Appalachia Story of Going to school back in the day. 

You mentioned something about the number of children that some families had back in the day. Some people don't believe me when I tell them this but it's the truth. My mama's sister, my aunt Emma had 21 children. Only one didn't make it to adulthood, he passed away right after he was born. She had 3 sets of twins and the rest were single births. Out of the 20 that made it to adulthood there are 14 still living.

Does anyone else besides me hit the like button before the video starts? Lol I just know Donnies videos will not disappoint! And i absolutely love the music!! My dad built instruments & played them all but he was partial to the mandolin & fiddle. He love his bluegrass & ole time music! So this fiddle music hits me right in the heart!

My mother, God rest her soul, would always pack extra food in my lunch pail for me to share with the kids who didn't have lunch. We didn't have much either but she had a heart of gold. She only went to 5th grade but was the smartest woman I have ever met. She raised a garden every year. She would win the Ag office garden award every year. What a wonderful woman.

My Mamaw had a mean teacher so they pushed the outhouse over a hill with him in it. I loved that story. Tiny strong beautiful woman born in 1895.

Kids growing up back then, didn`t think of how hard everyday life was, it was what it was. You have to have something better in order to compare with life back then, and call it hard. They didn`t, so to them, it was just everyday life. Today, yeah, they had it hard but, those same people were what has been called, " The Golden Generation ", who built America, fought back the Nazis, Japanese, and Italians to save Europe and Western Pacific countries, were God fearing, hard working, patriotic, and God knows how bad I miss them today.

Oh I missed my mother and grandmother talk about these school days in KY and TN. Thank You for the video, just loved it so!

I enjoyed this one Donnie! I loved hearing Pap and Granny talk about their school days and even though my kids are grown I still feel a sort of excitment every year when school starts.

I love how much alike all of us from Appalachia are. The stories that are told of life there regardless of the state it comes from are all the same . All of us that grew up here can relate. I'm from West Virginia and I expirenced all the exact things that are in your stories. We are all one big Appalachia family.

Would love to go back. No electronics. A simple life. Enjoyed this and love to hear you talk💕

Everyone always knew when you brought an egg salad sandwich, especially on a hot summer day... if you ever did you know what I mean. Everyone had their "recess buddy". Chocolate milk after recess what a treat. Sometimes I had an extra 2 cents for an extra milk. That was sure living big back in the day! Be blessed everyone.

As an Aussie, I really loved hearing about your early schools. I went to school in the 50s in Queensland, Australia. In early days we had slates with slate pencils. We had small containers with a wet sponge inside the clean the slate when finished our work. The smell is something you always remember. Later I became a teacher, interrupted by service in Vietnam. Then I became a Principal and taught in one teacher schools and eventually retired from a larger city school. I sometimes regret leaving the smaller schools as the children and parents were so totally different to larger schools!

Back in those days there wasn’t calculators computers it was paper pencil and the chalk board.👍👍👍

Alot of fond memories of those school days for sure,and a good teacher made all the difference. I never did like school that much, but I tried to make the best of it. Ended up working 25 years in the school maintenance as a plumber, them rascals kept me busy fixing stuff 🙂.Another Good Story Donnie, THANKS

This is precious and oh I wish for those days again ! I grew up on a 120 acre farm dandridge Tn when I was a young girl we raised produce and delivered a lot of it to Asheville NC to buyers there ! I never knew had good I had it was hard but simple ! God country and Gods people in the Appalachian mountains! Previous memories ❤️

My great grandpa in Wise County VA donated a acre of land for a school (Marshall School) and not to be out done, my grandma's dad did the same in Dickenson Co, Va. (Bise School). Love these memories. Thanks, Donnie.

We were a lot happier with a lot less back in those days! Life is too complicated these days.

Oh Donnie!! So glad to see this. I am 67 years old,went from first to fourth grades in a one room school house. The absolute BEST education a kid could get. We had an outhouse and a well with a hand pump out front. Our lunch was carried in brown paper bags,I was privileged because I had a little thermos that I brought milk in sometimes. We heated with a pot bellied coal stove. The boys carried the coal in and the ashes out. Grade 1 through 8 was taught there. Yes,we said The Lords Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The poor kids now do not learn nearly as much as we did.

I've watched several of your videos and enjoyed them. This one touched me, even though I didn't experience most of these things; however, my family did and that humbles me to see the pictures of times that are no more. Thank you for the great work you did on this video especially.

