Former Pike Hill students reminisce about school days
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Students walked half a mile to get drinking water from a spring and also drank rain water that ran off the schoolhouse roof into a cistern. The building was heated by a pot-bellied stove, and a trip to the restroom meant a trip to an outhouse, although there were separate facilities for boys and girls.
Despite the lack of modern conveniences, former students have nothing but fond memories of Pike Hill School, which was open from 1905 to 1951.
?Those were the best of times, we just didn?t know it,? said former student Charlotte Tuck Pearsall, who indicated school was held no matter how much snow was on the ground. There weren?t concerns about a bus accident because all the students walked to school.
?I?d wear big, old stockings to trudge through the snow and they?d be soaking wet by the time I got to school,? said Pearsall. ?When I got there I?d have to hang them by the stove to get them dry.?
The school is no longer standing at its familiar spot on Pike Hill Road and former students have worked hard to place a sign on the property commemorating the schoolhouse. They have also scheduled their first class reunion set to take place Saturday, May 27, which is Memorial Day weekend.
?We wanted to have the reunion over a holiday so if people needed to travel they would have plenty of time,? said Laura Wilson Bryant, who chairs the reunion committee.
The reunion is sure to feature much reminiscing about days of yesteryear. There was no shortage of that last week when several former students stopped by the Standard office.
Pike Hill was initially a one-room schoolhouse that was eventually made into two rooms. Students in grades 1-8 attended. A play was held each year the night of eighth-grade graduation.
?We went to school when teachers had control of students, not students in control of teachers,? said Paul Rowland, a 1943 graduate. ?If we needed a paddling, we got a paddling.?
When Pike Hill School was thriving, automobiles were scarce. In fact, former students didn?t have much trouble identifying all the people in the Pike Hill community who owned a car at that time.
?Those were the days when there was one school and one church for each community,? said former student Wayne Pryor, who is now a Warren County commissioner. ?Each community was about a mile in radius because people had to walk. As transportation got more advanced, communities got bigger.?
There was no road ? only a path ? leading up to the school on the hill. Most students walked through the woods and behind the cemetery to get to class.
In the winter, the boys were in charge of loading coal into the stove. They were also known to chase girls around the school yard with dead snakes. Other mischief involved the outhouses.
?On Halloween, we?d tip them over,? said former student Thelma Masey.
The total school population stayed around 50 students with usually about five students in each grade. Rowland said he believes his graduating class of ?43, which contained 10 members, was the largest ever. He said a nearby country store was a popular after-school spot.
?You could get a chunk of cheese out of the barrel and some crackers,? said Rowland. ?And back then that was enough to hold you.?
Students played basketball in the dirt, got into some heated games of dodgeball, and took pride in winning regular spelling bee?s. There was also an emphasis on patriotism.
?Not a day went by when we didn?t go out and say the ?Pledge of Allegiance? by the flagpole and sing patriotic songs,? said Pryor.
The reunion will be held May 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mt. Leo Church of Christ annex building. Guest speaker Bobby Newby will talk at 11 a.m., and lunch catered by Main Street Bakery is at noon. The cost is $10. Billy and Charlotte Wilson from Covington, Ga., will provide entertainment.
Call Pryor at 668-4299 or Bryant at 474-0303 if you plan to attend.