Greenfield and Other Work to Do

(The camera pans on a fall field, over to a close up of a historic marker. The maker says Greenfield School. The film’s title appears: Other Work to Do. Greenfield School).

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: It was a one room schoolhouse basically, with a big furnace with a jacket around it to heat the place.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: The chalkboards, across the fronts and along the sides was standard schools had the chalkboards and all this chalk and the chalkbrush. After school ends, they did like a job, they could run out and clean those brushes off, so that wasn’t such a bad job, you could get out of school. I think most of the kids kind of viewed that as kind of a privilege if you were chosen to clean the chalkbrushes.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: Annually, they did a good oiling of the hardwood floors. The oil was saturated into the wood. We had a product called Dustbane, kids swept the floors with it, it was a dust control. But all these things now would be such a fire hazards and wouldn’t be acceptable at all.

(Jean Schwengler shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Jean Schwengler: Sometimes the older boys used to bring up- we had a full basement under our school- and the older boys sometimes used bring up a pail of coal, because it was a pot-bellied coal stove. They used to bring up the coal for the teacher. She was the first one at school and she looked after lighting the fire, especially in the wintertime.

(Vera Schmaltz shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Vera Schmaltz: We would sweep them, and somebody would clean the blackboards and somebody else would be sweeping and then wiping off the desks, and it was done everyday after school. In the winter the older boys had to make sure there was always somecoal around for the teacher. As far as water goes, there was a pump in the yard, and everybody used that for their water. For drinking water, we had an earthenware crock with a tap on the bottom and we had our cups lined up on the wall and we each had our own cup. They had a stand there with a bucket with a dipper in it and a basin, and you dipped the water out of that basin and washed your hands and there was a towel on a nail, and you dried your hands and dumped the water outside.

(Jean Schwengler shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Jean Schwengler: In those days, we didn’t do much handwashing, I don’t remember. Not like today.

In 1948-52, my brother and I got the contract to take water to school, because there was no well. We took a five-gallon cream can and filled it full of water every morning. My dad bought us a horse and buggy and it was our responsibility, because we got the money, and we took it across the field and hauled the water into the school.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: The other important person who used to drop in unexpected was the school inspector. The school inspector arrived and he looked like a very important guy. He had a black suit and tie and so on and it was unusual. He came and was inspecting the teacher I am sure, but we thought we were being inspected so we all had to make promises to be on our best behaviour. Our readings and so on would be inspected, but it was so important that that day happened without embarrassment to the teacher.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: The inspector that we had was an interesting character too. They had a big job, they had to go to all the schools around. Their job was to evaluate the teacher as well as the children and look over the school themselves and all the buildings around, and the outhouses, and inspect everything in general. And it was pretty subjective actually, his inspecting.

(Fred Lyczewski shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Fred Lyczewski: When the superintendent come, we sort of backed away a little bit, because they were pretty…well they weren’t that tough, but they were seeing how the teachers were making out and I think the teachers cringed too.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: His physical appearance was that he had very, very thick glasses, he had a big bump on the back of his neck. His one eye was turned and when he pointed to people, his finger was crooked. So you couldn’t tell who he was pointing at when he said, “You”, his finger was pointing maybe to the left and his eye was looking to the right. So that wasn’t very comforting anyway to deal with him.

(the Beiseker Station Museum logo appears).