Ed. note: Pearl takes us through late Summer of 1915 into her sixth grade in school. She has many interesting observations about her new “two room” schoolhouse, a new teacher, new fellow students, some “spooky” experiences. Enjoy. RAN
I have mentioned before that our large windows had no shades nor drapes to cover them, and as a result, I had three unusual experiences with these windows. I may not recall these incidents in their proper sequences, which is not important anyway.
One warm night I awoke in mine and Billy’s bedroom on the southwest corner, climbed out of bed, passed through Mama’s and Papa’s bedroom, went into the kitchen, to the north window to the bench where my clothes were deposited the night before, put them on and went into Grandma’s bedroom, which was the southeast room. I didn’t get into her bed, but instead, I lay down on the crocheted rag rug beside her bed. I went back to sleep for awhile. I awoke, got up, retraced my steps, undressed, went back to my bed and to sleep again. The uncanny thing about it all, is that I was conscious that I was doing this without realizing why. I told Mama and Papa about it the next morning but they didn’t believe me, thinking I had dreamed it. But I said no, that I had remembered looking through the window at the lights of Randlett as I dressed!
Another incident occurred when I was sleeping in Grandma’s room alone. I might have been a bit feverish, although Papa detected nothing abnormal about my health. I had been asleep and awoke to see what seemed to me the window in the walk-in closet on the east of this room, moving up and down. The door between the two rooms was closed, but I was not aware of that. It was such an eerie sight, I began to scream at Papa that the window was moving up and down! He came quickly, showed me that the door was closed so that I couldn’t see that window. What I really saw was an automobile coming along the road from Randlett, shining its headlights through the north kitchen window which reflected on the south wall of my bedroom. As the car moved along over the uneven terrain of the road, the form of the lighted window appeared to move up and down. Papa heard the car pass by as he came to see my apparition, which was readily explained.
The third experience was somewhat more mature in its nature. Two experiences in my school life contributed to this. To begin with, we had read “Abou ben Adhem”, a poem by Leigh Hunt in our reading class. The poem was a bit repulsive to me as it had ghostlike connotations, but as I walked alone from school, I memorized poetry, and Abou ben Adhem was no exception. Billy was in school, too, but he would run on ahead with the other small boys. I had other girls along with me up to the last mile or so, but I was a slow walker so I quoted poetry along the way. Secondly, there was a scare going around that the end of the world was near. Martha Wyatt, my best friend, was the one who was the most vocal in this idea that she had heard from her parents. I spoke to Papa about the possibility, he only shook his head, negatively, saying that those rumors had been going around periodically, ever since Jesus went away from the earth, back to heaven. No one knows when His return will occur, he assured me, so don’t let the rumors disturb you! I was assured, somewhat, but one night I couldn’t go to sleep for thinking about the possibility. The full moon directly over my south bedroom window threw a full shaft of light on the floor beside my bed. In view of all the rumors, poetry, sparked by my imagination, I thought, what if an angel should appear in this shaft of light, writing in a book? Should I speak to him or would I freeze with fear? Nothing happened, of course. I had learned the poem from the beginning, “Abou ben Adhem, may his tribe increase…” to “…write me as one who loves his fellowman…”, plus a few lines more. I slept in peace, but the rumor troubled me for some days until I finally concluded that it was only a rumor.
I must relate another occurrence in mine and Billy’s bedroom while we were all away from home. When we returned, Mama or Papa caught a glance into the room and saw our bed and the floor around it covered with plaster which had fallen from the ceiling! We had noticed some patches of plaster that had fallen from the walls, but the ceilings seemed to be still intact. This experience made us wonder if and when it might happen again.
