Dean Siders Memories of Preston #1 Country School Days

My best memory was in the middle of the year 1945-46.  We, my sister Alta Mae, brothers Francis and Lloyd and I changed schools.  We move from Preston #2 to Preston # 1.  We had a very nice teacher (Miss Tullis) and lots more kids to play with.  I was in the second grade.  I had a classmate and a new friend ( Gene Rolfes).  I remember we had a school softball game against Craig school.  I met another new friend David Galland.  His dad was the barber in Craig that I had been to many times.   The game was at our school.  I didn’t get to play.  Gene was very good and did get to play a short while.  I’m not sure but I think Craig won.  I very clearly remember the new school year the fall of 1947.  We had a new teacher, Miss Wetrosky, Carmen Wetrosky Gronemeyer now.  It was her first year of teaching.  She was fresh out of high school, normal school at le Mars Public School.  She was very pretty and a friendly person.  She was very good to us.  She read to us every day after noon break.  I remember the books of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  She always read one chapter and if it was in a real interesting part she would read more.  Everyday before class started we would raise the flag up the pole and say the Pledge of Allegiance.  When it was real cold we would do the Pledge inside.  Up front of the classroom was a U S flag and also an Iowa flag.  I remember our teacher would always have us prepared for Miss Petersen, the Superintendent of Schools, to come visit.  She was very strict.  She always showed up and spent some time.  We would sit up straight and pay attention.

We would always have a Christmas program every year with a small stage with curtains up front of the classroom.  We all had a piece to say.  We did some plays and as a school group sang Christmas Carols.  We sold popcorn balls.  I think only parents came.  That’s all the room we had in the small schoolroom.  The place was packed.  We all had lots of fun.  In the wintertime we would take our sleds to school and slide down the driveway or go sliding with our feet on the ice in the ditch.  Also when we had a big snow we would dig tunnels in the ditch.  I remember the girls always wore dresses.  When it was cold they had snow pants or jeans that they put on under their dresses. 

When spring came we would all bring a rake to school and all rake the school ground.  We would pile the dead grass, leaves and branches and have a fire for our wiener roast.
In the spring we could go back to riding the merry go round and play ball.  I believe the year 1947 my oldest brother Lloyd was through the eighth grade and was out of school.  My brother Francis went to high school in Le Mars.  My sister Alta Mae went there two years later.  My younger brother Norman started school here at Preston #1 in 1949 and went to Le Mars in 1951. 

I went to Le Mars Public School in 1951 to the seventh grade.  I really missed country school for a while.  It was a big change for a farm boy.  Miss Wetrosky has never been forgotten.  She was a great teacher.

 

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