Another history lesson that we need to continue, went to a small school, 1st through 4th in one room 5th through 8th in another. Mrs. E.A. Cope was my first teacher, two teachers for all eight grades. Used to work in tobacco corn, and hay fields to help buy my school clothes; never will forget the smell of my lunch bag with a banana and peanut butter sandwich in it. No bathrooms only outhouses, one potbellied stove in the middle of the room, large coal pile outside. Yes times were hard, but people cared for one another then. Thanks for jogging the memories.

Enjoy your stories. Reminds me of stories my dad would tell me about his youth. He went to a one room school his grade school years. His mother washed laundry by hand outdoors. They had to bring water up to the house from a stream. But his fondest memories was of a steam engine train chugging up the side of Whiteside mountain just west of Chattanooga Tennessee. They got one pair of shoes a year and wore overalls.

I attend an old church with hand hewn beams on the foundation rocks, and there was a school constructed just like it across the street. County demolished the school 50 years ago but we have the church. It is a privilege to know the old folks and listen to their stories. 5:22 that looks like a 1958 Ford in front of John's Store. Pledge and Lord's Prayer - and we meant it. 8:30 looks like an American Chestnut on the left, but could be a peach. I enjoyed this video as much as any I have ever watched. Thank you for making it.

My grand parents grew up in kentucky and I loved hearing stories about them growing up. All are gone but 1 grandma and I sure do miss the stories . I tell my grandkids about them as I want them to know about the past , where their family came from and let the memories live on

Lord's Prayer and the pledge being said, would change the hearts and minds of people in this country over night.

Donnie I went to a one room school house in Guntertown TN I just turned 70 this year and several of my Grandchildren have done school papers about my days there. I grew up in the mountain and I sure do miss Tennessee. Love the way you tell a story !

My Granny was born in 1907. She went to school in the early yrs. She only got as far as 6th grade. She told me she quit because she always had to help in the cotton fields. I still have a letter she wrote me from back in the 80's, and it amazes how good her handwriting was. My Granny left this old world in 1999, but I feel so fortunate to have sat with her and paid attention to what she had to say.

A wonderful memory today of going to Middlesboro to the John's Store. I can smell the store still today. All of those stiff jeans and overalls smelled of new. Great memories thinking of the JC Penny downtown. The old elevator in there. I couldn't have picked a better place to be raised. PET Dairy brought my father there when I was 4 around 1970. It was a perfect childhood. I enjoy these videos so much! Thank you!😊

I remember playing marbles at recess, those were great days

As a kid, I remember the country church where we would sometimes attend, had an outhouse and the drinking water was in a galvanized tub and everyone used the same dipper to drink from.

What a wonderful story, Donnie! Although I was a town girl, I remember well those first days of school. And a good teacher really did make all the difference!💖

My maternal grandmother went to what used to be called "normal school". It was high school actually. I have her picture from there, and I look like her. It makes me proud knowing where I came from.

My Daddy had to go to worked after 8th grade, his Momma, my Memere, had 14 children but only 10 survived. I’m talking 1930’s New Brunswick Canada. It was a French speaking area. Your talking winter from November thru May! Feet and feet of snow! We were stuck in our chalet for 3 weeks when I was living there!!! It was great!

When my mother was a student they had what she called "potato vacation ". When harvest time came every one had to help with the harvest so school was closed.

It wasn’t so quaint. My dad said the one room school in WV was cold with only a pot-bellied stove. They would have had a cold biscuit or boiled egg for lunch. His father was a logger. There wasn’t much money for warm clothes. His sister, the oldest child, didn’t have clothes for the cold & long walk in the snow. She had to quit school & leave home to go to work. My father had to quit school at 15 to go to work, too. He was the middle child. There were 5 of them plus one that died at 2 weeks of age.

I used to travel in the 90's selling parts to farm Equipment dealers. I covered KY, TN, NC, SC. I would see many of the small community school houses. Keep on painting those memories.

I remember you wearing Yellow Jacket Gold Converse. You got us all hooked on them. I remember going to Premier Shoe store to buy my first pair. Oh the memories! 😍

I remember the book mobile. Sweet memories.

My mom started teaching in a 1 room school on Wolf Island that was in the Mississippi River. On the weekends she rode the ferry to the main land and would stay with local families. She later moved to Kingsport tn5 and retired from the city school system. Such a different world than what we're used to. I love your channel.

