By RANDY GONZALES
Special to Hays Post
If only these walls could talk.
Almena Grade School, part of Northern Valley USD 212 in Almena that includes Long Island, recently had a 100th-anniversary celebration of the current building, which is situated on a corner not far from Main Street in Almena.
Locals simply call the school and the environs The Valley.
The teachers at the grade school celebrate the 100th day of classes every year. This year, they came up with the idea to recognize at the same time the 100th anniversary of the red brick, a two-story structure where thousands of kids through the years learned their reading, writing and ’rithmetic.
In mid-February, a group of former students who roamed the halls decades ago gathered at the grade school reception to reminisce.
Tall tales were told, and there was enough laughter echoing off the walls that, in years gone by, would have garnered a stern look from a teacher.
If only these walls could talk.
Before the current gym and cafeteria linked the high school and grade school together, high school students would come over to eat lunch in the basement, where the kindergarten room is now.
Glenda (Schalansky) Smith, who graduated from high school in 1969, attended first through eighth grades at the school and later taught there for 33 years.
“I experienced the unification,” Smith said, adding her mom graduated from high school in Almena in 1944. She graduated from there 25 years later, and 25 years after that, her oldest daughter graduated from Northern Valley High School.
“That makes us all feel really old,” Smith said with a laugh while talking about the 100th anniversary of the grade school.
Most of those attending the reception went to grade school there 50-some years ago and a few even further back in time. There was talk of teachers and classrooms, of classmates back in the day, remembering some who are no longer on this earth.
They also remembered more than just book learning. Students got the opportunity to make tortillas and to paint shields out of the bottom of bushel baskets to represent those used by Native Americans, and much, much more.
Classroom time was important, but recess was fun.
One former student remembered playing tag and hide-and-go-seek in the bushes in front of the school. Decades later, in the 1960s, kids would play kickball in the school gym in the winter. The fresh air and playground equipment were beckoning when it was nice out.
Students would draw a circle in the dirt in front of the swings, then pump their legs, swinging as high as they could before jumping out, trying to land in the circle.
Next to the swings was a trapeze bar, where braver kids hung from their legs upside down. There was the teeter-totter, merry-go-round and slipper slide, too. Those gathered agreed that perhaps playing tetherball was the most popular.
First through eighth grades were taught in the building until 1968. Almena and Long Island consolidated to form Northern Valley in 1967, and a year later seventh- and eighth-graders rode the bus from Almena to Long Island, and Long Island high school students would take the bus to Almena. Each bus would stop at the county line and switch drivers, so they would end up back home.
These days, fifth through eighth grades are taught at Long Island. The Almena Grade School now is home to preschool, kindergarten and first through fourth grades.
The former students remembered their teachers during their early school years in the 1960s, with fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Crowder often mentioned as their favorite.
“Mrs. Crowder was the best,” said Alan Schukman, a 1973 graduate of NVHS. “I looked forward going into fourth grade.”
“She made every day fun,” he added. “Mrs. Crowder was fabulous.”
Schukman’s older sister, Lynette (Schukman) Hammond, graduated from high school in 1970.
“I have vivid memories of building snow forts,” in grade school, she said.
Back then, the girls wore dresses, and nobody wore shorts. Those were different times, simpler times.
“We had a real sheltered life,” Hammond said.
When the final bell rang and school was out for the day, everything a kid could want could be found in this small town of about 500 people.
Schukman remembered buying a comic book for a nickel and candy for a dime at Denny’s drugstore. The stores downtown stayed open on Thursday nights.
Everybody remembered Doc Bennie, who made house calls in his Rambler. Mr. Casey, who owned the grocery store, would give little children crackers and bologna from behind the meat counter.
“Growing up in Almena was special,” Schukman said. “We thought we had the best of everything. I thought I was in the best town in the world.”
After playing outside until dark, it was time for supper and homework. Then it was back the next day to learn more about the world outside their grade school – and their small town.
Now, more than five decades later, what was Mrs. Crowder’s fourth grade now features Mrs. Chandler.
There will be a day when today’s teachers give way to tomorrow’s leaders, too. Through the years, however, two things will remain a constant: the building itself and what it represents to the people of The Valley.
“You’ve got a 100-year-old building. You definitely have to treat it with care,” Principal Marvin Gebhard said, adding that buildings just aren’t built now like they used to be.
The building has undergone some improvements through the years, but the basic structure remains the same. Gebhard said that is something that is a source of respect.
“We have a lot of pride in our community,” said Gebhard, a 1998 graduate of the local high school. “When you have pride in your community, you have pride in your schools.”
“When you have pride in your schools, you take care of things,” he added. “That plays a big part in it, too.”
Gebhard was pleased to see former students come back for the reception.
“That was what was neat,” Gebhard said. “People like me, even though I went to school here, there are certain things I didn’t know.”
Things like a principal who decades ago liked to walk on his hands up and down the stairs. Things like a flood inundating the gym floor at the grade school, postponing graduation.
“We had to wait until it dried out,” Smith said with a laugh.
All in a day at The Valley. All in a year at The Valley. All in decade after decade at The Valley.
Maybe, just maybe, today’s first-, second-, third- and fourth-graders might get together in something like 50 years from now – like those who gathered last month – and reminisce about their days gone by.
If only these walls could talk.
They do talk, actually, with former students keeping alive cherished memories of their grade school in The Valley.