Remembering the Days of the Neighborhood School
By Karen Osburn, Archivist
In 1960 I was 8 years old. Back then everyone attended the neighborhood elementary school, either public or parochial. I looked, with no success, for a photograph of the outside of my old school before I started to write this article. However, I did get a chance to look at their website, which seems to indicate that grades K-5 still go to the same neighborhood school I did. When I went to school it was K-6. Siblings went to school together until they started Jr. High School, 7th grade at that time. Whole groups of neighborhood children trooped off to school in the morning, the older ones shepherding the younger ones, at times with visible reluctance. We walked a route that did not have sidewalks all the way, past construction sites and roadwork that would eventually turn our large rural town into many large subdivisions.
![Colored photo of Lewis Street School](https://historicgeneva.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Lewis-Street-School-300x204.jpg)
Lewis Street School
I don’t remember what the maximum walking distance from a house to the school was before you could ride a bus, but I think it was a ½ mile for K-3rd, ¾ of a mile for 4th – 6th and 1.5 miles for 7th – 12th. Most of us whined about the walk, especially on the days when we had to carry our book bags (no back packs then) and a musical instrument, but it was to no avail. Most families only had one car, which the principle bread winner (most often the father) drove to work so if we weren’t eligible to ride the bus we walked. In a way it was a bit of a benefit since “Walkers” got out earlier than the bus riders. This meant 10 or so extra minutes of freedom and a head start home. I think that was for safety reasons.
The children, who attended Mother of Sorrows’ school across the street, rode the same buses as those of us who went to Paddy Hill Elementary. The bus drivers dropped the public school students off first and the MOS students directly after. It was an arrangement that worked well at that time. We squabbled amongst ourselves at times and the bus drivers often threatened to return us to the school or stop by the roadside until we quieted down. The bigger kids picked on the little kids, and we all told our parents when someone was mean to us.
One of the things that I really enjoyed about my neighborhood school was the ability to visit with the teachers I had in earlier grades and let them know what was going on in my life. I remember visiting Miss Hike, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Robinson, Miss Moganhan, and Mrs. Hughes even when I was in Mr. Shippy’s 6th grade class. My teachers dressed for class, the few male teachers wore suits and ties or sport coats and ties and the women always wore a dress or skirt. School was more formal then.
![Black and white photo of Geneva High School](https://historicgeneva.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Geneva-High-School-bw-300x213.jpg)
Geneva High School
Still we had fun. Mothers baked cupcakes for our birthdays and brought them to school. I doubt anyone worried about contaminants in the homemade treats, though we students often speculated out loud about the contents of our cafeteria lunches. “Ew! I don’t like peas, Lima beans, carrots” or whatever the day’s vegetables were. We had recess and used jungle gyms made of galvanized pipe, and teeter totters made of wood. I am not advocating for a return to those days, I am simply remembering them with fondness.
We had tests in the 1960s. IQ tests were all the rage and if my memory serves me we had them more than once. We would all be anxious about any test, but the IQ ones were the ones for which we were never told the results. At the end of every school year we all lived in fear the teacher would somehow prevent us from advancing to the next grade.
![Black and white photo of North Street School](https://historicgeneva.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/North-Street-School-pg-69-300x234.jpg)
North Street School
I checked the Geneva Public Schools listed in the 1960 Geneva City Directory and found 7 public schools listed, plus Border City School, Waterloo School District No.5. Geneva had a high school, junior high school, North Street School, Prospect Avenue School, West Street School, and the Lewis Street Vocational School. There was even a one-room school house at Glass Factory Bay. Each of the elementary schools served a neighborhood and was an important center of that part of the community. Today, Geneva has West Street School, North Street School, Geneva Middle School and Geneva High School and each of these schools serve the entire population of the city.
I won’t debate the wisdom of neighborhood schools that are dedicated to the smaller age ranges of Pre-K to 2nd and 3rd to 5th and 6th to 8th because I am not an educator and I do not have children in school. But I feel the positive thing about the neighborhood school was that it created communities of parents and children with common bonds and common interests. You knew your neighbors, the houses along the route you walked, and the people who lived in them. You knew whose dogs bit, whose dogs played fetch, which moms would give you a cookie if you stopped over to play with your friends. Perhaps it is just my age, but I know my memories of school in the 1960s are not harsh or sad. Still, it may just be my age…
My mom and her sisters all attended Lewis St. School in the 1920’s. Their mom had also attended it and I am very fortunate to have my grandmother’s class photo , taken in a classroom, from April 1901. I know that they all have or had good and happy memories of Lewis Street and Geneva High.
It doesn’t happen to be this image?
Along with my older brother and twin, I went to West St. school starting in Sep. 1958. After a year or two, my Mom let my brother who was 1 1/2 yrs older than we were, walk us to school from Argyle St. . We had a cousin around the same age who lived nearer to the school so we would stop at his house on the way. We had a brother and 2 Moms keeping track of us, and I don’t remember anything that ever went wrong: certainly it was a simpler time and place. I remember kind teachers and learning to read Curious George books from the tiny library. To this day, if I am lucky enough to be able to pick up chestnuts that have fallen on the ground, and smell that certain earthy, dampness after it rains in the fall, I’m transported right back there.
This is a precious memory and reporting of life at North Street School. I appreciate all that is said here, and it connects with all that I knew as a student of North Street School from 1963- 1967. Thank you for the memories.
I went to North Street School for grades one through five. I loved it. 1951-1956. I remember all my teachers. I walked from Lewis Street.