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First graders, teacher remember two-room Bethel School of 1938
No electricity or plumbing Bethel was a two room school house, with no electricity or plumbing. The first through fourth grade students were taught in one classroom and the fifth through eighth grade students were taught in another room. Those present for the reunion were Mrs. Cora Belle, class member Luther Parden and his wife Mae of Grove Hill, class member Gettys Parden and his wife Loxene of Wetumpka, class member Ruby Dee Harper Pysher of Mobile and Mrs. Cora Belle's daughter Barbara Bennett. Mary Anderson Fisher, the only other surviving classmate did not attend. Class members who have passed away include Lois Motes, Edgar Dunegan and Lamar Allday. "I've been thinking about this for about three years now. I found everybody and they all said they'd be here, so here we are," Luther Parden said As the old friends began to reminisce someone asked if there were any photographs. "I don't believe we have any pictures from Bethel. Half of us didn't even know what a camera was," Luther laughed. A typical school day for the group began with a two mile walk to school and then Miss Cora Belle, as they knew her, rang a hand bell at 8 a.m. for the children to come inside. Then she read from the Bible and led the children in The Lord's Prayer. The group had lessons in learning the alphabet and their numbers until recess and resumed their lessons after recess until lunch. Syrup bucket lunches The students took their lunch to school, usually in a syrup bucket, a box or sometimes even a lunch pail. Lunch was usually a baked sweet potato with some butter, once in a while some meat left over from breakfast or biscuits with peanut butter or syrup. During recess the children played hopscotch or climbed trees. Of course there was an occasional fight on the playground too. Apparently Mary made her classmate Gettys mad one day, so he knocked her down and then grabbed her by the leg. "Gettys, what are you doing with Mary's leg," Miss Cora Belle shouted. "I'm going to drag her to the top of the hill so I can roll her down it," he responded. Looked out for other students One student who was remembered fondly by the group was Chesley Estes. Chesley was an older boy who built the fires every morning to warm the school house, filled the buckets up with water from the spring and cleaned the school house at the end of the day. He had a speech impediment and Miss Cora Belle told the students not to let Chesley write them notes, to make him talk. He also looked out for the younger children. Fighting livestock at lunch "Back then we used to sit outside under the trees to eat our lunch. There weren't any stock laws so cows and hogs went wherever they wanted. One day we had just got outside under the trees with our lunches when a hog smelled the groceries. I had a potato in my hand when that hog came up and grabbed my graham cracker box with my lunch in it and took off. Chesley chased him down and got my lunch back and I shared it with him," Luther laughed. "He looked after us kids like he was our big brother." Two students per desk Back then the only school supplies brought by the students were a tablet of paper and a pencil. There were no coloring sheets run off of the copy machine, students had to draw their own pictures with the crayons the teacher passed out. "Two students sat at each desk. The seats were in front and the desk for the next bench was attached to the back of your seat. If you were writing and the person in front of you wiggled it would mess you up," Luther said.
As the group got ready for their picture Luther handed his teacher a shiny red apple. "See, I'm still bringing my teacher an apple," he said.
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