My grandmother and many members of our family attended the Bird schoolhouse. I believe I have a class portrait as I have filled several albums of letters, pictures and family history in Tennessee. I wish they had raised my brothers and I down there. Now the history has stopped for most of us. Very sad to feel so disconnected to our own people and our roots. When I visit, I’m called a Yankee. It makes me realize that I’m not their people even tho I will always call them mine.

I would bet one thing you never worried about back then was a school shooting. Those schools might have been small and had outdoor plumbing, but you were among neighbors and you were safe.

My grandmother was a teacher and she started her teaching career in a room above a store in the county next to mine. Man the stories she had. This brings me back to her memory. Thank you!

I need to find out where both sets of grandparents attended school, I want to see if their old schoolhouses are still standing 🤔 though it's doubtful ☺️. Thank you for another wonderful story Donnie 🤗

I started in a one room school in Dickinson county Virginia ( Tivis ridge) with one teacher taking care of seven grades. The older girls helped with the younger kids and even cooked the lunch. That was the last year Tivis was open. The next year I went to Bise school which was two rooms with five grades. I consider myself lucky to have been able to experience the old ways.

I just found your channel and i love it. Im 57 years old and the daughter of a Coal Miner from Southwest Virginia. My Mom and Dad are gone now as are my Grandparents. Your videos bring back so many memories and tales of what i was told. I know about Raw Head and Bloody Bones lol...thank you...

My uncle's & auntie's would tell us kids they had to walk miles to school daily rain shine hell or high water lol. listening to you reminds me of listening to my uncle Woodrow tell us stories Thanks Mr Donnie 👍😊

An eighth grade education back then was better than 12 years now. A student learned the 3 Rs. The state curriculum now is full of fluff and the computer ed is not as important as it's said to be.

Thank you for these history stories Donnie, and very much appreciated. I have heard similar stories up here in our neck of the woods and sat full attention on the teller hanging on every word. I am pleased about how much fineness there are in people in the telling of these histories. Donnie

TY for sharing. We need to get back to the old way of teaching. Not this new curriculum stuff.

I never knew about the libraries in cars that drove around. That was an awesome thing for the kids. Thank you for sharing Donnie

I want to let you know. My family from Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I cannot stop watching the history you bring. I have a great respect now for my mother, grandma, and great grandma and PA. Thank you, Mr. Donnie.

Thanks for another great video Donnie. Brought back some memories I had forgotten. I had forgotten about those cheap blue jeans we would have at the start of the school year. I would go play, running around sweating and your legs would turn blue!

I remember when i first started school we used to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the United State in the morning

Been a long day....nice to have your stories at bedtime 🌙

I'm a NC native, but in 1970-71 I attended 10th grade at Tennessee High School in Bristol, complete with the medieval castle football stadium. Mr Borlesky was my neighbor and the school principal. Mr Cannon (Spanish) was my favorite teacher I love the old CCC project school buildings and I love the mountains.

My maternal grandfather was born in 1908. The youngest of 14 children. Also he was the youngest of the second litter! His father’s first wife passed away after they had grown children. He remarried a much younger woman who was my great grandmother and started a new family. The oldest half brother was born in 1873 and 35 years old when my grandfather was born! My Mother had uncle’s that fought in the civil war.

I love the mountains I miss them

Back then everyone had guns for hunting, but not one school shooting.

How I love the old days and old times the old school buildings or school houses the boys in their overalls and the girls in their dresses back when times were good I prefer the old school houses over the new fancy modern school buildings I think it's awesome how they would say the Lord's prayer or something biblical in school and God back then nowadays their trying to take god out of everything and even in school now this reminds me of little house on the prairie the kids in the old school houses and buildings up in the Appalachian mountains I love the old out houses I want to go back in time back to the old days love these stories kids would walk to school watt their lunches in the classrooms have recess then walk back home after school you could just walk back home without anybody kidnapping or snatching those school houses were neat old timey it's not like this anymore times have changed love the old clips from these kids studying reading out of their books having class this takes me back in time good old days thanks Donnie

Back when people were real compared to today. Knew what an honest days work was. Watching your vids makes me miss my Great Grandmother & Grandfather & visiting them on their farm. Thank you Sir.

