Claude Bartley Remembers, Part 2

Note: I have used two photos from one of my mother's albums to illustrate this post. When I showed them to Claude, he said:  "That is not the school house in Beaconsfield, so it had to be in Maine." However, they are just a little later than the time Claude is speaking of, and they do include some of the Crabtree kids, though not the Bartleys. I just thought they added to this piece. 

[Comments in brackets are mine]. 

Part 1 of Claude Bartley Remembers is here.

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Claude continues with his memories of life in Beaconsfield, New Brunswick, living next door to the David and Edith Crabtree family farm in the 1920s and 1930s:

April 14, 2014

Hi, Clair.

I have no objection to you using my writings in your family history blog, in fact I am pleased that you would ask.

About school.

I enjoyed school, but (I wasn't such a smart student).

It was a one room school house with one teacher for all eight grades but I liked all of the teachers. In fact as I think I mentioned before, my two oldest sisters were my teachers. I think we had a new teacher every year. 

One of our neighbours had a daughter (somewhat older than me) that I went to school with, she went on to normal school and came back and was one of my last teachers.

In the eight years I was in school, there was quite a few changes in the number of students (because of ages), older ones leaving and younger ones coming in.

I mentioned before that the school house was on the property line between your grandparents and our farm.

Not Claude's school (see note above)

It was hard to keep warm in the winter, we only had a small wood stove and I built the fire in the morning for quite a few years. I always pitied the school children that had to walk, some a mile or more.

There was twenty to twenty five students in school while I was going there, no one in my classes ever went on to High school. We all lived eight to ten miles from the nearest town. I was twelve years old the first time I was to our town, Andover, N.B. [New Brunswick, Canada], that was May 12, 1937. One family in our neighbourhood had a flat bed truck that took all of the children (that could)  to town for the coronation of King George sixth.

Another photo from my mother's album, not Claude's school

I mentioned I wasn't the brightest "Kid" in the class, (ha). The only thing I went to the top of the class in was my penman-ship which is not much to brag about, but I have had many compliments about it over these many years.

[I had sent Claude a photo of the view I see from my window, looking out at the Organ Mountains in southern New Mexico]. I see the view from your window is gorgeous, mountains are always beautiful. Here in Lakeland, Florida, all I see out my windows (all four sides) is mobile homes and palm trees, etc. and of course the sky is most always beautiful. We bought in this park in 1992 and have enjoyed all these years here, it's a small comunity, 385 units and people from all parts of the U.S. and Canada.

In Maine it is much different, we live in Portland, Maine which is a seaport. We have many large cruise ships docking there in summer. We have fishing, lobster, oysters, etc. We live about ninety miles from the beautiful mountains of New Hampshire, including Mount Washington which is the highest point in the Northeast, six thousand three hundred and eighty eight feet high.

Enough for now.