Memories of a One Room Prairie School

I was raised on a small farm one-half miles from the school. I was the fourth child in a family of seven. I will always cherish my memories of going to a one-room school on the prairies Some time they made me unhappy at the time but these memories are now very comforting.

Most of the time I walked to school, but sometimes there would be a neighbour who came be going by and offered rides, especially on the rainy and winter days. I remember during the cold winter days Mom would bundle my siblings and I up. We could not see much through the scarves over our nose and eyes. As I grow older I did not like the long underwear, stocking, garters, and layers of clothes. Often I would dress very lightly, with my jeans rolled up, leaving bare legs showing. There were times that I would come home with frozen legs.

The Gallivan School District No. 3857 was formed in 1917 and at it's peak there were as high as 45 students attending during those early years. There was a small barn near the school for the horses some of the students would ride to school. There two outdoor “three-hole seater” toilets for usage in the warmer weather and a toilet pail in a small room off the porch in the school. It had a coal furnace in the basement with a heating grate in the middle of the floor. There were old styled desks with ink wells and seats that folded up. The windows faced north with large bk-boards lining the walls and a roll down group of maps at the front.

I started school in 1944 at the age of 6 years, with a tin lunch pail that carried my noon lunch. There were two students in grade one that year, myself and a boy. During the next six years my class increased to five, at one point.

When I was attending the public school was from grade one to seven with 13 students. The high school was in the Gallivan Community Hall with grades eight to ten. Grades eleven and twelve were taken by correspondence or the students went away to schools that taught those grades. During my time there the numbers were not much more than the lower grades.

Some of our summer games “Auntie -i-Over” (We divided into two groups of students, each an opposite side of the school barn. One of us would through a ball over the barn to our opponent and they then ran around the barn with the ball to tag their opponent students) “ Red Light green Light” “Pick-up Sticks” “Hop-Scotch”. Sports was always popular, ball, high jump, broad jump racing and relies. Sports Days in Cut Knife was also our favourite at the end of the school year.

In winter there was an outdoor rink that we would skate, hockey, or broom ball. “Fox and Goose” was another winter tag game we played. Making snow men and angels was always fun. Snow ball fights and being hit by the boys throwing them, was not so much fun!!

The Christmas Concerts always will hold great memories. Decorating the school room with hand made colourful streamers and cutout figures, practising for weeks the songs, skits, tap dancing and plays with the highlight of the evening and the coming of Santa Clause. The presents and candy bags gave such joy.

The Gallivan Schools were closed in 1958.The Public School is now located in the Cut Knife McLean Museum. “Education spanning a term of forty-one years and involving thirty-eight teachers and two hundred and ninety-four pupils.” from “Where The Cut Knife Waters Flow” Historical Society Book. 1980