Ed. note: The link below has an Oklahoma Historical Society article on the early history of traveling teachers doing “Singing Schools”. Enjoy! RAN
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=SH007
Some time in 1915 in the spring before the end of school, there was a singing school held at Valley View. Papa, being a singer, knew the “do, re, mi’s”, and all that, so he promised to take me to the singing school. All of my classmates were going, so that was the thing to do. I don’t recall how Papa and I went to the school house. We probably walked, at least a part of the way, then maybe caught a ride in a wagon the remainder of the way. I cannot imagine Papa’s hitching up the tired team for us to attend ten nights of singing school. So our one time attendance was the extent of our singing school. But I hear all about it from Ruth Vaughn, Zola Short, Frances Jackson and others. The theme song of the school was “Twilight is Stealing”. My older readers will recall this song. The reason for the use of this hymn, probably, was the way in which it was written; a song in which all parts were good learning tools in singing instruction. The girls, walking around singing at recess time made me sad that I missed the singing school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47-7aJbfDgg. Ed. note: A more modern rendering of this Twilight in Stealing. Enjoy. RAN
We sang together as we walked home from school and Zola Short taught us a beautiful old song, “Just Before the Battle, Mother” – a Civil War song, I believe, but handed down through the generations. The song has a somber, but truthful message, and is easily sung. Zola had a good singing voice, a voice that was soft and well modulated in speaking as in singing. She had a good sense of dry humor, and I remember this impression I had of her when someone would say something “funny”, which was not amusing to Zola. While the speaker laughed and made other comical antics, which were a bit ridiculous, she would say “You must be silly!” This would really emit laughter from us all, while Zola smiled, dryly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnfh5-FRfnI. Ed. note: Tennesee Ernie Ford’s recording of “Just Before the Battle, Mother”. Enjoy. RAN
Following the eventful summer of 1915, at last, school bells began to ring again. Only a few of the students had been around the school building at Valley View during vacation, so the greater number of us had a big surprise awaiting us. Instead of the neat one room school building, facing the south with four rows of desks running north and south, we saw our classroom turned around, and rebuilt. There were windows on the south instead of the door, with several rows of east-west desks were arranged in the newly remodeled classroom. A blackboard was all across the north wall. A wide stage to the west jutted out from the classroom with windows on the north and south.
Thinking of those windows reminds me of an incident one rainy afternoon, when two of our more ambitious sixth grade students asked if we might sit up close to the light by the windows to study. (No electric lights then, you know!) I went up on the stage by the south window and sat down to read. I glanced up and there was a friend sitting by a west window on the main classroom floor smiling at me. I smiled back as it was a very unusual setting; we two kids smiling through two windows in a downpour of rain, I shall never forget that incident and I would guess that Floyd Jackson, too, remembered it to the end of his life!
Continuing with the discussion of the remodeled school house, instead, of windows on the east we found a series of folding doors installed to form the west wall for the newly attached classroom on the east. An exit from the remodeled classroom just described, led from the southeast corner into a vestibule which rose into a belfry overhead. Likewise, entry was made into the new classroom through the vestibule. The remodeled classroom was for the upper grades and the new classroom accommodated the four lower grades. An exit in the northwest corner of the new classroom formed an easily accessible outlet to the playground for the lower grades. As I was not involved in the rules and schedules for the lower grades, my impressions concerning their activities were practically nil, but I recall surveying the newly remodeled school building on the first day of school and standing by the north exit of the new room I met for the first time, Ruby Short, young sister of Zola, who graciously introduced me to her. I fell in love with her at first sight, with her soft brown eyes and blond braided hair, her winsome smile. She was a couple of years younger than I but at that period in my life, I seemed to gravitate toward the slightly younger set, probably because I was used to associating with my younger brother; maybe I could be more authoritative in that set, too! Who knows?
Besides the new school at Valley View, we had new teachers. I don’t remember the elementary teacher’s name, but our teacher was Mr. Gillett, who resided in Burkburnett, Texas. He was an older man, early fifties, perhaps, a religious man, apparently, considering his gentle, but subtle influence in the classroom. That year we learned to sing, majoring on the Stephen Foster songs and other songs of that era. We sung a new song to the melody of “Old Black Joe”, entitled, “I Love Him”, a gospel song. I remember Mr. Gillett wrote the three stanzas on the blackboard for us to copy that we might learn the entire song. This was a new experience, singing in the classroom, or anywhere in a group, as we did not attend church and Sunday School with any degree of regularity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGcwjuNrlqs Ed. note: This link is sort of unrelated to Pearl’s reference to the song. Still, the song was well known in Pearl’s childhood and in my childhood in the 1940s. Paul Robison, the wonderful baritone can be heard on this youtube recording. He uses “Poor Old Joe” as the title rather than “Old Black Joe” that Stephen Foster used for the title of his composition. Robison is black and focused on the person, not the color of his skin. Interesting twist.
