I didn’t go to elementary school. I went to ward school. Breckenridge had three ward schools: South Ward, North Ward, and East Ward. In today’s world, if I tell someone that I went to South Ward they wonder if I went to a hospital or a prison. We also used the term grade school. Our parents did not say that we were in elementary school. They said that we were in grade school. Maybe the word elementary was too long.
If students lived within walking distance of the school, they walked. No one worried about a stranger waylaying them. If there were other children nearby, they walked along together. Some of them even walked home for lunch. Others were dropped off by a parent on the way to work. I was a country child so I rode a big yellow school bus. I waited by our mailbox alongside a busy state highway. In the early years my mother usually kept watch until the bus came by, but if she was busy, she went on about her chores and knew that I was safe. I knew to stay far back from the edge of the highway.
My school was South Ward. It set back from the street with a large green lawn in the front. We lined up in front of the main entrances each morning and waited for the bell to ring. The building had two levels. (We called them floors.) Grades one through four were on the main level and the fifth and sixth grades, lunchroom, bathrooms and office were on the lower level which was partially underground. We called it the basement. When we needed to go to the bathroom, we asked to go to the basement. .
There was a large playground in the back. We had swings, seesaws, monkey bars and a merry go round. We had to take turns on the equipment. This usually meant waiting in line for your turn.
The girls spent hours outlining rooms of playhouses with rocks. Broomweeds were pulled from the edge of the playground, put into bunches and used for brooms. We could spend an entire recess sweeping our houses.
We played a tag in which the girls chased the boys or vice versa. The outside entrances to the bathrooms involved going down steps to the lower level. There was a railing alongside the steps. The “safe” places were either touching the railing or on the steps going down. When a boy or girl got tagged, we switched and chased the other side. We were like a wave running back and forth. This could get rambunctious. If someone stumbled and fell, we were told to stop and play something else.
The boys played with toy cars and marbles and were allowed to use short sticks for make believe guns as they played cops and robbers. The good guys always won. Sometimes they shot marbles for “keeps” which meant if you lost a marble the winner kept it.
Bus riders waited on the playground after school until their bus came to the front. Teachers were nearby and available if needed. There were also bullies in those days. One boy in particular liked to taunt the first graders. He was a big fourth grader. One day as we waited after school for the bus, he ran up behind me and pushed me out of a swing. I fell on the hard ground on my face. I do not remember whether we called a teacher or whether I took my ever present little handkerchief and wiped the debris and blood from the scratches. I looked like I had been in a fight with a tiger. A few days later a family friend whose son was a fourth grader came by the dairy. When he found out who had caused my scabby face, he said his son would take care of it. I don’t know what happened, but the bully boy stayed clear of me from then on.
The school was condemned in 1958 and a new school now stands in the same location. It is no longer a ward school but is South Elementary School.