Some observations about the rural school photo

The 1951 schoolhouse was heated with coal. It was converted to oil in about 1954. Is that a hot air vent or a cold air return standing tall in the back of the room? Notice the classic lighting fixtures hanging from the high ceiling. When a bulb burned out, the District Chairman, Dick Williams, was summoned to change it by climbing a rickety stepladder kept in the cloakroom. The ceiling must have been at least 16 feet high, allowing for extremely tall windows, which provided plenty of light. When we had the occasional filmstrip show, it was quite a task getting the room dark enough to see the marvelous pictures provided through the county superintendent's office. In a rare nod to progress, eventually the district invested in real room-darkening shades.

Over the piano in the rear hangs a framed picture of the boundaries of School District 24. It hung there for years and appears in every annual photograph. A close inspection reveals that District 24 was an extremely gerrymandered political boundary. One can only speculate as to how it got that way during its 100 year history. In the 50s, it covered all the way from the Hiebels by the Alexandria airport to the Rolfsruds on Southeast Lake Andrew -- just a short distance from the Lake Mary schoolhouse. Wonder where that picture is now? (In the 1958? photo above, that's Mercy Peterson, Stan Rolfsrud, Edward Keller, Carol Navratil, Kathy Kakac and Linda Rolfsrud.)