Comments from our Readers
Please feel free to comment, either a sentence, paragraph or pages.1. Richard Drew Martin Date:06/23/99
Email:[email protected]
Comments: As a student at the East Buffalo School
from 1955 through 1957, I still have fond memories of
those years, especially of Miss Murray and sledding
down the hill past McDowell's house, then getting
back up the hill before lunch was over. With my sisters
Susan, Jill, and I spread over this country,
geographically, it is fun to see what we call home,
however so briefly we were there. If there are others
there that wish to correspond to a Washington Co.
native transplanted to south Florida, please contact me.
Keep up the good work. (Thanks Rich)2. Dr./(Lt Col) Sally Ann Mounts , first grade student 1959
Sally was there only three weeks , then EBGS became a
classroom for 6th graders for the remainder of term.
When my Mom asked me if I remembered anything about
East Buffalo grade school, I had to really think.
As a member of the last class to start at East Buffalo, I do have
some warm memories. But as a PH. D. who has gone through
25 years of education since, I have alot of memories to wade
back through ! It seems ironic today that my life's education
started in a one-room schoolhouse, and that everything I've
learned in school since has built on that experience. Ironic and
somehow very fitting, since no matter where I go in life and
what I do, I still feel very much a woman anchored in the
beautiful hills of Western Pennsylvania, and the people there
that I love.
I can remember that my three-week experience at East
Buffalo was a very happy one. I loved the whole idea of going to
school, and the adventure of learning.
I was awed by the big kids in my classroom (they were 8 or 9,
I magine!) and impressed by how much they knew.
I remember the day our teacher came in to say that we had to
leave East Buffalo, and would be bussed to Claysville to continue.
At the time, I was devastated, and thought "but I'm really happy
here ... why are they making me go somewhere else?" I didn't
want to be in a huge class, and didn't understand the whole process
of school closings and zonings.
Looking back, I think the faculty and my family handled that
whole situation very well. A first grader -- especially a new first
grader-- has lots of doubts and fears, just like anybody else. But my
teacher and my parents let me know that it would be OK --it was
just one of life's changes, and we could all cope with it just fine. I
was apprehensive about Claysville (it seemed enormous to my
5-year-old eyes!), but quickly settled in and lost my fear. I think
my whole experience at East Buffalo--even the transition away from
it--paved the way for a quick adjustment somewhere else, and the
continuance of a love of learning that continues for me to this day.
How I wish I could go back there, and live again my time in that
small, one-room schoolhouse, knowing what I know now! But time
marches ever onward, and I will soon hit my 50th birthday.
(Ed Note Actually she's 46) I guess that's what life's about--living,
growing, and moving onward. But it is fun to remember, isn't it???
Sally Mounts
3. Dorothy's Stories July 28, 1999
One of my most outstanding memories at East Buffalo School was
of the farm boys who emptied their animal traps before coming to
school. They would have the odor of skunk on their shoes and
clothing and then they would stand on the hot air registers until it
drove us out of school. At this point, the teacher sent them home,
which is what they wanted! The rest of us had to stay at school
with the odors.
I also remember if you did something that displeased the
teacher, she would send you to the cloak room. While I was in the
cloak room supposedly thinking about what I had done, I would try
on all the kids coats and look in the lunchbags to see what the kids
had brought for lunch. But, I never ate them!
Across the street in the cemetery on hot summer days, black
snakes would lie close to the tombstones for the coolness they
provided. At recess time, some of the boys would pick up the
snakes by their tails and chase the girls back into the schoolroom.
In the wintertime when my Dad couldn't take us to school, we
walked in a group. Joann McDowell, Duane Stacher, Tommy
Seibert, Carol Ann Claffey and myself. The snow was often
drifted four to five feet on East Buffalo Road. One day Tommy
walked on top of a snow drift and fell in. It took all of us to get
him out. We no longer walked on top of the drifts, but walked
beside them. Dorothy Justin Mossburg
4. Carol Ann Claffey Mounts August2, 1999
Response to remarks of Dorothy Justin Mossburg.
Thanks, Dorothy, for reminding us of those wonderful
carefree school days.
When I think of our childhood days, my first memory of
you, is your wonderful box of crayons!! In those depression
years when most of us were lucky to receive that new box of
8 cyayons at beginning of school year, you owned a 'great
big' box of about 100 crayons. And 'wonder of wonders' it
included a 'gold' one and a 'silver' one.
You used to 'generously' let me use them when we
visited you. You and I would color while my younger
brother 'Sonny' watched your older brother, Tom, hand
craft model airplanes.
Tom was quite good at it, as I recall. For Photo GO TO
Another nostalgic memory: You reminded me, a few years
back that you were present at my house (1/2 mile down the
road from yours) on December 7, 1941, when we got the
news that fateful Sunday afternoon. The Japanese had
bombed Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. Joann
Sprowls was visiting also.
We were working a jigsaw puzzle. As youngsters, we
had only a vague notion of where Pearl Harbor was but be
were old enough to know that we now 'AT WAR" even if it
was not declared until the next day. Life changed for all of
us that day. Carol Mounts(Webmaster)
Email Webmaster
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