1931 - Walking to School in the Snow

1931 - Walking to School in the Snow

It is almost hilarious to hear these kids talk about no school because of snow. There was no snow as deep as what I walked through to go to the school at Winfrey. I would walk down from the top of one mountain and to the top of the other mountain. I walked in the snow past the company store, past the tipple, past the bathhouse, past the church; and up the other mountain to the schoolhouse. When we got to school we had radiators that kept the school warm. Our shoes and socks were always wet by the time we got to school. The teacher would have us take our shoes and socks off. Our shoes were actually knee boots that laced up. At any rate our feet would be wet and our socks. So the teacher would hang our wet socks on the radiator, our wet coats up over the radiators, and shoes down below the radiators. I think the teachers back in those days had more work with a lot less pay than the teachers now do.

Back to elementary school. I want to say something about that church we would pass going to school each. We all thought that our church was the most beautiful church there ever was. The miners worked all of one day a year for the upkeep of that church and they had done the same thing to have the church built. It was Bedford stone, had stain glass windows, a great big basement with a kitchen, dining room, and a recreation room with ping pong and all kinds of games to play. We didn’t get into much trouble back in those days. We went there on weekends, we weren’t allowed during the week when school was going on. The local Homemakers Club, the Boy and Girl Scouts, just everybody all met there; because that Church was our community center.