Through The Lens
Hetland, SD
Generations of the lost schoolhouse.
As a child I always had a fascination with old buildings that has followed
me through to adulthood, especially school houses.
I would pester my mom to tell me what it was like when she was a kid
going to school. In her time, it was the traditional one room school house with
one teacher, teaching grades kindergarten through eighth all together. They
had electricity and a gas stove in the front of the room for heat. No running
water, those families with the best drinking water would bring five-gallon
cream cans filled each week to have available for the teacher and the kids. No
running water also meant no indoor bathrooms, so they had out houses. The
desks were wooden and lined up with usually the younger children up front
and the older ones in the back for the seating arrangement. Most of the time
she walked to school and there was no cutting through fields to save time
as most of the fields held cattle and you were likely to get charged by one of
them. They did have a swing set, merry-go-round and wooden teeter-totter,
but mom would say they needed to be careful not to get a sliver in their
vBy Angella and Ryan Byykkonen bottom using that. They started their day saying the pledge of allegiance
vHETLAND
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