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Ramona: Fairfield Country School mates meet for lunch

By JESSICA GILBERT

Ramona correspondent

(785) 965-2621

A spunky octet of women gathered for some high-spirited reminiscing Sunday over a chicken dinner prepared by Martha (Schubert) Ehrhardt, at her Ramona home at 5th and D.

The tie between these eight women ranging in age from 70s to almost 100 was that they all attended Fairfield School — a country school west of Ramona.

"Fairfield was the most beautiful school," said Martha, who hosted the luncheon. "It was unusual because it was made of red brick and most schools had white wood exteriors."

Martha's sister, Anna (Schubert) Schimming, who turns 99 in September, remembered going to Fairfield with her sister Clara. "I went to school as company for Clara," explained Anna. "I was just four years old and Clara was six, and she was afraid to walk to school, so my parents asked the teacher if I could accompany her."

Anna said she didn't enter into the classes, but she did learn to write her name that first year. "I thought that was the hardest thing in the world," said Anna, who attended Fairfield for nine years. "I went to school through ninth grade — they call the ninth grade your freshman year in high school now, but that's not how it was back then," Anna said. "They've changed the school system since 1911, when I was in school."

The women compared notes on how they were transported to classes. "There were no school buses in those days," said Martha. "Our early years in school we walked — which was a mile-and-a-half, unless we cut through the Lunsways' pasture."

In later years the Schubert children rode a horse to school — old Tom who was so skinny that it gave the kids blisters. "We were a bit embarrassed by Tom because he wouldn't fatten up so we'd park him on one side of the schoolhouse, away from the other horses that we considered quite fancy."

When the Rock sisters, Janice and Faye, heard this story on Sunday, they laughed because they didn't think their horse was that beautiful either. "We had one horse that four of us kids shared," said Janice Lauer of Abilene.

"Two of us would ride the horse to school and the other two kids would walk," said Faye Jacobson, Janice's sister, also of Abilene. "When school was over we'd trade, and the two who walked that morning got to ride the horse home."

Janice said sometimes they got a ride to school from their dad who had the horse and wagon hooked up. "Dad had ensilage in the wagon because he was off to feed the cattle, so we'd ride back there in that warm stuff — you can imagine how we smelled by the time we got to school!"

Scents and smells prompted other prominent school memories. "Sometimes the guys came to school smelling like skunks from tending their trap lines," remembered Dorothy (Dillon) Riffel of Salina. "We girls had little bottles of perfume we'd pass around," and she gestured how they'd put the perfume up to their nose to drown out the scent of skunks in the classroom.

What kids brought to school in their lunch pail was another topic of conversation. "We all had lunch buckets — no hot lunches were served in those days," said Marguerite (Bayes) Utech of Ramona. "Some had syrup buckets for pails," added Dorothy Riffel.

"We kept our lunch pails in the cloak room," remembered Frieda (Schubert) Struebing of Wichita. "And I always had to have milk with my lunch so my older sister, Erna, who was in eighth grade when I was in first grade, carried my milk in a Mason jar."

Martha Schubert was in eighth grade when Orvell (Long) Brunner started first grade at Fairfield. "Orvell always had these yummy marshmallow cookies," remembered Martha, "and I never had those in my lunch bucket. So one day I offered to trade my fried chicken for Orvell's cookies."

"They still sell those cookies," laughed Orvell. who attended Fairfield for only one year, in 1927. "Then I transferred to the Prairie Union School."

"Remember when we all got hepatitis from drinking the cistern water," asked Dorothy Riffel. "We all turned a shade of yellow." Of course, the old country schools didn't have running water so they relied on the cisterns as the water source.

"We had water in a bucket and when we got thirsty we all drank from the same dipper," said Faye Jacobson, who graduated from Fairfield in 1930, along with her sister, Janice, and friend, Martha Schubert.

Many things have changed in the 75 years since these women attended country school. "We just don't seem to have the harsh winters like we used to have," noted Orvell of Ramona. "Why I can remember waking up as a child, and finding snow on the window sill of my bedroom."

"There'd be frost on the covers," added Marguerite Utech.

"It just made me not want to get up out of bed; I'd want to pull the covers up higher!" chimed in Janice Lauer.

