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Students Whipped in One-Room Schoolhouse

By Capper's Staff
Published on August 15, 2012

Thinking of my one-room schoolhouse brings me back to around 1914 when I started to school. We were excited about our new clothes, our shoes, long stockings, gingham and calico dresses and sateen bloomers. Everything was made by our mother that could be. That was quite a chore for a mother with four daughters.

At school there was mischief among the boys. They liked to make paper wads and flip them to the ceiling or each other when the teacher was not looking. To make a good paper wad you chew a piece of paper until you get it just right, and this is when it is real juicy. You then put it on the end of your finger and flip it with your thumb. If it is a good one it will land on the ceiling and splatter out. Sometimes there were quite a few in sight. I can still see them. They would tear out pages of poems so they would not have to memorize them. When the girls went to the toilet they threw rocks at the toilet. They did not always get by with these things – I can still remember being outside and hearing that old whip stripping their legs.

Blanche (Silvey) Blevins
Springfield, Missouri


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then Capper’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.