Not a little red school, but a greying-white, one-room school sat at the northwest corner of the section for Walnut Creek School, Webster County District Number 3, near Inavale, Nebraska. Was this to be the first year teaching site for Irene Atkison?
My application for teaching at District 3 was made with the president and vice president of the school board on the bank of a frozen pond near the Republican River where the men of that neighborhood were cutting ice for storage. Not only did those board members learn about me but they taught me the art of ice cutting.
Some time elapsed after that interview, as fifty other applicants were interviewed.
Then, early on a Sunday afternoon just as I was preparing to return to college at Kearney, Elmer Blankenbaker, president of the school board appeared at my parent’s home in Red Cloud. At the conclusion of our visit he informed me that the position as teacher was mine for $35 a month, a salary equivalent to many experienced country school teachers in Webster County. A contract was signed for the 1935-36 school year.
Etta Blankenbaker, Elmer’s widowed aunt offered me board and room at a very minimal cost so she would have someone in the house with her. It was at her kitchen table I did my homework by a kerosene lamp and on her coal range that bricks were heated to be wrapped and placed between two feather bed comforters in my unheated bedroom.
My beautiful half-mile walk to school was on a road that crossed the bridge over Walnut Creek. Either side of the creek was bordered by varieties of trees that were magnificent as the leaves changed to fall colors. After crossing the creek, I could see the District 3 school. No indoor plumbing, running water, electric lights, furnace or piano were present at this school’s physical plant.
Four boys and four girls – plus some dogs greeted the new “school marm” the first day of school in 1935. At noon we took our lunch pails and walked across the road to the grassy area near Walnut Creek. This we did often that year. It was a year of fun and work as we shared knowledge in this one-room classroom. This setting provided opportunity for older students to help younger pupils with school work and other needs, while I guided class recitations at one corner in the front near my desk (the value of education in one room with grades from 1 through 8 were evident there).
I was offered a contract that doubled my monthly salary for the 1936-37 school year; however, my decision was to forgo the contract offer and accept Vernon’s marriage proposal.
My application for teaching at District 3 was made with the president and vice president of the school board on the bank of a frozen pond near the Republican River where the men of that neighborhood were cutting ice for storage. Not only did those board members learn about me but they taught me the art of ice cutting.
Some time elapsed after that interview, as fifty other applicants were interviewed.
Then, early on a Sunday afternoon just as I was preparing to return to college at Kearney, Elmer Blankenbaker, president of the school board appeared at my parent’s home in Red Cloud. At the conclusion of our visit he informed me that the position as teacher was mine for $35 a month, a salary equivalent to many experienced country school teachers in Webster County. A contract was signed for the 1935-36 school year.
Etta Blankenbaker, Elmer’s widowed aunt offered me board and room at a very minimal cost so she would have someone in the house with her. It was at her kitchen table I did my homework by a kerosene lamp and on her coal range that bricks were heated to be wrapped and placed between two feather bed comforters in my unheated bedroom.
My beautiful half-mile walk to school was on a road that crossed the bridge over Walnut Creek. Either side of the creek was bordered by varieties of trees that were magnificent as the leaves changed to fall colors. After crossing the creek, I could see the District 3 school. No indoor plumbing, running water, electric lights, furnace or piano were present at this school’s physical plant.
Four boys and four girls – plus some dogs greeted the new “school marm” the first day of school in 1935. At noon we took our lunch pails and walked across the road to the grassy area near Walnut Creek. This we did often that year. It was a year of fun and work as we shared knowledge in this one-room classroom. This setting provided opportunity for older students to help younger pupils with school work and other needs, while I guided class recitations at one corner in the front near my desk (the value of education in one room with grades from 1 through 8 were evident there).
I was offered a contract that doubled my monthly salary for the 1936-37 school year; however, my decision was to forgo the contract offer and accept Vernon’s marriage proposal.