Life in a Small Town
Cherrywood Store and Life in Cherrywood 1928 ---1942
Written by Bob Morrish September 2005
This story covers some history about Cherrywood and Cherrywood store and many of the things that I can remember from when I lived there in the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties. I also obtained information from conversations and letters from people who lived in Cherrywood during the same time-- Mac & Elizabeth Armstrong, Emily Pearse (Petty), Mary Brown (Somerville), Phyllis Cockburn (Gates), John & Mary Teefy, Don Stewart, Merna & Betty Burkholder and my brothers and sister. I obtained most of the history from Helen Alves daughter of Agnes Alves ( Petty) and John Sabean of the Pickering historical society.
Written by Bob Morrish September 2005
This story covers some history about Cherrywood and Cherrywood store and many of the things that I can remember from when I lived there in the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties. I also obtained information from conversations and letters from people who lived in Cherrywood during the same time-- Mac & Elizabeth Armstrong, Emily Pearse (Petty), Mary Brown (Somerville), Phyllis Cockburn (Gates), John & Mary Teefy, Don Stewart, Merna & Betty Burkholder and my brothers and sister. I obtained most of the history from Helen Alves daughter of Agnes Alves ( Petty) and John Sabean of the Pickering historical society.
THE STORY
The store and the dwelling where the Roy Morrish family lived was built in 1872 by Charles Petty, a pioneer and entrepreneur who also built and operated Cherrywood brick yard and owned and operated a farm in the village. Charles Petty never operated the store, but leased it to various storekeepers. Some of the storekeepers were Williams,Cranson,Murray Summerfelt, Alfred McPherson, John Green, Tom Robins,Thomas Law, Robert Davidson and our father Roy Morrish who leased and operated it from 1921 until 1935.From 1929 to 1935 Our mother, Ella, and father, Roy also owned and operated a store in Pickering. They also owned a barber shop which was leased to Chester Butt, the village barber. In 1935 the Cherrywood store became available for outright purchase so our Mother and Father decided to buy it. Running the two stores, one in Pickering and one in Cherrywood was becoming too much work so they leased the store in Pickering to Ross Murison and a Mr. Booth. One or two years later Booth & Murison bought the store in Pickering. Our mother & father bought the dwelling and store in Cherrywood from the Petty estate in 1935 . The old barn and ice storage shed were demolished and the barn was rebuilt to make it more efficient for handling feed and coal and providing protection for the trucks and car. The store was rebuilt and a new dwelling was built on to the west side of the store The business included a coal storage shed and scales, first along side the Canadian Northern Railway in Cherrywood , and when the Canadian Northern was abandoned (I believe in 1929), the coal shed and scales were moved to the south side of the tracks opposite the Canadian Pacific Railway station in Cherrywood and the business was served by Canadian Pacific.
There was no hydro power in Cherrywood untill 1929. Before 1929 lighting was provided by coal oil lights, naptha gas lights and wax candles. We had two coal furnaces for heating . Our kitchen stove was fueled by wood or coal untill 1929 and when electricity was installed we had a combination wood and coal stove for cooking . We had ice refrigerators untill 1936. The ice was cut and hauled from Whitevale pond and stored
in an ice house behind the barn. A deep covering of saw dust prevented the ice from melting througout the summer. Depending on the weather, usualy every , a block or two of ice was removed from under the saw dust and placed in a compartment in the top of the refrigerator. Perishable foods were stored in the bottom of the refrigerator.
We did not have indoor plumbing untill 1936 when our new house was built beside the store.
The store and facilities at Cherrywood provided most of the things needed by the people of the community and surrounding farms,--groceries, tea, coffee, dry goods like, linens, overalls, socks, boots, shoes, school supplies,hardware, ice cream, pop,candies, tobacco & cigarettes, coal, wood, feed for cattle, horses, pigs, mink,dogs and cats and binder twine for harvesting grain. Our father did the buying of all of the goods and transporting them from Toronto to Cherrywood by truck and rail.He usually made two trips to Toronto a week to do the buying and picking up. This job was usually done on Mondays and Thursdays.Some of the wholesalers were groceries from National Grocers, the hardware from H.S. Howland, the dry goods from Gordon McKay, boots and Shoes from W.B. Hamilton and Lyle Reed, tea and coffee from R.B. Hayhoe, and the feed from Western Canada Flower Mills who were later bought out by Master Feeds. Feed was also bought from ReesorÃ’s Marmill in Markham and corn gluten feed from St. Lawrence Starch Co. in Port Credit.
