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| Fourth and final Wolf Creek School -- Now Methodist Church |
Just after Thanksgiving the teacher would
give us our “parts” for the Christmas program.
The younger you were the smaller the part you had to memorize. The parts were mostly recitations of a few
lines about Christmas trees or Santa Claus.
You took the part home and had your parents help you learn it. Every student had at least one part and would
join in the songs. The older students
might have a play to put on and some solos or group songs to sing.
The week before Christmas started the
serious preparations. Kids would have to
say their parts for the teacher. Songs
were practiced. Excitement built as
Christmas vacation, presents, and the program were all getting close.
A few days before the program the “big boys”
cleared out part of the area in the big room and brought the stage up from the
basement. This was a raised platform of
boards that was setup on one end of the room.
The other desks were crowded together.
On the day of the program, everything else
stopped. The students crowded all of the
desks from the big room into the little room.
We then walked down the hill, over the creek and up past the stores to
the Wolf Creek Methodist church and carried all of the chairs back to the big
room and placed them facing the stage.
The piano was moved into place.
The afternoon was rehearsals. The teacher changed the program to match the
missing students and those who had not learned their parts. The room was cleaned, bulletin boards were
put in order. A Christmas tree was
brought in and decorated with the colored paper chains and other ornaments we
made each year and lights and tinsel.
The tree was on the corner of the stage.
The big room was separated from the little
room by two doors that were opened to allow the students to be in the little
room during the program. The stage was
entered from the little room through these doors.
We all went home. In the evening after milking the cows early,
the families would all come to the school.
We all dressed in our Sunday best and brought any costumes that were
needed. The students went to the little
room and the parents to the big room.
They sat on the church chairs and visited with each other until the last
stragglers arrived
The lights in the big room were dimmed and
just the lights over the stage were on.
The welcome was by the teacher or a recitation by a student. The program lasted 45 minutes and included
songs with the audience joining in. The
program generally had some religious aspect as well as Santa Claus, presents,
Christmas trees, etc.
Highlights of the program were when “my kid”
performed and the good natured humor when the little kids bumbled their
lines. At the end of the program a
Christmas carol like Silent Night was sung.
Next came the handing out of the treats. Each child in the school and audience was
given a small paper sack with a handful of peanuts, some Christmas candy and an
orange or apple or both. The parents
stayed and visited for a while. The kids
talked about their treats and whether they were going to eat them right away or
save them.
The next day was the last day of school
before Christmas vacation. It was
cleanup day. The parade of students
walked down the hill and back up to the church.
The little kids carried one chair and the big kids two. Sometimes the teacher would let us all stop
at Raleigh Rogers store and buy a Christmas treat for us. The stage was put away to await the spring
program. The desks were
re-arranged. Since this was mostly done
by noon , the afternoon was
given over to a long recess and then inside games and Christmas songs.
Many of the students brought a present from
home to give to the teacher. The teacher
often gave a present to each student.
One year we got a pencil with our name printed on it.
During the time before Christmas, each of us
had been working on some gift to take home to our parents. We sawed a pig shaped breadboard one year out
of plywood with a coping saw. We made
cards for our parents. All of these were
gathered together. If time permitted we
sang some Christmas Carols.
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| Wolf Creek Chuirch 1890s-1950s |
Finally the day was over. The nearby students walked home. Floyd Harris came to pick up the rest of us
in his station wagon bus and we left for our 2 weeks Christmas vacation.