Memories of Castle Haven School

Sophie Kirwin Jones (1896 – 1979)

Written in Spring, 1971

         We attended public school at Castle Haven. This was a one room school, in which Cousin Rita Cator taught all eight grades, and that is where I received my elementary education. I am all for modern advantages in education, but in that little country school, we received fundamentals which have remained with me all my life and which I find sadly lacking in many high school graduates today.

           All of our seat work was done on slates with slate pencils, and when our class lessons were being heard, we went to the blackboard to do our sums or sentences.

         While one class recited, the others were supposedly busy with some seat work, but being exposed to older classes, you learned by “absorption”. We really learned our reading and ‘rithmetic – I never really learned to write as the style of penmanship changed while I was in grade school, and I never became good in any style, though part of each day we spent practicing writing wise sayings in our copy books. The older children helped the younger, and there was a real feeling of community endeavor.

            Friday afternoon we had “recitations” or some other form of entertainment – even songs, though we had no musical instrument. Cousin Rita was a wonderful teacher – young and pretty, patient and kind, and she really inspired her pupils. She boarded with the George Sewards, who lived in the first house in Castle Haven. There was a small home of colored people between there and the school and one very cute little boy who used to wait at his gate every afternoon for Cousin Rita to pass. She always saved something of her lunch for him. We all carried our lunch to school – most of us in tin pails, but some few had dainty baskets. I remember envying one family who brought lovely homemade pickled grapes in jelly glasses or big pieces of homemade cake – a rare item at our house.

            The last day of school we had a strawberry “festival”. The parents furnished cakes, and Cousin Rita bought a freezer of ice cream – we played games and had a great time.

            With few exceptions, we all walked to school – some children as much as three miles. We lived only about ¼ mile from school, but I can remember how cold we got going that distance in winter. The Dawson girls drove a horse and buggy as they got older and hitched their horse to one of the trees in the school yard. A few boys rode bikes, but mostly we walked. I remember in the very cold weather, in addition to our usual outer garments and our long underwear, we girls wore a cotton garment much like today’s pantyhose. We pulled it on under our dresses, and tied it around our waist, and removed it when we got to school, even though our legs were covered with long black heavy ribbed stockings. With all that clothing, I can still remember how cold we often were when we reached school, where a coal fire had been kept overnight, but it was a long time before the room was really warm. I have memories of Cousin Rita putting our hands in cold water to warm them.

            The older boys chopped wood, brought in the coal, and went for fresh water each day. There was no well on the school ground, but they went to a home nearby, which had a “flow”, and brought back a large bucket of water – we had two dippers, one for boys and one for girls to drink from. Our toilets were outside in back of the school with the coal house in between the ‘girls” and ‘boys” and a fence dividing them.