Our mother, (who was a partner in the business) and Beatrice Petty who worked in the store,(and later Mary Tool, Isobel Tran, Blanch Petty, Carol Armstrong) were reponsible for obtaining orders (mostly by phone) for the various things the customers wanted. Mary Tool, Isobel Tran, Blanche Petty, Esther Reesor, and Carol Armstrong also worked at various times for our Mother , helping with household chores and in the store. All of us had a hand in putting the orders together in boxes and stocking the shelves. Fred Ireson did the delivering and helped with many of the other chores that were required to run the store. Before Fred Bo Bonner and later Jim Fenney did this work. . Delivering was done in the north east area of the community on Tuesdays, the north west and south west on Wednesdays and the south east on Thursdays. Special deliveries of coal and feed were done whenever we had time during the week, mostly on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. Occasionaly in winter, the country roads were not passable for trucks and cars. In this situation deliveries were made by our Uncle Murray Milroy who owned a farm a few miles from the store-and also by Walter Holmes and Henry Michelle who owned nearby farms×using their sleighs and his teams of Clydesdale horses.
Bill, Jack and I did some of the delivering and picking up things in Toronto,-( mostly coal and feed) when we were old enough to drive a truck.In the 1930Ã’s we had two trucks. The larger truck was used to pick up goods in Toronto and for delivering large orders of coal and feed , and the other for delivering groceries and smaller orders of grain and feed. Some of the trucks that I remember were a 1926 model T Ford, a 1928 model A Ford 2 ton stake body, a 1930 panel body Ford pick up for the store in Pickering, a 1934 V eight Ford 3 ton stake body. These vehicles were later traded in on newer models to do the same work. Our Father and Bill never kept trucks or cars long enough for maintence or reliability to become a problem. Some of the cars that I can remember were a 1926 model T Ford, a 1928 Pontiac, a 1935 Pontiac, and a 1939 Pontiac.
Bill started to work full time at the store in 1950. He and Irene took over ownership and the operation of the store in 1959 when they bought it from our mother and father.
The property and store was expropriated to make way for a new airport-( which was never built)- in 1972. Under agreementent with the government , Irene and Bill continued to operate the store untill 1977 when they negotiated the sale of the store and property to the Government. The store was also the post office . Our father was the postmaster untill 1971 and Bill was the postmaster from 1971 to 1977.
All of us,--Mary Anna, Bill, Jack and I were expected to do our share of household and yard chores, like washing dishes,sweeping up,cutting the grass, weeding, washing trucks and cars, maintaining the tennis court, flooding the ice and removing snow from the pond and tennis court where we played hockey .
Cherrywood, from 1872 untill 1972,-( when the whole area was expropriated to make way for an airport which was never built) was a small village with a church, school, carriage shop, blacksmith shop, garage, cider mill, butcher shop and grocery store. In the 1870Ã’s Charles Petty built a brick yard and kilns and he and his son operated the industry untill it was closed down in the 1920.s.
The surrounding farms were considered to be part of Cherrywood. Cherrywood public school area was bounded by the Township line on the west, the 4th concession road on the north, Dixie road on the east, and the 2nd concession on the south,. The school was across the road from the store. Anybody wishing to extend their education beyond grade 8 went to Continuation school at Pickering to get a Junmatrixtric. To obtain a senmatrixtric you took grade 13 at Whitby , Scarborough or Markham.
Most of the recreational activities evolved from the family house and back yard , the school, the Sunday School, the Church,--in the Milroy, Armstrong and Taylor farm barns-doing things like jumping into a pile of hay or straw from as high a place in the barn that you would dare, --skating on frozen ponds, skiing on nearby hills, swimming in Duffins creek, the Rouge river and Lake Ontario. There was radio, but no TV and no computers. favoriterite radio programs were the play by play hockey games by Foster Hewitt with between period commentatorsWes McKnight, or Ward Cameron, Harold Cotton and Elmer Ferguson. favoriterite Sunday nite programs were Jack benny with his usual cast of wife Mary Livingston,Rochester, Dennis day, and Phil Harris. The humour evolved around BennyÃ’s violin, his old Maxwell car, his skin flint approach to everything and his continual feud with Fred Allen. The Fred Allen show was also popular with his trips down AllenÃ’s Alley with his wife Portland and running into characters like Mrs.Nussbaum, Senator Claghorn,and Titus Moody. Fibber MÃ’Gee and Molly was popular on Tuesday nites ,particularly when they opened the closet to try and find something . Jim Hunter broadcast the news at 6:30 p.m. each evening followed by Wes McKnight with the sports news.
