Roger Lanich - Letter to Editor

A Old One Room Schoolhouse

Somewhere in the country there was an old one room schoolhouse,

Where the kids from the area walked to school every day.

One teacher taught them all from first through eighth grade,
Farm kids from large families in an era of yesterday.

There was a tire swing in back hanging from an old oak tree,
And a homemade teeter totter made from leftover wood of a barn razing.

Three apple trees grew near by that the kids would climb upon,
And an outhouse stood in the back where barn swallows were singing.

A school bell sat in the peak that could be heard from miles away,
Mittens and galoshes at the back of the room that the kids wore when it was storming.

Ink wells on the desks and pulling the pigtails of a girl,
A wood stove in the corner that the teacher stoked on winter mornings.
Cold lunches with homemade bread filled with peanut butter and jam,
Racing out at recess to play pom pom pullaway.

Sneaking behind the woodshed to get a first kiss,
Hoping no one is looking on Valentine’s Day,
The kids were taught the times table and how to write in cursive.

How to add and subtract and the capitals of every state,
There were spelling bees and quizzes, geography and history lessons,
Everything was so innocent, they didn’t know of violence and hate.

I was driving around one day where the schoolhouse once stood,
Now it’s just a cornfield where the wind blows the memories away.

That was so long ago in a different world and time,
But for some reason it seems to me the world was a better place yesterday.

You can’t go back in time except in your dreams,
But sometimes we need to go to remember just the same.

To a time when life was simpler and there were still one room schoolhouses,
On an old country road where the kids came.

(Dedicated to the Oldtimers who are long gone who inspired
me to write it with their stories about one room schoolhouses.)

Roger Lanich, Wausaukee