Story About Montgomery School
By Estelle Barger
Doors
opened for the first time in 1939. My dad, Lasco Jones, helped build the
school. I was prepared to enter school at old Pine Bluff School, but the school was
closed and buses began carrying students to Montgomery.
I wish that someone had a picture of the old buses! They had four long seats - two on the
outside and two down the middle. We little ones had to sit on the middle seats.
You would almost suffocate on hot, rainy days when the rolled up "oil
cloth(?)" curtains(?) had to be let down. Many times, when the bus was very
crowded I would sit in my aunt Erie Jones' lap.
In the afternoons, my lunch pail would be passed around to check on what I had left - ham
biscuit, sweet potato, butter and sugar biscuit. Sometimes, I would swap a biscuit with
Dinky Harless who had crackers and cheese. Her mom made the best chocolate fried
pies you ever sank your teeth into! (They were made like Louise Watson's famous
fried apple pies!)
Who remembers during the war years when our principal, Mrs. Ruby Smith, closed in the
front hall and declared that area the place where we would have our finds weighed
and deposited. This metal would be used in the war effort. If we thought our
buses were crowded before, now we had to make room for plows, chains, buckets, etc. I
don't see how our dads managed to make a crop after we dragged off all their machinery and
tools! Oh, and don't forget the War Savings Coupons (Webmaster: You can see these at the
Tidbit site from the main index or click HERE). Some of my classmates could afford these, but I
can't remember ever having bought one.
Later, the school store was in Mrs. J.C. Maske's ninth grade classroom. That's where
we bought those wonderful #2 pencils, those boxes with six new-smelling crayons
and those blue backed tablets with the Nifty trademarks that could be saved for fantastic
prizes.
Oh, well, I digress when someone mentions the most wonderful times of my life!
Enjoy the site SO much!!! I keep looking for a picture of my brother, J.C. Jones, to
show up!