Everybody in the community was given the opportunity and encouraged to participate in all recreational activities that were taking place, -- softball, hockey, skiing, fishing, tennis, swimming, horseshoes, golf and card games.
There were card games around our kitchen table in the home, at the school and in the garage next to the store. Jack occasionally played cards in the garage with a group of card players rather than do his home work. We had a tennis court in our back yard which was
popular summer activity for all of us, our family, our friends and our neigbours. Tennis competitions were held involving a tennis team from Pickering and players from Cherrywood. Horseshoes were played on the horse shoe pitch (4) across the road from
the store. The community horse shoe pitch replaced the old cider mill. There were 4 sets of pitches with lights and horse shoe competitions were held which invoved surrounding communities like Whitevale and Cedar Grove. In later years when interest in horse shoes declined, the horse shoe facilities across the road were replaced with a single pitch between the store and the garage next door. Our father took us and our friends to Rice Lake, Georgian Bay and Cameron Lake to swim and fish.
Cherrywood had hockey and softball teams which competed in organized leagues with teams from the surrounding villages, Whitevale, Brougham, Pickering, Kinsale, Dunbarton, Markham, Agincourt, and Highland Creek. The manager Öcoaches and best fans and supporters of our hockey teams were our father, Len Gates, and Bill Davidson and later Jim Palmer. Recreational hockey was played on the tennis court, and the brick yard pond and the organized hockey was played on the indoor rinks at Markham and Agincourt.
The nearest pubs were located on the 1st concesion road at the Rouge river×one in the valley and the other at the top of the west bank of the river. They were meeting places where you got together with your friends and talked over current local events ,sports etc. and drank some beer. Jim McGrisken and Bobbie Miller were usually there to keep us up to date on everything. Jim knew all the local gossip. Bobbie, from Whitevale never said anything but always nodded in agreement to anything that was said. No one ever knew what Bobbie did for a living and for some reason he always had money for beer.
Sunday School was mandatory in our family and most of the other families in the community. We had to go to Sunday school before we were allowed to do other things like swimming, playing tennis or hockey. The Sunday school and church people
organized many activities includin Sunday school picnics, church garden parties and church concerts. Our father was one of our Sunday school teachers. I do not believe he knew a lot about the bible but was a good role model and highly respected in the community. He was also a school trustee and had a hand in making sure we always had a good school teacher. As a Sunday school teacher,(and as a father)×and like most other people in the community at that time, you were expected you to know the difference between right and wrong, have a positve and winning attitude, respect for other people and their property, expected obedience, excellence and perfection and and made sure everybody in our class participated in all the sports that were going on in the community. Our mother, Ella, a school teacher, had these same qualities and had the time to teach us more about humility, joy and happiness , cleanliness, thankfulness, good manners and sharing.
Along with her parental responsibilities and working in the store, she was active in the Church , Sunday school and community events. She was a Sunday school teacher, very active in the Church Ladies Aid, ocassionally played the piano in Sunday school, the organ in church, and sang in the church choir, and occasionally a relief teacher at the school. She was active in organizing events at the school, card parties and square dancing. Our grandmother Milroy also played an important role in our lives right up
untill she died in the 1963. Her wit, smile, laugh and positive attitude will always be emembered.
After finishing high school Bill, Jack, Mary Anna and I were encouraged and given the opportunity to go on and obtain further training. Bill took a business course at Ryerson College in Toronto, Mary Anna graduated in nursing at Wellesley hospital in Toronto and
then a University degree in nursing from the University of British Columbia and Jack and I graduated with degrees in Civil Engineering from University of Toronto. After finishing high school and not able to get into the air force because I was color blind, our uncle Murray Morrish, a mechanical Engineer, a graduate from the University of Toronto encouraged me to become an Engineer and took the time to take me on a tour of the Engineering faculty at U.of T., and of Hart House, the building which was the centre of most of the extra curricular activities for men at the University. The building had rooms and facilities for swimming, basketball, gymnasium, pool hall, card rooms,a library , restaurant and a large ballroom for dancing .
