Note: The school house pictured above and at the end of this article are the original school house which was washed away by the river. The school was then moved onto the south side of Bear River. I (Jon Rex) don’t know what became of that school house, but the following stories are memories of my father Jon B. McBride relating to the third generation school house (early 1940’s):
Sanford Lowery did his whole grammar school at Bear River. Others would be Joe Ambrosini, Kay Morrison, my brother Bill, and Danny Lowry. I don’t know if Mitch and Carl Torgenson are still alive. I went through the fourth grade, Andy through the third, and Bill from second through seventh grades.
The Lowrys had to walk about half a mile to school, Andy and I about three quarters of a mile, Kay about a mile, Joyce and Joe Ambosini about two and half miles, and Joe McAllister from Southmayd. Ambrosinis always rode horses and sometimes we did. The others rarely did.
Being there were so few kids the teacher really had lots of time to spend on us and all of us were excellent students. Lucky for us Mrs. Torgenson and Mrs. Nila Morrison were excellent teachers and lived in the area. They were good friends with all the parents. One day we took a field trip up the river several miles for the day with everyone horseback and with lunches. During the spring the school would take long lunch hours and go down to the river and swim.
The Lowery kids bought bicycles with money earned from their trap lines. We thought that would be neat, so we ran trap lines hoping we could make enough money to buy bikes. I remember the first raccoon I caught. I was about eight. Now what do I do? After he was killed, skinned, the hide stretched and cleaned, the novelty became less. When things really came to a standstill we would catch skunks. Andy and I never did earn enough to buy a bicycle until we were in the 7th or 8th grades. Bill would get to go with pop during the summer to work and was able to buy a bike. He would leave us in the dust going to school until Andy and I started riding our ponies to school.
Before Andy and I got Shetland ponies, we used to walk to school. During the winter the frost was severe, and if we were lucky and early enough we could catch a ride with Nila, our teacher. On other mornings when Nila was already at school, Andy would still want to wait for Nila. I would show him the tire tracks on the road in the frost where she had already gone by. Our house at Bonanza ranch was on a flat spot above the road and we couldn’t see Nila’s house, nor her ours. After a while, Nila would call Mom wondering where we were, since Bill left us behind riding his bicycle to school and didn’t know what had happened to us. Mom would get the car out and come looking just to find us sitting by the road. She would load us up while scolding us why we didn’t get to school on time. Of course being a year ahead of Andy, I was an old hand at going to school and getting there on time (usually). “Without Andy I could have easily made it” I told Mom. She told me no way was I to leave Andy alone, as she drove us to school.
Sanford and Danny Lowery had shot their first deer by age ten, ran trap lines to and from school, and raised rabbits for their meat and skins, which I thought was neat. They were also spearing salmon or trying to.
Joyce Ambrosini was the only girl until about the fifth grade, but certainly didn’t have any trouble fitting in. She, and later her brother Joe, rode to school every day, rain or shine, unsaddled their horses and left them in the corral until school was out. Then they would saddle the horses back up and ride home. While Mom’s father’s estate was being settled down in San Francisco I would stay with the Ambrosini’s while school was in session.
During the noon hour Sanford, Joyce, and I built a cabin of sorts and Bill and Daniel (Boonie) built another, both at the same time. It was sort of a competition between the two who was the best. Both were on the river bar below the school. We were using axes and buck saws with no adult supervision whatsoever. Can you imagine that happening today?
Of course there were cow pie fights where cow pies were used instead of a ball for ball tag. Finally it would end up one team against the other. There was a ready supply from Lowry’s cattle, then grazing all around the school. The trick was to get them aged just right so they were dry enough to pick up, yet gooey enough inside to make the target person avoid them at all costs.
On the way home from school, Kay (first grade), Andy (second grade) and I (third grade) were playing in a puddle when Kay slipped and fell in the puddle and got at all wet. She got up crying because her folks weren’t going to let her see their new calf born that morning, because she had her gotten her clothes all wet and dirty. She was mad at us for not catching her. Andy and I were kind of looking at her dumbfounded, being we were more accustom to looking out for yourself, being raised with two brothers. Kay’s sister Peggy came along later.
One time I received a soft ball for a Christmas present. I took it to school and thought it was getting pretty beat up, so I took it back home. Unfortunately I took the school’s ball by mistake. Being I was in a lower grade, school let out earlier for me than the upper grades. Pretty soon I got a phone call from the school asking if I had taken their softball home. After some discussion and my error pointed out the older kids got on the phone and sang, “Bad King John” to me. I was very embarrassed.
Sandford was really good about letting me borrow and ride his bicycle after I was let out of school but had to wait for the older kids to get out so Bill could then accompany me home. I had many crashes with his bike, and am sure I put dings and things he later had to repair, but never complained or said anything. In fact he was very kind to all the younger kids and tended to stick up for them. He would laugh at their mishaps, but I don’t remember his ever being the cause any of them. I don’t remember anyone at school bullying anyone else. We all got along fairly well as can be expected with a bunch of kids with that range in age.
Both Sandford and Danny wore slingshots to school around their neck. Pretty quick almost all the boys were wearing one. Of course the Lowery kids had to teach the rest of us how to make and use them. They were unbeatable shots with them. The story goes that when the county fair came around, the concession using slingshots to shoot for prizes were less than happy to see them. I wonder what would happen today if some student showed up at school wearing a slingshot around his neck? They would probably make the evening news.
During recesses on rainy days the teacher would read out of a book until it was finished or the weather cleared. The Lowery kids always came to school barefooted, and Sandford would pull out his pocketknife and start whittling on the calluses and doing other repair work on his feet while being read to, which was disturbing to Nila. I wonder how many other teachers at other schools had that problem?
Years ago, I heard Joe McAllister’s folks tell me he was teaching music up in Alaska, but have lost track of him. I suppose he is retired by now. I don’t know if he is still alive, lives here or there.
