One Room Schoolhouse

"We walked a mile to school, uphill, both ways" goes the old saying.   It's not that far off in this case.  

While out exploring the old farms in my husband's family this summer, his father pointed to this lonely building and said, "That's the one-room schoolhouse we attended growing up."  He turned and pointed in the other direction, "We walked about a mile through that field to get home."  

"Even in the winter?" someone asked.

"No, in the winter Dad brought us in the sleigh.  That was kind of fun."

I imagined riding in a horse-drawn sleigh to school. How very Laura Ingalls Wilder it seemed. I am quite sure my imaginations are far more romanticized than the actual event would have been. These are North Dakota winters we are talking about, wind-whipped open prairie plummeting the temps far below zero.  I bet the last place I would want to be would be in an open sleigh.

Still, it is fun to romanticize this dilapidated old schoolhouse with its wall of sunny windows and one brick chimney to warm chilly children while they studied.  To imagine how they played in the wide open fields at recess and how the snow must have piled against the door during snow-blurred days.  Uphill both ways maybe not, but much more challenging than the one block I walked to my elementary school thirty years ago.

52 Photos :: White