In Cherrywood like most other small rural farm communities strict rules and guide lines were taught at home, in the school, and in the Sunday school. There was no interference by governments and no worries about being politically correct. School inspectors came around a few times each year to make sure the teacher was doing O.K. regarding his teaching responsibilities. On those days the teacher usually directed his questions to the smartest kids in the class. On those days I could relax. If punishment was needed at home or in the school, suitable punishment was given. including the strap. Most of the school teachers of that era were tough and usually fair . There was little tolerance for misbehavior and there was much more discipline than there is to-day. This, along with everyone having an opportunity to be continually active physically ,and, or, mentally, there was usually harmony and fun in the home and in the community.
The store and the dwelling where the Roy Morrish family lived was built in 1872 by Charles Petty, a pioneer and entrepreneur who also built and operated Cherrywood brick yard and owned and operated a farm in the village. Charles Petty never operated the store, but leased it to various storekeepers. Some of the storekeepers were Williams,Cranson,Murray Summerfelt, Alfred McPherson, John Green, Tom Robins,Thomas Law, Robert Davidson and our father Roy Morrish who leased and operated it from 1921 until 1935.From 1929 to 1935 Our mother, Ella, and father, Roy also owned and operated a store in Pickering. They also owned a barber shop which was leased to Chester Butt, the village barber. In 1935 the Cherrywood store became available for outright purchase so our Mother and Father decided to buy it. Running the two stores, one in Pickering and one in Cherrywood was becoming too much work so they leased the store in Pickering to Ross Murison and a Mr. Booth. One or two years later Booth & Murison bought the store in Pickering. Our mother & father bought the dwelling and store in Cherrywood from the Petty estate in 1935 . The old barn and ice storage shed were demolished and the barn was rebuilt to make it more efficient for handling feed and coal and providing protection for the trucks and car. The store was rebuilt and a new dwelling was built on to the west side of the store The business included a coal storage shed and scales, first along side the Canadian Northern Railway in Cherrywood , and when the Canadian Northern was abandoned (I believe in 1929), the coal shed and scales were moved to the south side of the tracks opposite the Canadian Pacific Railway station in Cherrywood and the business was served by Canadian Pacific.
There was no hydro power in Cherrywood untill 1929. Before 1929 lighting was provided by coal oil lights, naptha gas lights and wax candles. We had two coal furnaces for heating . Our kitchen stove was fueled by wood or coal untill 1929 and when electricity was installed we had a combination wood and coal stove for cooking . We had ice refrigerators untill 1936. The ice was cut and hauled from Whitevale pond and stored
in an ice house behind the barn. A deep covering of saw dust prevented the ice from melting througout the summer. Depending on the weather, usualy every , a block or two of ice was removed from under the saw dust and placed in a compartment in the top of the refrigerator. Perishable foods were stored in the bottom of the refrigerator.
We did not have indoor plumbing untill 1936 when our new house was built beside the store.
The store and facilities at Cherrywood provided most of the things needed by the people of the community and surrounding farms,--groceries, tea, coffee, dry goods like, linens, overalls, socks, boots, shoes, school supplies,hardware, ice cream, pop,candies, tobacco & cigarettes, coal, wood, feed for cattle, horses, pigs, mink,dogs and cats and binder twine for harvesting grain. Our father did the buying of all of the goods and transporting them from Toronto to Cherrywood by truck and rail.He usually made two trips to Toronto a week to do the buying and picking up. This job was usually done on Mondays and Thursdays.Some of the wholesalers were groceries from National Grocers, the hardware from H.S. Howland, the dry goods from Gordon McKay, boots and Shoes from W.B. Hamilton and Lyle Reed, tea and coffee from R.B. Hayhoe, and the feed from Western Canada Flower Mills who were later bought out by Master Feeds. Feed was also bought from ReesorÃ’s Marmill in Markham and corn gluten feed from St. Lawrence Starch Co. in Port Credit.
