This photograph was reprinted in The Springfield Sun December 26, 2001.  The photograph was taken in 1936 – too early for my mother, Catherine Carrico, and her youngest sister, Mary Alice, to be in school – but four of their siblings, two of my aunts – Beulah and Margaret Ann, and two uncles – Robert and Paul, are included.  They were the oldest in the family, with one other brother, Francis Reuben Carrico, who died April 25, 1932, of a burst appendix. 

Of all the stories my mother, Catherine Lyons Carrico Hill, told of ‘the good old days’ the stories of her going to Badgett School were some she always enjoyed telling.  The photo was taken in 1993 – 50+ years after mother was a student.   

Badgett School was one room, with a stove, benches and tables.  Two outhouses were in the back area – no modern toilets at that time.  Mother carried her lunch in a bucket.  Sometimes it was grandmother’s homemade cottage cheese and biscuits.  Or bread with butter and preserves.  Sometimes mother traded her lunch for another student’s.  The walk to school was about two miles.

One day it snowed, and on the way home her brother Paul left her behind – it was harder for mother to walk in the deep snow since she was shorter.  I believe he did come back for her, but her boots were so clogged with snow that it took a long while to make it home.  Mother said he was very conscientious about helping her get the boots off and getting her feet warm once at the house.  I believe there was a ‘Don’t tell mom or dad!’ in the story. 

One of the houses they passed on the trip to school was that of the Mattingly family.  Often Mrs. Mattingly gave them hot biscuits and butter as a treat.  I’m sure the butter was made by Mrs. Mattingly, as did my grandmother Alice.  Jim and Tom ‘Skillet’ Mattingly are in the photo.  Rose Mattingly and mother were the only students in second grade and remained friends for a long time.  They shared a bench and table.  Years later when my parents bought an acre of land to build a house in Marion County, it was purchased from Jim Mattingly.  We lived next door to each other for many years.  An older daughter was a babysitter, and a younger daughter, Brenda, was a good friend.

When mom was in high school, and the only one going to that school at the time, as she walked down the road, she noticed a large bull standing in the road.  What could she do?  She had to go to school.  So, she nonchalantly walked past him, her heart beating a million times a minute.  She walked to meet the bus to take her to Fredericktown High School, a bus ride of about 45 minutes.  They were allowed to go to the nearby store during lunch and she always had a nickel for a Coke.

Mother was the first in her family to graduate from high school.  Today that doesn’t seem like a big achievement, but at the time it was.  Her oldest sister Beulah stayed at home to help around the house.  Her brothers Robert and Paul stayed home from school to help on the farm.  Her sister Margaret Ann developed scarlet fever and was unable to go the last several years of high school – since she couldn’t climb stairs, she lived with another family for a time who had a downstairs bedroom.  Only mother and Mary Alice graduated.