On December 24, of 1924, there was a horrible fire at the Babbs-Switch one room schoolhouse near Hobart, Oklahoma.  Many children were killed when a Christmas tree caught on fire.  There were bars on the windows--secured from the outside--and only one door.  Which opened in, not out.  Escape was practically impossible.  The tragedy prompted a new law that required two doors in all of the schoolhouses, and required that all doors had to open out, not in, so that if people piled up at a door, it wouldn't trap them.  Now, all public buildings have doors that open out.

I knew about this first hand, because Ken's mother was hired the next year (1925) as the replacement teacher for the new school.  When she talked about it, you could hear the sadness in her voice.  She knew those people.  As I recall, Ken's dad was the preacher at Hobart's Baptist church at that time, so all of the families at Babbs-Switch and Hobart were close.

Friday, Tom and Pat took me to El Reno to the museum (which was truly wonderful).  One of the exhibits was a one room school house that had been moved to the grounds of the museum.  It was very typical of all of the one room schoolhouses of the day.  The sign over the door said "1906-1936, Possum Holler'." As expected, the doors opened in.  There were signs at the front of the room that listed rules for the teacher, and students.  Infractions by the students were given, along with the number of licks for breaking that rule.  One of them was:  Dirty fingernails, 2 licks.

The desks were just like the ones that were in my first grade class-room.  Inkwells and all.  And a chart of the alphabet in Palmer penmanship (developed in 1888) on the wall.  I hear that the schools are discarding penmanship.  That is really sad.  My great-grandchildren won't be able to read Ken's letters he wrote me from Viet-Nam.  That will be a loss.

We can't go back.  However,  back then, children learned to read, to write, to do arithmetic, to get along with others and to follow the rules.  The older children helped the younger.  And there was a Bible in every classroom.  All moral questions had an answer in God's Word.  Without it, we have no compass to guide us.