Our mother, (who was a partner in the business) and Beatrice Petty who worked in the store,(and later Mary Tool, Isobel Tran, Blanch Petty, Carol Armstrong) were reponsible for obtaining orders (mostly by phone) for the various things the customers wanted. Mary Tool, Isobel Tran, Blanche Petty, Esther Reesor, and Carol Armstrong also worked at various times for our Mother , helping with household chores and in the store. All of us had a hand in putting the orders together in boxes and stocking the shelves. Fred Ireson did the delivering and helped with many of the other chores that were required to run the store. Before Fred Bo Bonner and later Jim Fenney did this work. . Delivering was done in the north east area of the community on Tuesdays, the north west and south west on Wednesdays and the south east on Thursdays. Special deliveries of coal and feed were done whenever we had time during the week, mostly on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. Occasionaly in winter, the country roads were not passable for trucks and cars. In this situation deliveries were made by our Uncle Murray Milroy who owned a farm a few miles from the store-and also by Walter Holmes and Henry Michelle who owned nearby farms×using their sleighs and his teams of Clydesdale horses.
Bill, Jack and I did some of the delivering and picking up things in Toronto,-( mostly coal and feed) when we were old enough to drive a truck.In the 1930Ã’s we had two trucks. The larger truck was used to pick up goods in Toronto and for delivering large orders of coal and feed , and the other for delivering groceries and smaller orders of grain and feed. Some of the trucks that I remember were a 1926 model T Ford, a 1928 model A Ford 2 ton stake body, a 1930 panel body Ford pick up for the store in Pickering, a 1934 V eight Ford 3 ton stake body. These vehicles were later traded in on newer models to do the same work. Our Father and Bill never kept trucks or cars long enough for maintence or reliability to become a problem. Some of the cars that I can remember were a 1926 model T Ford, a 1928 Pontiac, a 1935 Pontiac, and a 1939 Pontiac.
Bill started to work full time at the store in 1950. He and Irene took over ownership and the operation of the store in 1959 when they bought it from our mother and father.
The property and store was expropriated to make way for a new airport-( which was never built)- in 1972. Under agreementent with the government , Irene and Bill continued to operate the store untill 1977 when they negotiated the sale of the store and property to the Government. The store was also the post office . Our father was the postmaster untill 1971 and Bill was the postmaster from 1971 to 1977.
All of us,--Mary Anna, Bill, Jack and I were expected to do our share of household and yard chores, like washing dishes,sweeping up,cutting the grass, weeding, washing trucks and cars, maintaining the tennis court, flooding the ice and removing snow from the pond and tennis court where we played hockey .
Cherrywood, from 1872 untill 1972,-( when the whole area was expropriated to make way for an airport which was never built) was a small village with a church, school, carriage shop, blacksmith shop, garage, cider mill, butcher shop and grocery store. In the 1870Ã’s Charles Petty built a brick yard and kilns and he and his son operated the industry untill it was closed down in the 1920.s.
The surrounding farms were considered to be part of Cherrywood. Cherrywood public school area was bounded by the Township line on the west, the 4th concession road on the north, Dixie road on the east, and the 2nd concession on the south,. The school was across the road from the store. Anybody wishing to extend their education beyond grade 8 went to Continuation school at Pickering to get a Junmatrixtric. To obtain a senmatrixtric you took grade 13 at Whitby , Scarborough or Markham.
Most of the recreational activities evolved from the family house and back yard , the school, the Sunday School, the Church,--in the Milroy, Armstrong and Taylor farm barns-doing things like jumping into a pile of hay or straw from as high a place in the barn that you would dare, --skating on frozen ponds, skiing on nearby hills, swimming in Duffins creek, the Rouge river and Lake Ontario. There was radio, but no TV and no computers. favoriterite radio programs were the play by play hockey games by Foster Hewitt with between period commentatorsWes McKnight, or Ward Cameron, Harold Cotton and Elmer Ferguson. favoriterite Sunday nite programs were Jack benny with his usual cast of wife Mary Livingston,Rochester, Dennis day, and Phil Harris. The humour evolved around BennyÃ’s violin, his old Maxwell car, his skin flint approach to everything and his continual feud with Fred Allen. The Fred Allen show was also popular with his trips down AllenÃ’s Alley with his wife Portland and running into characters like Mrs.Nussbaum, Senator Claghorn,and Titus Moody. Fibber MÃ’Gee and Molly was popular on Tuesday nites ,particularly when they opened the closet to try and find something . Jim Hunter broadcast the news at 6:30 p.m. each evening followed by Wes McKnight with the sports news.
Everybody in the community was given the opportunity and encouraged to participate in all recreational activities that were taking place, -- softball, hockey, skiing, fishing, tennis, swimming, horseshoes, golf and card games.
