MARION SCHOOL

There were many one-room schools around in the 1930’s and 40’s. Then somebody got the bright idea of consolidating schools. We who were lucky enough to go to one actually got a pretty good education, better in many cases than the kids of today are now getting. We learned math, reading and writing. We had music class and learned many songs. I still remember many poems we had to learn to recite. The teachers supplemented learning with books, maps and many other learning aids. We had recess every day and played wonderful games of Go-in-and-out-the Windows, Pump-Pump, London Bridges, Tag and soft ball.

Marion School was in Springhill Township in Fayette Co., PA a mile or two north of Point Marion just off Route #119. The average enrollment was 40 or 50 students. The students were neighbors. They were brothers and sisters. They were cousins and sometimes even an aunt or uncle.

Most students were white, probably of Scotch-Irish heritage. However, there were two black girls who went there to school during those early years: Virginia Robinson and Dorothy Clark. They lived with their grandmother, Jennie, on a houseboat anchored near the bridge in the Cheat River. Dorothy and Virginia walked to school as we all did and we all played and studied together. In this election year, I wonder where they are and what they remember and felt during those years at Marion School.

Pennsylvania was better than most states in taking care of the kids. Remember this was the heart of the depression years. But we did not have to buy books. We were given tablets of paper and yellow, number 2 pencils. Kids in West Virginia, just nine or ten miles south, were not so lucky. It is true that sometimes the boys were paddled and the girls had their fingers cracked with rulers. We saluted the flag in the morning. I can’t remember if we said any prayers. In spite (or maybe because) of that, as far as I know, we all turned out to be good people of the world

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