The Olden Days

This is what school was like in my early days and I go back a few decades; there were no such things as snow days. If it snowed it was just another day on the calendar. You hauled yourself out of bed and put your freshly ironed clothes on and a warm coat and don't forget the goloshes, a waterproof overshoe made of rubber. Girls wore dresses, maybe it was a sin for a girl to wear pants. I'm not sure, but it seemed to be a strict rule. Girls could wear long socks in cold weather. That involved wearing a garter belt to fasten on to the socks. It was a belt with garters fastened to it, one for the back of the sock and one for the front. Must have been really cute, but whatever works. The school was located a mile North, and a half mile East from our home.  We would trudge through that snow to school. Our teacher would go to the school earlier and have a fire going in the coal burning pot-bellied stove. Coal was delivered to the school. She would have a bucket of water from the well with a ladle in it for drinking. We all drank from the same ladle, we didn't have a clue we were sharing our cold germs with each other. I remember one time she had a wash basin with some water she had heated a little for us to thaw our frozen hands in. I will never forget the time we were dreading walking home in the freezing weather and just as school let out our Dad was coming up the road with the team of horses and a wagon to take us home. It was still cold, but at least we didn't have to walk in the snow. Now the wimpy little kids...Just kidding, I am very thankful my grandkids don't have to go through those bad times.