There were card games around our kitchen table in the home, at the school and in the garage next to the store. Jack occasionally played cards in the garage with a group of card players rather than do his home work. We had a tennis court in our back yard which was
popular summer activity for all of us, our family, our friends and our neigbours. Tennis competitions were held involving a tennis team from Pickering and players from Cherrywood. Horseshoes were played on the horse shoe pitch (4) across the road from
the store. The community horse shoe pitch replaced the old cider mill. There were 4 sets of pitches with lights and horse shoe competitions were held which invoved surrounding communities like Whitevale and Cedar Grove. In later years when interest in horse shoes declined, the horse shoe facilities across the road were replaced with a single pitch between the store and the garage next door. Our father took us and our friends to Rice Lake, Georgian Bay and Cameron Lake to swim and fish.
Cherrywood had hockey and softball teams which competed in organized leagues with teams from the surrounding villages, Whitevale, Brougham, Pickering, Kinsale, Dunbarton, Markham, Agincourt, and Highland Creek. The manager Öcoaches and best fans and supporters of our hockey teams were our father, Len Gates, and Bill Davidson and later Jim Palmer. Recreational hockey was played on the tennis court, and the brick yard pond and the organized hockey was played on the indoor rinks at Markham and Agincourt.
The nearest pubs were located on the 1st concesion road at the Rouge river×one in the valley and the other at the top of the west bank of the river. They were meeting places where you got together with your friends and talked over current local events ,sports etc. and drank some beer. Jim McGrisken and Bobbie Miller were usually there to keep us up to date on everything. Jim knew all the local gossip. Bobbie, from Whitevale never said anything but always nodded in agreement to anything that was said. No one ever knew what Bobbie did for a living and for some reason he always had money for beer.
Sunday School was mandatory in our family and most of the other families in the community. We had to go to Sunday school before we were allowed to do other things like swimming, playing tennis or hockey. The Sunday school and church people
organized many activities includin Sunday school picnics, church garden parties and church concerts. Our father was one of our Sunday school teachers. I do not believe he knew a lot about the bible but was a good role model and highly respected in the community. He was also a school trustee and had a hand in making sure we always had a good school teacher. As a Sunday school teacher,(and as a father)×and like most other people in the community at that time, you were expected you to know the difference between right and wrong, have a positve and winning attitude, respect for other people and their property, expected obedience, excellence and perfection and and made sure everybody in our class participated in all the sports that were going on in the community. Our mother, Ella, a school teacher, had these same qualities and had the time to teach us more about humility, joy and happiness , cleanliness, thankfulness, good manners and sharing.
Along with her parental responsibilities and working in the store, she was active in the Church , Sunday school and community events. She was a Sunday school teacher, very active in the Church Ladies Aid, ocassionally played the piano in Sunday school, the organ in church, and sang in the church choir, and occasionally a relief teacher at the school. She was active in organizing events at the school, card parties and square dancing. Our grandmother Milroy also played an important role in our lives right up
untill she died in the 1963. Her wit, smile, laugh and positive attitude will always be emembered.
After finishing high school Bill, Jack, Mary Anna and I were encouraged and given the opportunity to go on and obtain further training. Bill took a business course at Ryerson College in Toronto, Mary Anna graduated in nursing at Wellesley hospital in Toronto and
then a University degree in nursing from the University of British Columbia and Jack and I graduated with degrees in Civil Engineering from University of Toronto. After finishing high school and not able to get into the air force because I was color blind, our uncle Murray Morrish, a mechanical Engineer, a graduate from the University of Toronto encouraged me to become an Engineer and took the time to take me on a tour of the Engineering faculty at U.of T., and of Hart House, the building which was the centre of most of the extra curricular activities for men at the University. The building had rooms and facilities for swimming, basketball, gymnasium, pool hall, card rooms,a library , restaurant and a large ballroom for dancing .
In Cherrywood like most other small rural farm communities strict rules and guide lines were taught at home, in the school, and in the Sunday school. There was no interference by governments and no worries about being politically correct. School inspectors came around a few times each year to make sure the teacher was doing O.K. regarding his teaching responsibilities. On those days the teacher usually directed his questions to the smartest kids in the class. On those days I could relax. If punishment was needed at home or in the school, suitable punishment was given. including the strap. Most of the school teachers of that era were tough and usually fair . There was little tolerance for misbehavior and there was much more discipline than there is to-day. This, along with everyone having an opportunity to be continually active physically ,and, or, mentally, there was usually harmony and fun in the home and in the community.
Thanks Bob. GREAT Story !
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