per room with a refrigerator in the basement. Dorothy majored in Home Economics, specializing in Cooking. She taught for awhile and later opened a preschool in the church basement.

As we think about Aunt Grace's experiences and compare them to our own, it's obvious kids then had experiences similar to our own, to our children and even to our grandchildren. Some of us liked school. Others didn't. Some did well in school. Others didn't. Typically, we have favorite subjects and those subjects that make us think we'd prefer a poke in the eye! There were bullies and will probably always be bullies. Some of us were bullied; others of us may have been the bully, even unintentionally! (Time for some self-reflection right there!) There were kids who were "different" and probably suffered for it. Maybe we were the "different" ones. Some of us couldn't wait to get out of school and swear we didn't learn anything in school to help us in the "real world." Others chose to go on to college or technical schools earning certificates or degrees and rely on that education to do our jobs every day. One thing for certain that we all share, is that our time in school provided memories and had an impact on  our lives. That, we all  have in common!

"School Days" as recorded by 

Chuck Berry in 1957

Work and Discipline in the Zielke Household

Lux Laundry Detergent Ad
"Lux won't shrink your woolens"

One thing that has become VERY clear to me through my interviews with Aunt Grace is that farm life was hard work and it required everyone doing their share of the work. Today we're going to learn about some of the chores and consequences of NOT completing those chores. Keep in mind that this information is from Aunt Grace's view. It doesn't discount the work that the older five did when they were still home or the work the younger two had to do after she left home, but we can imagine that each of our parents had to do their fair share of these chores (and others) in their time at home. One additional note, if you remember the earlier post about the move to Oswego, the oldest three (George, Henry & Bertha) moved to and ran the farm before the rest of the family came. This undoubtedly meant that George and Henry did the farming and took care of the livestock while Bertha ran the household; three teenagers/young adults taking on FULL responsibility and being left on their own.

Chores were an expectation of living. Chores entitled them to a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their bellies. There was no allowance and they knew they had responsibility to the family survival. Chores on a typical day looked like this:

• Bring wood/kindling into the house for use in the cook stoves. There was one stove in the kitchen used for cooking and another in the basement for heating water for the laundry.

  

  Wood-burning Cook Stove*

• Dishes had to be done after every meal. Aunt Grace remembers thinking it was unfair that she never got to wash. Marge washed them, Grace had to dry. It may have caused an occasional spat between the two....
• Housework. In the summer months, at least, the housework fell to the girls while Grandma was outside tending to her garden. Grandma apparently loved being outdoors and loved the garden, so she taught the girls to do all the housework, including the canning of various home grown veggies.
• Throwing silage was discussed in our farm tour and took about a half hour out of their day.
• Helping Grandpa milk the cows fell to Grace after Ray left home and never fell to Marge or Dorothy as the family had moved to "the Barker house" by the time it would have been their turn to help.
• Family chauffeur. Grandpa never drove a car with a stick shift for multiple speeds after the family accident. He was not mechanical and could not get the hang of it; fearful of killing the family. Grandpa would still drive the Model T, but never one of the newer cars. Henry taught Ray to drive, who in turn taught Grace to drive handing down the chauffeur responsibilities. Marge never liked to drive and rarely did. 
• Cutting homemade lye soap into bars. 
• Laundry! Laundry was a major undertaking each week and spanned two days.



Lux Detergent Ad
"For Everything You Wash Yourself"



• Saturday was "dainty" laundry day and was done by hand in an 18" diameter wash bowl in the kitchen sink. These items were hand-washed with Lux or Ivory Soap.
• Monday was main laundry day. Laundry was done with homemade lye soap in the basement during the cold months of the year and in the wash house during the summer months, then hung on the line to dry. 

  

  Lye Flakes & Crystals

• Lye soap. Lye is made by "leaching" wood ashes. This is done by boiling ashes from a hardwood fire (softwood is too resinous) in soft (rain) water. This results in crystals or flakes that are mixed with rendered lard (from butchering), poured into a form to harden and then cut into bars. (Note: They did not make their own lye, but purchased lye to make into their own soap)

  

  Lye Soap and Bars

• Aunt Grace remembers one time when neighborhood child, Diane Reppy, who was about Dorothy's age, put her finger in the container of lye and tasted it! It was extremely painful and caused burns/blisters around and in her mouth!
• Water for the laundry was heated in the copper boiler on the cook stove. The cook stove had two plates to accommodate the copper boiler. 

  

  Copper Boiler used for
  Heating Laundry Water

• Hot water was poured into the wash tub of the wringer washer. The wringer could swivel around so that excess water could be squeezed out of the clothes before falling into the rinse tubs of cold water.

  

  Wringer Washer with
  2 Rinse Tubs**

• Bluing was added to the second rinse for whites.

  

  Washing Machine Ad

As a mother of five myself, I know discipline can be a challenge. I was interested about how (and when) they were all disciplined as children. I chose to add discipline to this post, because it turns out that the primary reason they were disciplined was for not doing a chore OR not doing it soon enough after being asked! For example, Aunt Grace said that she would be disciplined for not getting the kindling in to the cook stove as soon as she was told. Understandable, I guess. Not having the wood available to get the stove going could delay dinner or starting the laundry. 

There was no need for disciplining a smart mouth or bad attitude; apparently they all knew better than to even TRY to get away with anything like that. There was also no waiting 'til their father "got home." Discipline took the form of a "lickin'" and was meted out with whatever Grandma could get her hands on: fly swatter, wooden spoon OR her bare hand if nothing was within her reach!

I asked her about a story I remembered hearing from my dad about a time Grandma was after him for a lickin'. Apparently, he had run when he knew he was in trouble and Grandma had him cornered.  He knew what was coming and rather than accepting the inevitable, he dove down, slid between her legs and took off in the other direction! Aunt Grace didn't remember that particular story, but she laughed and said it was probably likely. 

As I write this, I've been reflecting on what an amazing family we claim to be our own. How three people, Reinhold, Louisa & Martha, none of whom completed high school, raised eight children (four of whom didn't complete high school either) to be good, responsible, productive members of society. Those eight in turn have had children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have also taken, or will soon take,  their own place in the world. As I learn more of the wonderful accomplishments of my cousins, my siblings and all of the younger generation, I am truly amazed that we all came from such a humble beginning. Yet, I feel that as our parents learned responsibility to contribute to the family, they built the solid foundation enabling them to raise us and that we have, in turn, learned to teach our own children and grandchildren. Teaching doesn't always come through a text book and there is much we can learn from those who have gone before us. To honor Grandpa, our Grandmas and each of our parents, please teach your children well. 

* This is a cook stove; not necessarily like the ones they had. When I'm able to meet with Aunt Grace in  person and look at pictures, I'll ask her to point out one that is closer to the one they had and replace the picture.

**Once again, this is a wringer washer. Picture will be replaced if I'm able to find one with Aunt Grace.