Baker School stories from Darlene Vollink Tiemens

Our family moved to a farm that was out of the Archer School District after three years of Elementary Education in the Archer Consolidated School. The farm was located ½ miles from the Baker Center Township School. My sister Elma and I attended the school from Sept. 1933 to March 1, 1934.
So began my six month at the new school. My teacher&339;s name was Opal Bussanmas.
I was the only 4th grader, so evidently I had "Free Play" time on my hand as the teacher was busy with all the other classes. I remember playing roll the pencil on my desk top and occasionally it would fall to the floor. The teacher said, "Darlene, if you drop your pencil one more time you will stay after school and write 100 times on the blackboard, "I will not drop my pencil." I'm not sure how many sentences I did write, but, my sister Elma was waiting outside for me and together we walked the ½ mile home.
Recess was a fun time. The older kids planned our games such as Tag; Pump, Pump, Pull away; Follow the Leader; Annie, Annie, Over; and Fox and Goose in the winter time.
The best memory of school days there was when Mrs. Margaret Mann, the County Superintendent of schools came to visit. She took the time to sit by my desk and read the story I had written about my pet turtle from the Chicago World's Fair! Years later, when I was a teacher in Sutherland, the teachers were all invited to her farm home for pumpkin pie and coffee. I reminded her of our first meeting!
Hats off to Country Township School and their Teachers.