Back To School

originally published August 2009 in Georgia Mountain Laurel

It's August—time for those three simple words, "BACK TO SCHOOL," to stir up both excitement and trepidation in kids and parents alike. In the spirit of the "season," here are some tidbits from Foxfire contacts that might give you a different perspective on returning to school—or at least a chuckle.

When survival depended on farming, sometimes school wasn't an option: "[Irene's husband] Norman said all he went [to school] was three months. He said...they wanted to go, but [his daddy would] make them stay out and work in that field!" —Irene Smith

Getting to school now usually means dealing with traffic, but there used to be other challenges: "[W]e had to wade the creek or swim to get over to the schoolhouse...I'd slide off into the branch. Fall in. I just couldn't walk a footlog. [Especially when] icy weather come...Get up there and I'd be a-crying my feet was hurting so—freezing." —Norman Smith

Some things sound more or less familiar: "I remember when they were making the road through Tiger...with horses and mules and big old scoops. Well, my third-graders would just be turning their heads out the window [to watch]." —Martha Roane

Some things might have changed a little: "[W]e had fun there. They'd give us plenty a' time t' play. We'd have morning recess and dinner recess, and we usually built playhouses out in the woods..." —Arie Meaders

Some things have definitely changed for the better: "None of the schools I taught at had inside bathrooms...we always had to build little outhouses for the students." —Martha Roane

Back-to-school shopping's traditional need for the elusive "right" clothes has likely been around for a while: "I went through the sixth grade...the reason I didn't go [on to another school] was 'cause I didn't have the clothes like the others had, and I wouldn't go 'cause it was embarrassing to me [laughing]." —Irene Smith

There were an assortment of complications then, too: "They would bring milk with their lunch and would go down and put it in Betty's Creek to keep it cold. That year, 1925, was a very dry year. It got so dry the creek dried up and we didn't have any water to put the milk in to keep it cold." —Martha Roane

The hours after school were seldom a chance for fun or relaxation: "Every day when I got off from the school bus, I'd come to the shop. We worked until around nine o'clock at night and then we went home and did our lessons. We always had homework." —Louis Brown

Getting out of school has always been a goal: "After we come t' Georgia, I took seventh grade at another little country school over here for two years. And I thought surely, then, I'd got through the seventh grade [laughing]!" —Arie Meaders

Some people, even "back when," thought that school was the place for them, even after "graduating": "[M]y oldest brother did make a schoolteacher. He didn't have nothing but an eighth-grade education, but he stood an examination and he passed it all right. He got $45 a month for teaching and paid $5 a month board. He taught fifty-six years." —Norman Smith

These school remembrances come from Foxfire 8 and Foxfire 9 articles about other subjects. The entire series of Foxfire books contains thousands of impressions like these—simple little glimpses of every-day life, mentioned in passing. Discover more of the undeniable charm of the heritage of Southern Appalachia—go to www.foxfire.org or visit the Foxfire Museum in Mountain City, Georgia.

For more-recent, full-length stories of school days past, grab a copy of the 40th Anniversary issue of The Foxfire Magazine,
which features interviews with a variety of current and former Appalachian educators. Articles in the issue include:

From Tobacco Fields to Classrooms
I Had To Have Had Good Genes
The Alligator, Toddler, and Janie P.
The Story of The Storys
Muddy Boots, Ugly Dresses, and Third-Graders
Spotlight on a Former Student
From the Hills to the Big City
Teaching Has No Boundaries
Rabun Then and Now
School Memories