It must not be assumed from the foregoing that going to school was a dreary succession day after day and month after month of day long classes broken only by recesses and noontime games. We anticipated and prepared for what we called "programs". The programs differed from year to year but always included the traditional Christmas and last day of school events. Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Mother's Day were sometimes but not always celebrated. The parents were always invited to these programs, usually held on a Friday afternoon. The mothers sometimes brought picnic lunches.
Every child had a part and all participated in songs, recitations, drills, dialogues, skits, short plays, and last sometimes in costume. It was important for both the children's and parents' prestige that all have some part in the hour long entertainment. Rehearsals were required for all these performances and for a few days preceding the regular schedule of classes was set aside. The platform at the west end of the school room was a ready made stage. Wires strung across the room supported bed sheet curtains which could be pulled open and shut. Other curtains shut off the corners of the room for a "backstage" and for entrances and as a place to hold needed costumes and props.
The programs began with a song by all the children accompanied by the teacher on the organ. Recitations, usually a humorous poem by the younger children followed. Sometimes the boys and girls separately sang a song. I remember participating with the other boys in blackface in singing Fosters "Old Uncle Ned" and the girls at another time singing the soprano and alto parts of the Sunday School hymn "Love Lifted Me." Dialogues were brief plays by groups of children. One I remember satirizing a schoolroom where the pupils through jokes managed to outwit the teacher until she was rescued by her boy friend. He arrived in the nick of time and as she collapsed in his arms sobbing "I'd rather make b‑b‑biscuits."
In my one fling at acting I was a country bumpkin calling on a girl and her mother. I was trying to arrange a date but during some desultory conversation I managed to upset an open ink bottle. In my embarrassment I sopped up the spilled ink with my handkerchief. The situation kept going from bad to worse when in desperation I had to mop my brow. The ink saturated handkerchief made black streaks all over my face and when I realized how I looked I made a hasty exit. This experience and some later ones convinced me that I was not cut out to be an actor.
The most elaborate production number staged while I was in grade school was a two‑part girls' chorus singing "Star of the East", a schmaltzy turn of the century waltz tune. The seven or eight girls in filmy white angel costumes and tinsel 'head bands made pantomime gestures following the words as they sang. I suppose they did well because a repeat performance was given at the Christmas Eve program at the Barlow church.
Soon after the start of the school year in 1920 our teacher, Gladys Loomis, had the idea of having a Halloween social to raise money for the school. If enough were obtained we would purchase a phonograph to be used for music appreciation, accompaniment for drills, marching, etc. The custom in the past had been to hold basket socials for such a purpose. Each of the girls and women would prepare a lunch in a decorated box to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. In principle the baskets had no visible name attached but the young men often had an idea how their girl's baskets were decorated. Consequently there could be spirited bidding among rivals for certain baskets. Miss Loomis had another suggestion: Ask each girl behind a curtain to whistle a tune and auction off the whistle.
A huge jack o' lantern in the east window of the school greeted the crowd of parents, neighbors and people from the Barlow community. I do not recall much about the program except that this was the occasion when the boys in black face sang "Old Uncle Ned". After the program the girls assembled behind the curtain and the whistle auctioning began. Roy Burton, the storekeeper in Barlow was the auctioneer. He was not experienced in the trade and the bidding was slow and draggy. Not all the girls could whistle a tune and I believe that Mrs. Mike Greitl substituted for a number of them. After a dozen or so whistles had been sold there was a lull in the bidding and Dad suggested that I bid for the next whistle. Mine was the only bid and I got it for 75 cents. All the whistles were sold finally and we found out whom we bought. My partner turned out to be Minnie Buss 8 or 9 years older than I. Ill at ease eating her lunch of sandwiches and fried chicken, I was glad when it was all over. Financially the social was a success. The receipts of the whistle auction were about $90, sufficient for the purchase of a cabinet phonograph and about a dozen records.
Arbor Day in the middle of April was not a school holiday but we celebrated it anyway by cleaning up the school yard. At this time of year all the snow was melted and a little green was just beginning to show among the grasses of the previous year. With garden rakes brought from home we spent the morning collecting the dead grass and trash that had accumulated during the winter. The raked up stuff was burned. The clean up job was finished by noon and the rest of the day spent in fun and games and practicing for Play Day.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 415