PENDLETON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

by Paul Butler

I started school in 1929 at Pendleton School on "Runnion Ridge". My first 
teacher was Lela Roberts of Swansdale. Then came Josie Long, Flem Houghton, 
Mable Johnson and finally Beulah Bail Martin. We had one classroom and a 
cloak room where we stored our coats, hats, overshoes and lunch containers 
(usually a small lard pail). We had a pot belly stove which burned coal. 
Students went up to the coal house to get a bucketful of coal for the 
classroom. We got water from E.E. Runnion's house. We would draw a bucketful 
from the well and put it in our school bucket and carry it to the school 
where we either had collapseable cups or made one of paper. We had a "Chic 
Sale" outhouse for the girls and one for the boys. Sheep and cattle roamed 
the grounds. When we played ball, a cow pile might have been used for a 
base. We made our athletic equipment such as chimney bark (??), baseballs 
and bats. In the winter we would play fox and goose in the snow. We usually 
put on a Christmans play for our parents. Sometimes we would have peanut or 
pie socials to get money to buy books for our small library. 

The teacher usually arrived the first day of school with a broom, a box of 
chalk, erasers and a register in which to list the names of the students. 
We bought our own pencils, paper and textbooks. All eight grades plus the 
primer class were taught in one room. Each class was called in turn to the 
"Recitation Bench." Writing and art were given to all classes at the same 
time. 

At the end of the year much time was spent getting the 8th graders prepared 
for the diploma examination. One year, the three seventh graders were 
included with the lone eighth grader. The eighth grader and two of the three 
seventh graders passed the test. High schools open to us were Gassaway and 
Sutton in Braxton Co. and Clay Co. High and Widen High in Clay Co. The lack 
of school busses in rural areas caused many students to get a late start in 
high school. This improved in the 1930s. I have many good memories and 
humorous stories about my days in that little school house.