Community School was built in the fall of 1922, about ten
miles south of Lethbridge and one mile east of the Pothole
Coulee on the Welling highway. It was the typical one-room
school of the era, about 40 ft. square with a vestibule on
the south-west corner, two cloakrooms, and five large
many-paned windows on the east side.

Inside there were blackboards lining the south and west
walls, a world map that rolled up above one of the
blackboards, the teacher's desk and a coal-fired furnace
which didn't distribute the heat very evenly. Some
children were cold at the back of the room while those
at the front were too hot. There was some excitement
one day when someone placed a tin of coffee on top of
the furnace to warm up. But they forgot to loosen the lid,
and the resulting explosion scared the little ones. The
students' desks were the old-fashioned ones with an
ink-well and pencil slot at the back, book storage
underneath, and the seats were the folding type attached
to the desk behind.

A flag was prominently displayed at the front of the room,
at first it was the Union Jack then the Red Ensign, and
we sang patriotic anthems frequently--"O Canada," "God
Save the King," and "The Maple Leaf Forever." We
recited "The Lord's Prayer" every day.

Miss Culbertson was the first teacher, lived with the Duncan
family. There were about ten students the first year--Gwen
and Valmorice Duncan; Roscoe and Bryan Baker; Lester,
True, Raymond, Delbert and Thelma Christensen-
Harold Laycock and a boy named Glen who lived at
the Felger farm. The next two teachers were Miss Young
and Miss Molander. Then came Mrs. Becker, who was
English and smoked non-stop.

Mr. R. T. Dick came with his family, and a small teacherage
was built. Additional students arrived--Julia and Miller
Leonard; Merne, Ralph and Hugh Laycock; Myrtle, Hazel,
Claude, and Ken Baker- Lucille and Heber Christensen;
Andrew, Ruth, Marie, Lillian and Johnnie Erickson; Frank
and Peter Jensen. Children from the Walter and Hofer families
at the Felger Hutterite Colony attended this school for a
couple of years until they got their own school at the Colony.
The children's names were Darius, Elizabeth, Jacob, Rachel,
Rebecca, Elias and Annie.

Some of the students lived close enough to walk but most
lived one or two miles from the school, and rode horses,
often two children per horse, so a small barn was built
on the property. And there were old-fashioned outdoor
privvies too.

There were usually eight grades in the one room, and
occasionally grade nine, ten and eleven, It must have
been a challenge for the teacher to keep the rest
occupied while she instructed one grade. I remember
listening to the other kids' lessons quite lot of the time.
One of the teachers, Mr. Hildidge, thought it quite fun
to teach the smaller kids one of the geometry propositions
during recess, then have them go to the blackboard and
explain it to the older kids. What a sense of humor! The
School Inspector, a Government-appointed man, would
come about once a year to listen to the teachers to make
sure their work was up to standard. In grade eight, nine,
ten and eleven, the students were required to pass
government exams like their counterparts in the city
schools.

We all took our lunches to school. Sometimes they would
get mixed up and we'd get someone else's lunch. We
took thermos bottles in our lunch pails, but other
drinking water was supplied from a cistern underneath
the building and a pump in the girls' cloakroom with a
tin dipper for everyone to drink from. The woodbox
for the furnace was in the boys' cloakroom.

At recess and noon hour, we would play softball with a
bat fashioned out of a flat board, or "Steal Sticks",
Anti-I-Over," "Prisoner's Base,"'Mother, May I" etc.
The boys also played marbles with commies, agates,
steelies and taws, and 'Mumbledy-Peg" with their
pocket knives and a little spool of wood. The girls
played jacks, hop-scotch and skipped rope, chanting
many of the popular rhymes, doing "pepper" and
"double dutch," etc. and played games on the blackboard.
There was a teeter-totter and a tall swing on-which we
would take turns. Sometimes we would see how high we
could swing and jump out onto a soft pit. At other times,
the big boys would swing standing up with one of the
younger children seated on the swing seat. That was a
thill, as they could swing really high. There were sports
competitions, with all sorts of races, high jump, broad jump,
step-skip-and-jump, etc.

Mr. Dick had a real adventure. One day after school, he
decided to take his wife and daughter Elsie to Lethbridge
to shop. They were driving an open touring car with
leatherette and ising-glass side-curtains. A terrible
blizzard came up so they started back home, but got
stuck in the snow drifts in Duncan's field when they tried
to take a short cut back to the school. They tried to walk
to their home, but the snow was too deep for Mrs. Dick
and Elsie, so they returned to the car and Mr. Dick set out
on foot for the nearest home, that of George Laycock. It
was a wild night, and the Laycocks had just finished their
supper and remarked how glad they were that all of them
were inside, safe and warm, when a knock came at the door.
They hardly recognized Mr. Dick, all covered with snow and
dirt, with icicles hanging from his mustache. He was given a
hot drink while they found blankets, hot water bottles and
thermoses, warm dry clothing and shovels, prayed for a safe
journey and got the car started. Although it was less than
a mile to the Dick's marooned car, it took about five hours
to make trip there and back in the dark, as they had to do
a lot of shovelling through the snow drifts. The snowstorm
was so fierce that they could not see the Coleman gas lamp
placed in the window until they were about twenty feet away
from it, but finally all were safe inside the warm house, and
there were some very thankful people! Mrs. Dick and Elsie
were wet from struggling through the snow, and were nearly
frozen. Several people were frozen to death that night, some
right in their own dooryards, unable to find their way to the
house from the outbuildings.

Miss Molander came back in 1929 to teach for two more
years, then Joe Luco taught for four years before the building
was moved in 1935 two miles south, between the canal and
the Baker home, and placed on a full basement, which was
used as a playroom during the winter. Many community
dances were held here, and the popular Christmas concerts
and parties. There was a small pond nearby which provided
an excellent skating rink in the winter, and wiener roasts were
held here on the ice. The water supply here was a cream can
full of drinking water brought from the Baker home.

Teachers at this location included Joe Luco for another year,
Jasper Blumel, Philippa Cook, Virginia Proctor and Guinivere
Redd. Most of them were newly graduated from Normal School
where they took their teacher training, and were in their early
twenties. For some, it was their first job, and they stayed for
a year or two to gain some experience, then moved on to
larger schools, New famflies began attending the school--the
Paxmans--Willard, LaVon, Delia, Virginia, Canna, and Katie; the
Allreds, Vera and Orley; Andy and Steve Ramus-, Maxine, Darlene
and Charlene Lash; Bill Schneidt; Bill and Don Baker- the
Cromby sisters, Marie and Georgetta; Brent and Lloyd Jensen;
the Takahashis, Hisako, Tak and Masao- and possibly a few
others.

In 1941 the school was closed and the children were bussed
to the larger school at Welling. The school building was sold
and moved to the Schneidt farm, where it was remodelled and
made into a home. Later on, the children who lived in the area
were bussed to schools in Raymond.

Community School provided a good foundation for the students,
many of whom went on to become successful parents, church
leaders, farmers, business men and women, an orchestra
leader and university professors.

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