Saturday, June 04, 2011

1915 Alamance County North Carolina School House
(One Room)




                               
 Back to school for me today. Solo rider to the McCray One room school house on Hwy 62 N. Nancy C. Curtis wrote in her book "Black Heritage sites" was built for African American students and operated until 1951. It was renovated in the early 1990's and is complete with an operational outhouse.
 Mebane North Carolina has recently restored a one room school house, they claim it's the only one in Alamance county...WRONG.http://www.cityofmebane.com/events/default.asp?eid=299
 I can just see children mulling around in the school yard at recess. Inside the school is still loaded with all the wares for teaching. I just couldn't get a good picture through the windows but it looked just like kids and teacher would be back the next day.
 In the left corner of the porch hangs the school bell. I approached for a close up shot , tis then I noticed the wasps flying about and one bounced off my helmet. Yes, I still had my helmet on so decided this was close enough. Probably got their attention when I rode up and around the school yard a couple of times.
 The weather vane still stands straight and strong. I'm drawn to places like this.
 I parked under the large oak for the shade, wrote notes in my notebook and sipped on cold tea I'd brought in the saddlebags. It was very peaceful and I imagined coming back with friends on our bikes to have lunch here Wish I'd brought along a good book to read. Just think of all the kids who sat under this tree eating lunch, playing marbles or running around it playing tag ninety six years ago. How many went to war, worked tobacco fields, raised kids of their own, any number of things.
Sitting beside my bike on the ground to have a smoke this shot presented itself. Harley Davidson outside the one room school house, it's fitting don't you think. Can you see it? The school was operational for thirty six years and this 1975 Harley Davidson Sportster is thirty six years old. Finished the cigarette, snuffing it out then putting the butt in my pocket. Smokeing is my bad habit but I try not to litter and in recent years became conscience of how I dispose of my cig-a-butts. I bet the school marm would have rapped me on the knuckles with a wooden ruler had I been caught, then grabbed me by the ear for throwing my cigarette on the ground. Yes, there is a dunce stool in the school house, probably would have been worn with my seat. The sunshine was making the view screen on the camera tough to see and it wasn't clear how the picture came out until arriving home.

Check out more information on this school in the links below

http://books.google.com/books?id=Rk7NPRm_nB0C&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=One+room+school+house+Alamance+county&source=bl&ots=pssaPzqMms&sig=2ibNQ1JVg6IBrIdhlL7UdY36YWU&hl=en&ei=Dc_qTYSPLebg0QG46LSmAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false
Historical Marker Database: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=31153 HMdb.org
http://www.hmdb.org/results.asp?County=Alamance%20County&State=North%20Carolina&DP=.P

4 comments:

Kernal Clink said...

Hey that's pretty cool. We have a one room schoolhouse right here at home. It's not 2 miles from my place. I guess I kind of take it for granted since I grew up around it. Nice pics Wooley.

Big Daddy said...

What's a Helmet?

WooleyBugger said...

Big Daddy,
It's something that kept my skull from splitting on more than one occasion.

Webster World said...

I went to one of those. Giving me age away here.