ROSEBERRY

1. Before our family came to live permanently in the Roseberry district, we
2. came down from Edmonton every summer to spend the holidays. My father
3. had bought land in the district and came down to work the land, while
4. keeping the family in the city and in school there. The farm was a great
5. holiday for us and a change from city life. We just had a one-roomed
6. shack which Dad had built, so we thought it was just like camping.
7.  
8. Up the road a mile, lived a little girl with whom I had made friends the
9. first summer we were on the farm. She had a pony called Birdie which she
10. often rode down to our place. She would give us rides. Edie Ulick went to
11. Roseberry school. She told me all about it. It seemed strange to me that
12. all the grades would be in one room. I really thought that I would like to
13. attend a school like the one she told me about.
14.  
15. Soon after coming to the farm the first summer, we were invited to
16. attend a “Social” at the school. We drove to it in a buggy pulled by one of
17. our work horses. Children said recitations which they had learned at
18. home. There was some singing and lunch was served. Mainly it was a get-
19. together for all the families and it took place every couple of weeks.
20.  
21. One spring I got my wish to attend this country school. My brother had
22. been sick and thinking that the country air would do him good, my parents
23. decided to come to the farm a month ahead. They left my older brother
24. George in Edmonton with friends to finish out his school year. They just
25. took me out of school. Soon after our arrival on the farm Edie came and
26. asked me to go to school with her. I was more than willing. My lunch was
27. packed in a lard pail—just like hers. I rode behind her on the pony, holding
28. on to her with one arm and my lunch pail with the other. All went well
29. until about half a mile from home we decided to ride a lot faster. Exactly
30. what happened I don’t know except that we both flew off and landed on the
31. road. Our lunch was scattered all over and I remember us trying to pick it
32. up out of the sandy road, and stuffing it back into the pails.
33.  
34. When we arrived at school, we were soon surrounded by the other children.
35. A lady came out and rang a bell and the children lined up like soldiers in
36. front of the outdoor steps. We were marched in and I was told that I could
37. sit with Edie in her double desk. The teacher was Mrs. Harper. I remember
38. how the children all had slates. They cleaned them with little wet rags.
39. Paper was only used for very special things. I had never seen slates in
40. school before. This was about 1921 and the slates and double desks were
41. a novelty to me. The teacher was very strict but when I think back I think
42. she gave a lot to those children. We had exercises during which she taught
43. us how to do the Highland Fling and other dances. One day she packed us
44. all in her democrat and drove us several miles to a big slough to see
45. muskrat houses and anything else we could find of interest. She really had
46. us looking every day for strange birds and encouraged us to gather wild
47. flowers and look up all the names of birds and flowers that we found. We
48. ready many books in our search and I learned more about these things than I
49. have ever learned before.
50.  
51. The school was like any other rural school at that time. On the wall was a
52. picture of King George V and Queen Mary. Several maps hung above the
53. blackboards and a battered globe was hung from the ceiling. The children
54. washed their hands in a basin and used a towel on rollers. Water was in a
55. pail and each child brought a cup from home.
56.  
57. Outside was a small barn to house the horses some children rode to school.
58. Two outhouses were the toilets. There was a large yard where the
59. children played. I attended Roseberry school all that month and enjoyed
60. this new experience. After the holidays, my parents decided to stay on the
61. farm until after harvest was over, so now we all went to the country
62. school including my brother, who had come down from Edmonton, and my
63. younger brother Jack who was now old enough to start school. We usually
64. walked the 2-½ miles to school. We went back to Edmonton at the end of
65. September. Five years later we moved out to the farm permanently.
66.  
67. I was now in Grade VIII, and there had been quite a few changes in the
68. school. The teacher was Miss Luella Hamilton—a young lady whom we all
69. thought was wonderful. She was not very tall but with her pretty blonde
70. curly hair we thought she was beautiful. The old time slates were gone
71. and the children used scribblers and pencils. Pen handles with nibs were
72. used to dip into the inkwells on the desks. The double desks were still in
