My first year of teaching was at Mack School District 29 in Buffalo Co. I was 17 years old and got $60 a month for nine months.
In the winter I boarded ½ mile from the school so after that walk I would arrive at school with cold hands and feet and a cold school. I would put a basket of cobs in the stove to get the fire going and while they were burning I’d fill the basket with cobs for the next morning. By that time I’d have a good fire to put the coal on.
That year I bough a lot of hand soap as at night the mice would come in the hall and have a meal of soap. I set a trap every night and caught a mouse every night. Thank goodness it was always a dead mouse as I hated mice.
The next two years I taught at Concord School District 45. The first year I got $100 a month for nine months. The second year there my salary was $93.75 a month, but it was paid for all 12 months. It was nice to have a pay check coming in while I was going back to college for the summer months.
Concord School was heated with a kerosene heater. That sounded great until it got cold and the heater would not hold enough kerosene to run on low for the weekend and it was too slow to get the room warm by lighting it in the morning so it meant going over on Sunday night to light the stove. Sometimes it would give a puff as it started and I was missing some eyebrows for a while.
My parents lived 3 ¼ miles from Concord so I lived at home. In nice weather I rode horseback to school which was fine except the horse did not like to be tied to a tree all day and would get the halter off and go home. I was left with only the halter and rope tied to the tree. When the horse came home alone someone would come after me.
One year the Youth Group decided to have an ice skating party on New Years Eve and go to the movie at the World Theater afterward. Starting school the next day after Christmas vacation and sleepy wasn’t easy. In the afternoon the door opened and in walked the county superintendent to observe my teaching. I really woke up in a hurry.
I loved working with children, but the next year I went to Mitchell, Nebraska. Town school had new challenges and I enjoyed all 44 years of teaching.
In the winter I boarded ½ mile from the school so after that walk I would arrive at school with cold hands and feet and a cold school. I would put a basket of cobs in the stove to get the fire going and while they were burning I’d fill the basket with cobs for the next morning. By that time I’d have a good fire to put the coal on.
That year I bough a lot of hand soap as at night the mice would come in the hall and have a meal of soap. I set a trap every night and caught a mouse every night. Thank goodness it was always a dead mouse as I hated mice.
The next two years I taught at Concord School District 45. The first year I got $100 a month for nine months. The second year there my salary was $93.75 a month, but it was paid for all 12 months. It was nice to have a pay check coming in while I was going back to college for the summer months.
Concord School was heated with a kerosene heater. That sounded great until it got cold and the heater would not hold enough kerosene to run on low for the weekend and it was too slow to get the room warm by lighting it in the morning so it meant going over on Sunday night to light the stove. Sometimes it would give a puff as it started and I was missing some eyebrows for a while.
My parents lived 3 ¼ miles from Concord so I lived at home. In nice weather I rode horseback to school which was fine except the horse did not like to be tied to a tree all day and would get the halter off and go home. I was left with only the halter and rope tied to the tree. When the horse came home alone someone would come after me.
One year the Youth Group decided to have an ice skating party on New Years Eve and go to the movie at the World Theater afterward. Starting school the next day after Christmas vacation and sleepy wasn’t easy. In the afternoon the door opened and in walked the county superintendent to observe my teaching. I really woke up in a hurry.
I loved working with children, but the next year I went to Mitchell, Nebraska. Town school had new challenges and I enjoyed all 44 years of teaching.