Stoughten Corners School

 STOUGHTEN CORNERS SCHOOL

The Stoughton (“stow-ton’) Corners School was located 1 ½ miles north of Hartford, Michigan and is the oldest school site in Van Buren County, The school started in 1906 as a log cabin and most of the children were Indians. When I started in 1940 it looked just like the above picture.

The school was a one room school with a big coal burning stove in the far left corner, and in the front was the cloak room and restrooms, one on each side of the front door - one for the girls and the other for the boys.  The teacher was Mrs. Dyer.  We had about 20 to 25 kids total, counting the first through eighth grades. 

When you were in a one room school and it was your turn to have class you would go up front and sit on a bench in front of the teacher’s desk and blackboard. After your class was over you returned to your desk and did your lesson, and if you needed help the older children would help and also keep you quiet because another class was up front having class.

 

The children in this picture are: Arletta Traver, Muriel Traver, Leroy Haney, Jim Traver, Bill Borst, Vance Hammond, George Borst, Carleton Winch, Ruthie Williams, Roger Hammond, George Cotman, Richard Thomas, and Therald Hammond.

In this picture, Dad is front row left.

More memories of Richard Thomas

 THE THAR PLACE AND THE FORTY

I don’t remember anything until we lived on the Thar place.  This is where the picture of me on the pony was taken. I was about two or three years old.  

One time I was with my dad with the county truck in Keeler and we stopped at Foster’s store for some ice cream. They had a punch board for ten cents a punch and some times you would win a prize of some sort.  I don’t think we won anything. 

I remember that we would sometimes rent a cottage at Van Auken lake for two weeks in the summer and this is where my dad taught me how to swim. I was only about 4 or 5 years old, as I recall.

Then we moved to a farm just down the road called “The Forty”. This was where we lived when I started school at Stoughten Corners.

But enough about me...

Okay, I'm all done talking about myself now. I think the next thing I'd like to do here is pay a little tribute to my dad. He actually wrote some memoirs of his own, while he and my mother were researching their family histories. Dad always had some interesting stories to tell, and he did end up writing some of them down. 

 

KEELER

 

My mother told me when I was few months old we lived in Keeler and my dad would come and get me sometimes and take me with him on the truck he drove for the County. His area was the Keeler township.  Mother said he would change my diaper when I needed it and give me my bottle.  Dad always liked children. 

While living here in Keeler my brother Bernarde said the winter of 1936 that the snow was so deep that he made a tunnel partway from the house to the outside toilet.

These pictures were scanned from paper copies. I don't have the original photographs, sadly.

Bill Thomas (my grandfather) holding Richard

Christie Thomas (my grandmother) holding Richard

Bernarde (age 7) holding Richard.

Richard was born in November of 1934, so these pictures would have been taken in 1934 or early 1935.

PHOTO: Bernarde, Roger behind Richard, Jerry

Roger and Jerry were cousins, children of Bill's brother Melvin Thomas.

PHOTO: Richard Thomas 1935

More High School Memories

 These pictures were scanned from the yearbook, so they are not good quality.

PHOTO: Teacher turnabout day -- I was the speech teacher for a day.

PHOTO: Talent show. That's Jerry Newland singing. Not sure just what I was doing. Don Remus is playing the guitar, the other guy (Keyboard?) is Gary Richmond, I think. Somewhere way back in my memory, I think I recall that Jerry was singing "I Believe".

PHOTO: Must have been the same talent show. (Same clothes -- I was trying so hard to be a hippie.) That's Janice Howard and me, playing guitars and singing. I don't remember what song we did.

Pep Club (this would have been 10th grade)

National Honor Society induction. The man standing next to me was our principal, Jim Kappler.

National Honor Society. The girl standing right behind me was my best friend all through high school, Debbie Parker.

Homecoming, with Jim Harmon. I was a contestant, but did not win. The homecoming queen that year was Diana Knight.

I went to Girls' State my junior year. Laury Ward (front left) went, too. I have a bunch of pictures from that week -- I'll post them if I haven't already posted them before.