73. use and I don’t think that they were ever replaced.
74.  
75. After some gopher had been pumped out of the well, it was decided that
76. it shouldn’t be used, so arrangments were made for water to be brought
77. from certain homes in a good cream can. It was brought fresh every day.
78. Some of the children were paid a small sum to do the janitor work. This
79. consisted of dusting, sweeping and in the winter building the fire in the
80. big pot-bellied stove which stood in the middle of the school room.
81.  
82. Social life took the form of card parties in the school, or dances about
83. every second Friday. It usually had music by a pick-up orchestra of anyone
84. who could play an instrument. One year my mother directed a play. The
85. local “actors” practised all winter and it was such a success that it
86. became an annual affair. People made their own fun. One of my memories
87. is of coming home one night late, after a party at Roseberry school. It
88. was very cold and as the horses trotted along, pulling our sleigh, my
89. father had us all looking at the northern lights. Such a display!
90.  
91. We had a piano and every year, just before Christmas, my father took it
92. down to the school so the teacher could use it to prepare the children for
93. the annual Christmas concert. This was the big event of the year. All the
94. children received bags of candy and a gift from Santa. It was before we
95. had electricity and the big tree was lit up by wax candles. There had been
96. cases of trees catching fire and actually of schools burning down, so
97. lighting the candles was a ritual. My father and some of the other men
98. stood around the tree. My father carefully lit each candle. Soon it was
99. twinkling and shining in all its glory while the men kept careful watch
100. with a pail of water nearby. It was let burn for a while for everyone to
101. enjoy and then the candles were put out.
102.  
103. One year a glee club was formed, instigated by a young teacher named
104. Helen Deeton. All the young people went once a week to learn to sing many
105. of the old favourite songs. These young people contributed their songs to
106. various entertainments throughout the year.
107.  
108. One event that I well remember was coming to school one morning and
109. finding, that although all the children were soon there, our teacher, Miss
110. Hamilton had not arrived. We waited until long after school should have
111. started but still no teacher had appeared. We decided to go down the road
112. to see if we could see her coming in the buggy with the two little boys
113. who gave her a ride to school each day. When we passed around a
114. bush that hid the road farther on we saw the buggy in the middle of a big
115. slough and the horse was lying down in the water. Miss Hamilton was
116. trying to get the horse to stand up but it was refusing to move. When we
117. got closer she told us that the two little boys, who were supposed to take
118. the trail around the slough, had insisted on trying to go through it instead.
119. The horse had decided to lie down and they were stranded. We said we
120. would go for help. We all went running down the road for about a mile
121. towards Mr. Charlie Savard’s farm. We saw Charlie over in his field
122. seeding with four horses on his seed drill. When we reached him and told
123. him where our teacher was, he unhooked his horse and riding one and
124. leading the others, he rode away to the slough. We all followed and saw
125. Charlie ride into the slough and get Miss Hamilton on the horse behind him
126. and bring her safely to dry ground. Then he rode back in and taking the
127. balky horse by the bridle managed to get him up and made him pull the
128. buggy with the two little culprits to the road. We finally got back to
129. school. Most of the morning was gone. I guess Miss Hamilton wasn’t in the
130. mood to teach so she told us that she thought it was a good idea to clean
131. the school yard. We got the rakes out and were busy raking and picking up,
132. when a car drove into the yard. Miss Hamilton went quickly over to greet
133. the inspector, who wanted to know why the school wasn’t in session. Miss
134. Hamilton told him as best she could about what had happened. He was very
135. nice and with a smile on his face he said that he would come back another
136. day.
137.  
138. Some sixty years have passed since I went to Roseberry School. I have
139. always been thankful that I had those years in a school with all the
140. grades. Before that I had always been in a school with only one grade to a
141. room. After I went teaching myself, I am sure the early experience at
142. Roseberry with children from Grades one to nine in one room had been a
143. real help to me when I was faced with several grades to a room.

Roseberry
Submitted by Winnifred Alexander

132-135