Serious Question abpout Old School Houses

Gare

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old digger

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The back in the day school houses were also places where the local community would gather for meetings.
 

GoDeep

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They used to clear out the desks and hold adult community dances at the one room rural school house near me back in the first half of the 1900's (most rural one room schools closed by the 50's here in Minnesota). An old timer who used to go to those dances said it was standing room only!

Here's an actual picture of the school i'm referencing. Note the horse and buggy in the background dropping all kinds of goodies for us to find a century or two later:

Click on picture to enlarge:
schoolsf.jpg
 

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Mackaydon

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Back in my day, as a kid, we all carried 'lunch money' to school; to buy food or afternoon snacks--like an ice cream bar from the Good Humor man.
We also had Boy Scout meetings in the school.
Don......
 

Tony in SC

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Old schools are no.1 old churches no2! At a local country school I have found 50 or more nickels. Talked to an old-timer that said when he was in second grade they started serving a lunch for 5cents. Could account for the nickels ?
 

jeff of pa

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At least here in PA, Many schools Charged the Students/Parents .
it may have only been a dime but kids lose things.
even 120 years ago with teachers being allowed to beat what they considered sense into kids , there was always kids :laughing7:
my guess at some point every school out there has at least one lost dime, after a fight, or show off event
by a c9 year old.

like mentioned above these schools were used for many purposes.

today this one is used for storage by a fruit farm a mile up the road.

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the yard is loaded with beer cans from the 80's :dontknow: Rumshpringa maybe. :dontknow:

an effort to not ignore rotted beer cans produced this

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my guess a few months cleaning out obvious signals down to the whispers would produce old silver for someone
 

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OP
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Gare

Gare

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I feel some of my best detecting places were old Picnic Grounds
 

GoDeep

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I feel some of my best detecting places were old Picnic Grounds

I can only dream of finding a virgin, undetected picnic ground!
 

jeff of pa

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I feel some of my best detecting places were old Picnic Grounds

me to. though my best was a drained swimming and fishing lake
 

jeff of pa

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I can only dream of finding a virgin, undetected picnic ground!

I Found it only needed to be Virgin To me.
Most likely Not that I'm so Great at Detecting :tongue3:
More like I would walk my own direction and speed.
and not be drawn to a spot I hammered because of a fluke find.
 

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Gare

Gare

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You can go to the Library of Congress website. from there do a search for old newspapers for old Pic-nic grounds, Picnic grounds , Drownings( Peoples swimming holes were a good spot. Drownings posted were often a place where people picnied
Will disclose more later
 

jeff of pa

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I pay $19.90 per month at newspapers.com
there are 143,970 Matches for "picnic ground"

Library of Congress website. at Chronicling America historic American newspapers
25,839 free results containing the phrase"Picnic Ground"
 

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Gare

Gare

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I also belong to newspapers.com but the loc is free. Jeff first i would pick a state then county then try and find a newspaper that covered the area i wanted search. and type in search words individually . They just need to work at it but I CAN BE DONE !!!
 

jeff of pa

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if I understand correctly, I think free is limited to certain papers.
 

FreeBirdTim

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Back in my day, as a kid, we all carried 'lunch money' to school

Yup, if I brought my bag lunch, I always had 10 cents with me for milk. If I was going to have a hot lunch, I brought 50 cents (I think that's how much it was back in the 70's).

You also have to remember that teachers were always supervising the kids outside. Male teachers had change in their pockets, while female teachers had bracelets and pendants that could easily fall off while breaking up a scuffle between two kids.

Old schools also have Matchbox and Tootsie Toy cars, marbles, pocketknives, Crackerjack toys and other cool items from that era.
 

crashbandicoot

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Yup, if I brought my bag lunch, I always had 10 cents with me for milk. If I was going to have a hot lunch, I brought 50 cents (I think that's how much it was back in the 70's).

You also have to remember that teachers were always supervising the kids outside. Male teachers had change in their pockets, while female teachers had bracelets and pendants that could easily fall off while breaking up a scuffle between two kids.

Old schools also have Matchbox and Tootsie Toy cars, marbles, pocketknives, Crackerjack toys and other cool items from that era.

Good post Tim,what I was thinking.More to be found than just coins.
 

Lenrac2

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Schools around here used grounds for carnivals and festivals. Busy places.
 

jeff of pa

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Most one room Schools were placed on the Corner of Farmers Fields.
Probably because the Land was Donated by a wealthy Farmer.

So of course Ball Games ended up in the field next to the School also.

around here School Picnics were usually Held at a Small Grove by a Nearby Creek Where there was a Covered bridge withing Sprinting Distance, In case a Storm hits. so keep that in mind

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Fat

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...schools here were placed on a school section. One in every township. The school district leased the land out to make part of there budget.

Edit
I went to a one room school house. When I graduated high school there were only 7 people in my class in town..
 

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