In the fall of ‘48 I started first grade at the McCloy one-room school which had been there for quite some time in South Beaver Township.

Mrs. Groscost had taught there for what seemed to be forever. McCloy was built up on a bank along a dirt road, and in the Fall the scene was was incredibly bucolic. The school contained grades 1-8. Each grade with only 3-4 students. I would watch all the grades when “Mrs. G.” called them to the bench in front of the class. In that year I learned all the subjects from grades 2 through 8. And in the following year it was more of the same.

A potbelly stove stood in middle of the room. The 8th grade boys would get coal from the coal bin which separated the two outhouses, one for boys and the other for girls. During vacation one winter, volunteers painted the inside of the school a beautiful light lime-green color. When we returned to school that same winter our ink had frozen solid, so my sister put her bottle of red ink, with stopper securely in place, on top of the stove. When the ink heated and boiled, it blew the cork off and splattered red ink all over the newly painted ceiling. My dad repainted the ceiling the next weekend.

After three years at McCloy, we were told we be going to the Blue Ridge one-room schoolhouse. I didn’t know where it was, but learned that it sat on a ten acre field opposite Miskito Lake on Rt. 68. As a fourth grader, I asked the fifth and sixth graders to help me set up a softball field. They mowed the 10 acres and left long grass lie on the field. We found an old rail fence and used the logs to build log cabins and stuffed grass between the logs to create a shelter. Mr. Beatty from New Galilee taught the eight grades at Blue Ridge, and I credit him with giving me a strong foundation in math. He was also a community thespian (actor-performer), so we did a lot of patriotic singing.

After Mr. Beatty retired, Miss Mary Prato joined us. Her brother Tony taught at the Court School down on Rt. 251. They made an agreement and Tony took the few 7th and 8th graders to Court School and Mary was left with grades 1-6. Either she or her brother paid me $2 a month to carry water from the Golnick home a half mile away. I took a stick and notched it so I could carry the pail of water with a classmate. I put the water in a five gallon crock with a faucet. We thirty kids used five gallons every day. I never told anyone I got paid for hauling the water. It seemed like “big bucks,” but it was only ten cents a trip.

Miss Prato showed me how to create mnemonic devices that served me for the rest of my life and in my 38 year teaching career. She also drilled us in math and would compete with us doing problems on the board. I beat her almost all the time (but she probably let me win.)

Mr. Bennett from Baden came for sixth grade. On the first day he was just sitting in his car and we knew it was way past 8 or 9am. So I went over to him and asked if he was our new teacher. He was visibly shocked. “They didn’t tell me it was a one-room school. There’s no running water!” he exclaimed. I told him I had the water situation handled and the prior teacher paid me for hauling it to the school. Poor Mr. Bennett. He survived. He would take me during lunch hour down to Treasure’s gas station and buy me a coke, and we’d eat our lunch while he would complain to me about things. He stuck it out, though, and when South Beaver Elementary School was built, he was named principal and taught a combined 5-6 grade class. As it turned out, I always felt a little betrayed by him. After coming to the new school, our special relationship from the year before had vanished. I couldn’t get a good morning out of him.

At South Beaver Elementary, we were joined by kids from Johnson school on Rt. 68 and St. Rests on Rt. 251. We had classes if 15, which included the highly competitive Gary Cox. I always though he was a genius.

~ Larry Vosovic, Northwestern High School (1961), now living in California