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Ancestors attended this now-abandoned old schoolhouse. It will soon be forgotten as it collapses into oblivion. But one can almost smell the warm molasses cookies Great Grandmother had ready for her grandchildren after a day at this school before they cut across the fields for home. . .
When Vida Lowery attemded, the teachers there were Miss Hadlock then Miss Edgar followed by Mrs. Parks.
She and her siblings later attended the Grove Street School, now a Maple Sugar house. I asked my aunt why they switched schools. She didn't know unless it was because Miss Lowery, "Leola" was the teacher there, a dear lady who later was a Sunday School teacher.
The Grove Street School was nearby on the Atwood Road, a small white clapboard building. I recall seeing the vacant swings and see-saws there, wishing to play on them. It wouldn't do to trespass, however.
Those are gone now and even the beautiful shady trees that lined Grove Street have been taken down by the town, presumably, to widen and pave the road. I went back a couple of years ago hoping to procure a cutting from a rose I had noticed by the fence, but that had been eradicated as well.
As a young girl, I loved to walk or bicycle this way imagining what it had been like when children laughed, learned and played here. The orange day lilies that lined the roadsides are also gone, leaving only memories.
"The cloak room pegs are empty now,
And locked the classroom door,
The hollow desks are lined with dust,
And slow across the floor
A sunbeam creeps between the chairs
Till the sun shines no more."
From The School In August
by Philip Larkin
Photo used with permission: "Old Abandoned Buildings of Northern NY" (http://oabonny.com)
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