Love your narration of times past. That's Boyd's Creek Tn or Seymour in the first picture. Some good memories in those hollaers. Keep it up Donnie cause there be skunks tryin to rewrite the past.

I so love your story's and I lived in a holler in Salt Rock West Virginia and we had an outhouse and , also a coal stove for cooking on, we moved when I was about 11

Sir ya brought back some fond memories thank you.....ATB

who remember making paper airplanes and making it fly higher and faster? i'm teaching my grandkids all that stuff they enjoy it all, lots of laughter in here when I have them.

My grandma was born in 1901, and we have a picture of her and the whole school lined up. Some kids had shoes, some not, we were poor but an education was what mattered. We went alone the train tracks to pickup coal, allot did to stay warm. I pray that they bring back the Pledge of Allegiance we are one country and that teaches us allot. Be safe thanks!

In Swansboro NC, there is an old one room school that has been restored to its original era. No charge to visit the school. They do accept donations to assist with upkeep. If you are ever in the area, check it out. Well worth visiting the old one room school.

Yes, this video brought back some memories. Although some of my Ancestors came out of Harlan, Ky, my country school days were from Warsaw, Mo. I think we had 8 kids, multiple grades in the one room. I remember listening to the kid's lessons in the advanced grades and waiting for school to end and get back to the woods; after chores of course. Thanks for the video.

Your videos are so soothing and relaxing. I sit here at my desk at work and watch them. The videos bring me peace when I'm having a long day..

Thank you sir. The memories you brought back... all the chores, the running in the fields... sigh...

I attended an old country schoolhouse. It had 2 rooms, but they only used one room because there was about 20 kids who were going there. There was no indoor plumbing. We used an outhouse. When weather got colder, we we would burn coal in a potbelly stove. We would every morning get water from the well. Grades 1-8 were taught in there. Some of the classes had only 1 student. There was more hands on teaching at that time. We would bring our own lunches and eat outside. We got one, 10 minute break in the morning and 30 minutes for lunch. We would play on these breaks. We lived about a mile from the school. Our Dad would drive us down to school in the morning and we would walk home every afternoon. I think the learning we got from this environment helped us to learn better. I attended the school for 7 years. When they closed it, We were bussed to a larger school. I usually made better grades than most of the other kids. That’s one of the reasons that I think kids need a good basic education to learn to master any subject.

Thanks for the great memories. I always wanted one of those yellow raincoats you seen kids wear but we never could afford it.

Donnie my peoples from Letcher County Kentucky. I think you mite know it well. They was raised in Roxanna down around Blackie. Ole Granddad went to school in a one room house. Now he always said the kids had to take turns hauling in coal for the heating stove and also shovel the snow on the school walkway. Them where some tough times.

Thank you for sharing your stories. I just love to hear of days past and the people in them. I subbed. Be well.

O Donnie!!! The mémoires make me cry! My 27 yr old says, "mom! Ur such à girl"!!! Hahahahaha mama told us they carried à hot potato to walking miles to school in that caribou Maine winter. Papa owned 100s of acres of potatos. He even had german POW'S Working on the farm. Everbody spoke french at school and home. They said the Lords payer and piège of allégeance all in french. I was raised in TX and Ga. In Tx we sang the Texas songs before we even said the allégeance.

I really like your videos! My mother walked several miles to school, and I went to a two-room school for my first three grades. The good ole' days!

Lovely video. My mother went to a rural school in Maine, much like the one pictured at he end. We went to see it a few years ago, and it as still there but much broken down. Actually had a National Historic Register placard on the front, but there's no money to fix it. In my area many of the old one-room schoolhouses have been turned into homes. You can tell by the row of windows that they existed before electricity.

Donnie, Definitely enjoyed it, still reminisce those days when my father used to tell me when he used to go to school, and now I tell my kids.

I really enjoy listening and watching these videos brangs back great memories for me thank you for sharing GOD BLESS

Thank you for helping us to remember the good Ole days

Remember the class bully? We all had one. When I was about 12, had this bully always coming up behind me, and smack the back of my head. This went on for a little while. He was much bigger than me, so I was intimidated to some degree. Well, I told my grampa about it. He looked at me and said, don't you never start no business. But if business comes to you, ya finish it right quick. No matter what. Or else it will keep coming back to ya. So the next day at school, I waited for that bully to get behind me. And just as he was raising his hand to smack me. I turned quickly, and with all I had, punched him square in the nose!!! He fell back and the blood flowed. Though I did get in a bit of trouble, that bully never bothered me or anyone else again!! I ran into him long after our school days. We talked like old friends. And he said I think we both learned a lesson that day in school..... Yeah, I guess we did.

