Memories of Lambtown School
Irene
Watrous Schultz, January 2000
THE DAZZLING COLORS of autumn blazed above and around us as we turned into the front yard of the little one-room school. Several huge maple trees grew in the yard, surrounded by piles of the colorful leaves which had fallen. We scuffed our way through these and climbed the hill to the school. It was a cold, crisp morning, and a warm fire in the stove would certainly feel good. Since my older brother was authorized to start the fire, we opened the door and took some wood from the wood box. We had to keep our coats on until the room warmed up. When we had come through the entryway, we noticed that the water jug was empty. Someone would have to go through the woods this morning to the Lamb homestead on the hill above the school to get more water. By the time the fire was doing well, other kids had started to arrive, and soon the teacher, Mrs. Whipple, came.
On real cold days we all sat down in front near the fire until the room warmed up, but it wasn’t that bad today. The desks were actually composed of a desk with a seat attached to the front of it, so that there were seats in the front of the room where we sat to get warm or to recite. In the back there were seats attached to the wall for the last desks.
I walked past the piano to my seat in the first row. Tedi (Geraldine), the only other student in my grade, sat in front of me. While other students worked with Mrs. Whipple, we read our lessons silently and did other things the teacher had assigned us. Because there were only the two of us, we would compete with one another all the time. We shared a book that we both had to read, and we tried to do so together this morning. I read as fast as I could and ended up several pages ahead of Tedi which made it quite awkward. Unfortunately, although I read through the material, I didn’t learn it as well as if I had read more slowly and concentrated better.
Then it was our turn to meet with the teacher. We went to one of the front seats, and she pulled her chair up in front of us. She had multiplication cards that she held up for our responses. Once again, we were competing to see who knew their multiplication tables best.
Before we knew it, it was recess time. On many days we would
play in the woods – the whole school, from first grade to
eighth. We had "roads," places where we lived and
worked, etc. On other days we would go past the out-house to the
field next door which had lots of big rocks, and we would play a
game which was popular at Lambtown School over the generations
called "Prisoner’s Base." On really cold days when
there was ice on the pond down in the woods behind the school, we
would go down there, some skating and some just looking through
the clear ice at what was going on in the pond water underneath. 
On warmer days we would go to
the field across Lambtown Road, when the grasses were long and
thick, and play Cowboys and Indians. But today because of all the
wonderful leaves in the yard below, we ran down there and decided
to build huts. We divided up into groups and competed with each
other to see which group could build the best hut. We gathered
sticks and put together the frame. By then it was time to go back
into school so we had to stop until noontime.
We had an hour at noon to have lunch and play – unless the teacher fell asleep at her desk. Then we would get more time (and of course, no one wanted to awaken her). This day, after we had eaten our lunches, we went back to building our huts. We gathered leaves into piles and, of course, fell into them and generally had a great time. Our huts turned out quite nice, or at least we thought so.
When we went back inside after lunch hour, the District music teacher arrived, so we spent the next hour singing and learning about music. Someone was bad, and the teacher sent them to stand in the corner. Later, someone else did something they shouldn’t have, and she sent them to stand in the little storage room until they could behave.
As I looked toward the front of the room, the teacher’s desk was in the center, almost against the wall with a door on either side. The door to the right led to the front entry way where the sink was, and where there were hooks to hang our coats on, and cubicles where we left our lunches, etc. That door also led to the outside. The door to the left went to the storage room where the paper, books, scissors, paste, etc., were kept. That room had a window in it, and I often thought if someone were real unhappy about being sent there, they could open it and escape. In front of the teacher’s desk was the old iron wood-burning stove. The schoolroom’s walls to the left and behind had windows, but the wall to the right was windowless and had blackboards. That was also the wall where the piano stood.
After the music lesson was over and the director had gone, we talked about what we were going to do for Thanksgiving. The whole school was going to put on a play about the pilgrims for our parents. We discussed who would play what and what our costumes would need to be.
It was about 3 p.m. when Mrs. Whipple dismissed us, and we walked home, our numbers getting fewer and fewer as students stopped at their homes along the way
In the spring of 1949, we closed the door of Lambtown School for the last time. Ledyard was getting too populated for one-room schools and had built a new, modern school in Ledyard Center. The town officials contracted with local men who purchased and drove big yellow school buses to transport us back and forth to the new school. Ledyard Center School, which has been added to several times, celebrated its 50th anniversary in the fall of 1999. The town of Ledyard now has four elementary schools, a middle school, and its own high school.
Lambtown School itself stood for several years after its closing, and in fact was used for reunions. The property on which it was located was given to Mr. Lamb’s grandson, John Elliott, who built a small house to the right of the school and brought his bride, Nancy Watrous, to live there. Unfortunately, very soon thereafter, John died of leukemia, and his widow turned the property back to the Lamb family. The old school was invaded by termites, and it was said that whoever owned it at the time, concerned that the house would be next, had the school burned to the ground.
Several of the old maple trees still stand in the yard below, and every fall their leaves turn brilliant colors and fill the trees and the ground with their beauty. But the school is their secret, as no trace of it remains.
Return to QUAKERTOWN Online