Junior Prom with Mike Banic

I didn't go to senior prom -- long story.

Senior class play -- "Sweetheart of U Baka Pi"

That's me on the left, Susie Moon on the right.

(Golly, I just realized that both Debbie Parker and Susie Moon are dead now. So is Jim Harmon.)

Cheerleading Camp

I went to cheerleading camp the summer before my junior year in high school. The main thing I remember is that our squad went shopping at K-mart before we went, to get matching outfits -- shorts and t-shirts -- to wear at camp. 

It looks like most of the pictures I took were of the camp counselors. Pretty sure that speaks to the fact that I didn't really want to be there. I loved cheerleading, but I did not like camps.

I Went to Camp

I went to camp twice during my youth. Didn't like it either time. The first time was the summer between 7th and 8th grades (I think). It was the school's idea to send me to Youth Leadership Camp for a week. 

PHOTO: Me with all my swag, ready to go to camp.

PHOTO: "Chapel" by the lake (those logs were the "pews")

PHOTO: Not sure who these folks were. Not counselors. Maybe administrators.

PHOTO: Skits in the lunchroom

PHOTO: Camp counselors. These photos have been sitting in a box with a rubber band wrapped around them for almost 60 years. Can you tell?

PHOTO: The girl on the right (white jacket) was named Scarlett Foote. That seemed like such an unusual name, which is why I remember it.

PHOTO: More skits in the lunchroom

PHOTO: Singing around the piano

PHOTO: This girl always cried when we sang Edelweiss. (From the movie, The Sound of Music. It was a very touching scene in the movie, when the VonTrapp family gave their last performance before escaping Germany during the Nazi invasion.)

PHOTO: One of the camp counselors. I think he was the one in charge of the "Polar Bear Club" -- those brave souls who woke up early every morning to take a dip in the lake before breakfast. I can't believe I did that.

Cheerleading

Yes, I was a cheerleader. Of course I was.

That's me, front row right.

This was a fun flip -- when it worked. Something tells me this time she didn't stick the landing. That's me on the left. I don't know who we were flipping.

This picture got into the yearbook when I was in 9th grade. 

Another yearbook photo.

This was in 11th grade. That's me on the right.

School Teachers

 School Teachers

My kindergarten teacher was Pearl Cleveland. She was an older woman and real sweet.

First grade was Jane Palmer. She was young. Other than that I don't remember much about her.

Second grade in Bangor was Jan Gagliardi. She was high strung and probably shouldn't have been teaching little children. That was the only year (half-year) I didn't like school.

In the middle of that school year we moved to Hartford.

Second grade in Hartford was Jane Hussey. She was young and nice.

Third grade -- back in Bangor -- was Jan (or Jane) Hutchinson. Except for her name, I don't remember anything about her at all.

Fourth grade in Bangor was Kathryn Linman. She was older and completely delightful. We stayed in touch and she gave me a graduation gift when I graduated from Hartford high school.

In the middle of that 4th grade we moved back to Hartford.

Fourth grade in Hartford was Jane Vaught. She was the principal's wife.

Fifth grade was Mrs. Hughes (I don't remember her first name). She was a little elderly, and hurt her back and was out for 3 months. Our substitute during that time was Mrs. Buckley (don't remember her first name). She was a music major and we did a Xmas program under her tutelage. I played the page in Good King Wenceslas.

Sixth grade was Lois Righter. She had been my dad's 6th grade teacher 20 years before me.

Here's a collage of all my school pictures.

Senior Portrait 1972

Roller Skates

 Roller Skates

One of my favorite toys in childhood was roller skates -- the metal kind with clamps that clamp on to your shoes, and a key to adjust them to the right length. The small town we lived in had sidewalks everywhere, so I could skate all the way to the other end of the block and back on the sidewalk. I have a distinct memory of sitting on the floor tying my shoes one time and noticing that neither one of my knees had scabs on them from me falling down while skating! That was unusual.