Mr. Gillett was a good disciplinarian, with gentle, but firm authority. I recall only once when he seemed taken aback, appearing un-authoritative. Papa had dropped Billy and me off at school early on his way to Burkburnett, so decided to go in to see if the teacher or someone else was in charge. Mr. Gillett walked in just as we got into the cold classroom. The teacher set about building the fire immediately, explaining quietly, in a subdued voice, why he was late. Papa helped him get the fire going,
I thought of him, seeming, very strong and very decidedly, in control. This was quite a contrast as we were used to Mr. Gillett being in complete control in his realm, but he was embarrassed, I’m sure, to meet a school patron who had brought his children – others were also there early – and found the building cold and with no one in charge. That unusual impression of Mr. Gillett did not lower my estimation of him as an authority and an educator, however. I had great respect for him and loved him as a teacher. The sixth grade was a challenge to me in all areas: reading, geography, arithmetic and grammar. I was really beginning to feel grown up.
Sometime that fall, maybe just before Christmas, Mama’s father came to see us. We were not privileged to meet her mother, but we felt really honored to have a visit by “Grandpa Savage”. He was visiting in other points in Oklahoma and Texas, so Mama’s brother, Noel Savage, at Wellington, Texas, wrote us to say that Grandpa Savage would travel to Burkburnett, Texas, by train where Papa would meet him at the depot. Papa was hauling his cotton crop to the gin at Burk, so when the cotton was unloaded at the gin, Papa proceeded to the train station to wait for Grandpa, who was happy to meet him for the first time, the husband of his oldest daughter. He was equally anxious to see Betty and his new grandson, now nearing one year of age. He bought Arthur a new red high chair before he left town. When they arrived at home, Billy and I met the wagon in the yard, jumping up and down with glee as we saw our new grandpa, we noticed immediately the new red high chair for our baby brother.
Grandpa Savage was not really a fun grandpa. He had a serious manner and spent most of his time talking with Mama Betty as he filled her in on the goings on around the neighborhood back home. He rode around with Papa some and met the kinfolk who lived close by. He was soon ready to begin the journey back to Tennessee, but the short visit was profitable to him as well as to our family, despite his quiet, reserved way.
Christmas was drawing near so Mama bought material and made me a new red dress for Christmas that year of 1915. It was a loose woven material with an iridescent effect. Mama bought a pattern as I was growing so fast, nothing I had before would fit me now. The waist, or top of the dress gathered slightly onto the paneled skirt. There was a band at the neck, it fastened in the back with buttons. The front of the waist was designed with narrow bands stitched from shoulder to center front, which formed a “V”, ornamented with satin covered buttons. Sleeves were long, tapered at the hand with a fullness at the shoulders. I was very proud of my new Christmas dress.
Mr. Gillett led us in preparing a beautiful Christmas program that year. I somehow, don’t recall any of the recitations, but I remember the greeting song that opened the program. Mr. Gillett wrote it on the blackboard, had us all to copy it, and we practiced it over and over! It follows:
We bring you happy greetings,
We welcome all tonight;
We’ll sing away the shadows
Till every heart is light.
Chorus
We come with happy greetings,
Good will to all we bring,
With peace and love and blessings
That crowned our Saviour king!
Good will to all we cherish
This happy Christmas time,
May every heart by happy
With words and deeds sublime.
This was sung by the grades, five through eight, but the entire school joined in the program. The folding doors between the two rooms were pushed back and it seemed that the enlarged building was filled with parents and friends as we welcomed Santa Claus and each student took a gift from the massive, beautifully decorated Christmas tree! It was an unforgettable evening!
Ed. note: As the new year 1916 arrives, Pearl makes new friends and discovers her love for writing, and some ability discovered along the way. Stay tuned! RAN