This is where my grandpa carved his initials in a beam of the one room schoolhouse he attended as a boy. When I was in 4th grade my class went on a field trip and this is one of the places we stopped. We walked around the building and as we passed this old beam (they support the roof from the outside of the building), I smiled to myself. I'm not sure I told any of the other kids that my grandpa had carved his initials there 60 years previous. I didn't think they would believe me anyway.
Several years later I mentioned the initials to Grandpa and found that he had pretty much forgotten about carving them. When I told him that the A also formed the stem for the P he said, "Yup, that's how I used to do it." It's kind of fun to take my own kids there and show them a mark left beind by their great grandpa nearly 100 years ago and tell them how Grandpa stole the teacher's whip and hid it down the outhouse.
This is where my grandpa carved his initials in a beam of the one room schoolhouse he attended as a boy. When I was in 4th grade my class went on a field trip and this is one of the places we stopped. We walked around the building and as we passed this old beam (they support the roof from the outside of the building), I smiled to myself. I'm not sure I told any of the other kids that my grandpa had carved his initials there 60 years previous. I didn't think they would believe me anyway. 
Several years later I mentioned the initials to Grandpa and found that he had pretty much forgotten about carving them. When I told him that the A also formed the stem for the P he said, "Yup, that's how I used to do it." It's kind of fun to take my own kids there and show them a mark left beind by their great grandpa nearly 100 years ago and tell them how Grandpa stole the teacher's whip and hid it down the outhouse.
Good story, wonderful memories and pictures to prove it! Grandpas are just as special as Grandmas arn't they?
ReplyDeleteMy kids went there in 4th grade too, but I forgot that Grandpa had carved his initials there somewhere. That 's pretty neat!
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who don't know, when I say my kids went there in 4th grade it was for "Colonial Day". Here in town all the 4th grade classes dress the way they did back then, and spend the day there...I did too!
ReplyDeleteyes...I remember him telling me the "whip down the outhouse" story.
ReplyDeleteI miss him.
I miss him too.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll bite, why did the teacher have a whip?
ReplyDeleteTo keep the kids in line, of course!
ReplyDeletegrandpa said it was more like a switch. No one worried about getting in trouble for capital punishment back then.
ReplyDeletePriscilla- Isn't capital punishment paying with your life for taking someone's?
ReplyDeleteI think you mean "corporal" punishment.
ReplyDeleteThey were real tough on school kids back in those days. You were really lucky if you lived to graduate!
ReplyDeleteHI JIM!!!
ReplyDeleteCool Martha!!
ReplyDeleteFamily history like that is pretty cool.
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