The women added that harsh weather didn't change the routine of walking to school. "When it was really cold we'd stop and go under the bridge just to cut the wind and warm up a bit before continuing walking home," said Marguerite.

And no discussion of country schools would be complete without talking of the teachers — the brave crew who taught eight grades simultaneously with as many as 35 students.

"Hallie Whitney was my favorite teacher," said Martha. "She did more than just correct our papers, she was so thoughtful in helping us learn."

Jenny Comer was another favorite because she taught the girls how to make paper flowers. "She made a picket fence across the stage when we had our school programs and we thought that was amazing," said Martha. "Then we girls made flowers out of crepe paper and wove them through the fence. It was a beautiful site."

"Some teachers we had to teach," laughed Marguerite. "They were so young, not much older than those of us in eighth grade. They started teaching right out of high school in those days."

Three of the women at Sunday's dinner became teachers themselves — Faye Jacobson, Orvell Brunner, and Dorothy Riffel. Dorothy and Orvell taught right here in Ramona!

Many aspects of life have changed drastically in the last 75 years — refrigerators, furnaces, automobiles, high on the list. "I recall staying at Frieda's house overnight, and we made Jell-O with bananas in it — that was a real treat!" said Dorothy.

"You mean you had refrigerators then?" I asked in wonder. "Oh, no!" laughed Dorothy. "Nobody had refrigerators — but it was winter and they just put the Jell-O in the pantry — it was cold enough there to make it set!"

While they didn't have lots of conveniences, they were a clever crew, these little girls. "We built a tumbleweed house near the school," recalled Faye. "The girls had one and so did the boys. It looked like an igloo with all the tumbleweeds stacked to make the walls and roof. We sometimes ate lunch there."

"It was a wonderful day," commented Martha as she washed the dishes Sunday afternoon with her daughter. "Ever since I moved back to Ramona a couple of years ago I've been thinking about these childhood friends, especially the Rock sisters, and wanting to connect with them again."

Martha's found new friends as she's gotten reacquainted at the Ramona Senior Center. "It was at the senior center that I met Marguerite Utech, who also was a Fairfield student. Sunday was an afternoon full of remarkable stories and memories," said Martha.

The Ramona seniors went Thursday on one of their expeditions — this time to the Tallgrass Prairie. "We went out in the pasture and saw the different grasses," said Myrna Eskeldson who went on the tour. The group also toured the house and the unusual three-level barn that rests on the property.

"We also went to Council Grove and had lunch and checked out some historical sites there," added Marlene Anduss, senior center president.

The Ramona couples on the tour were Al and Darlene Sondergard, Reign and Marlene Anduss, Fred and Marguerite Utech, and Steve and Myrna Eskeldson.

The Andusses had a weekend packed with activities. On Friday evening they cooked the rehearsal dinner for their daughter, Marsha, who married Doug Strecker Saturday in Peabody at the Methodist Church. If you want more details, check out Evelyn Strecker's newspaper column, because she's mother of the groom and will probably give a first-hand report.

Marsha met Doug at work. "She was so very happy," said Marlene about Marsha's wedding. "She was smiling all day and obviously very thrilled!"

The Andusses didn't take much time off for celebration because they were back at work early Sunday morning preparing pies and fried chicken in anticipation of the Sunday dinner crowd. And it was indeed a crowd with cars parked everywhere and folks waiting to get in!

Naomi Fike's daughter, Virginia Bowyer, came from Haysville to see her mom this weekend, and brought a special baby along to meet his great-grandmother. Virginia's son Scott, and his wife, Rachel, had their first child, named Sandler, about six weeks ago. This was the first time Naomi got to meet this new great-grandchild. "He's a doll!" enthused Naomi. "He smiled so big."

Ramona is bustling in anticipation of the 4th of July. The fun begins with a 3-on-3 basketball competition at the city park to initiate the new basketball goals recently installed there.

Check the press release on Ramona's 4th of July in this week's newspaper for complete details.

Other 4th of July highlights are the cakewalk at 5:30, the parade down Main Street at 7 p.m., followed by live music with Bob and the Boys of Marion, games in the street, and the grand finale of fireworks at Freedom's Field. The event is coordinated by The Ramona Festivities Committee and sponsored by area businesses and organizations.

And that's the news from Ramona where a traffic jam is two parked cars and a dog in the road — at least until the 4th of July arrives.

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