Surely the dislike on this video is a mistake. Your videos are great!

I live about ten minutes from the old schoolhouse in the first picture. It’s in Seymour, TN on Boyd’s Creek Highway. Pretty neat little historical building if you ask me.

Great video as always Donnie! Wish I'd have paid more attention in school for sure, I took it for granted, while many others would have given anything to have my place there.

My grandkids first day back today, my God its still summer we never went back until 1st week september, thats a whole month of summer memories we cant make 😢, especially for those of us who have long winters. Love your stories Don, Im going to make my grandkids 11 and 9 watch this, Im 63, had modern everything, but I dont think they even teach kids today about this kind of history, I know mine are spoiled Im guilty lol. Loved this Don. I will tell you what Don, im not super religious but when they stopped saying the pledge of allegience and prayer before classes and in other agencies even congress things started getting bad in the world, I think God got a little upset and sad.

I'm loving these old stories keep them coming sir, 👍

Those were the days of moral values and patriotic pride. In 1969, I used to complain about walking 3 blocks the turn right and walk two more to get to school. We even walked home for lunch. These kids walked up to 5 miles through brush and fields to get an education which they highly valued since most of their parents had little to no education. One thing that wasn't mentioned was firm but fair (in most cases), classroom discipline by means of a ruler, yard stick, wooden rod, paddle or hickory switch. Even on the 50's through seventies, if a kid got spanked (a whoopin) at school, in many homes, the kud would get one at home, as well. In the past 40 years, there has been little to no control in the classroom. Few kids are toughr respect fir elders! Where is it today!

A great story to set this day off!

My Maw Maw was a Share Cropers daughter she was born in 1916 in Tuscaloosa, Al. ...she made it to 3rd grade... according to her she picked Cotton along side her Daddy beginning at the age of 3...She was a good woman and tough as pig iron! I sure do miss her and her stories

I remember the Bookmobile! It came by my house every other week in the summer. I read all the books I could carry up the hill to my house. I still wear converse tennis shoes! I have one pair of high tops (in blue) and one regular pair (in black) at the moment.🤗❤️🐝

I was going to like this video but it already had 665 likes and I sure didn’t want to be the next unlucky number lol but I really enjoy your videos. God Bless.

Great story! Yes it was a lot different for our parents and us!

I can remember kids in my school getting out excused to cut tobacco...and later grade tobacco. My paw paw used to talk about walking to school in the snow barefooted because he didn't have shoes and he would stop along the way at certain houses to warm his feet by the fire then go on to the next till he got to school. The do the same going back home....tuff way to go if you ask me🤔

I could listen to you all day. Thank you 🙏

All my ancestors on my dads side are from Preston County West Virginia. They lived so far up in the hills nobody could ever find them

Thanks Donnie. Love this. Dolly's book program for the children is a continuation of those old mobile libraries.❤🇮🇪🍀

Thank you, I really enjoyed this. You have a lovely way of describing life in those days. 💕

We got two pair of jeans to start school. They were bought bigger so they would last all school year. I remember that smell of new jeans too. We didn’t have a dryer, my mom would put them on pant stretchers to dry.

Man!! Y'all don't know just what I'd give to go back to those days!!

Anybody remember the term "taking up books)?

My father was raised in eastern Ky near Fallsburg in the early 1900’s he told me some of the older boys made their teacher scared enough that the teacher quit because of being afraid of the older boys when they finally got anew teacher the very first thing he did was to open a drawer on the left side of the desk pulled a bull whip out and put it on the left side top of the next the second thing he opened a drawer on the left side of the desk And pulled out what he called a grand daddy colt put it on the left side top of the desk then said I just dare any of of you boys to do something wrong my father in law said the older boys never came back to school

I know where that thumbnail picture is :-) My maternal grandparents both finished high school in McMinn County but my paternal grandparents both left school for work before high school in the Chattanooga area - loved them all of course but now as a parent of grown kids myself I can see the difference that school made back then and what real education means today - my dad became a lawyer after growing up in a mill town a true success story

I so so enjoy your videos and came across them at the best time for me. Thank you so much. God bless you and your family.