My sister and I grew up for two years in a small town in east Texas called Palestine in 1948-1950. We attended Lamar School when I was in the first and second grades. My sister was one year behind me. I am in the above picture: the first brown headed girl to the far left in the third row. Lamar School was originally constructed by the Palestine School District in 1922 as an elementary school to educate the children of south side neighborhoods. With the advent of the new Southside Elementary, the school was closed. It now houses the Anderson County Champions for Children and the WIC offices.
My sister recalls that she enjoyed the fire drills because the principal would put red bricks in the hallways to block the children from going down that path for the pretend fire.
I recall the playground at the back of the school. It had a piece of equipment that was attached to a tall pole and had four places to hold on to, and then swing yourself around, with your feet kicking out in space behind you.
I took some pictures of Lamar School in July, 2009 and am happy to report that although it is not a present school building in the district, it is used in the community for the WIC program.
I received this email from a lady who also attended Lamar School:
ReplyDeleteIt is so nice to have someone else who lived in Palestine and does genealogy! I started school at Alamo when I was almost 6 years old. My birthday is in November, and of course, they did not have kindergarten then!
We moved from Palestine in 1953 and I was in the 5th grade, so I was going to Reagan, which is now a museum! In first grade I was in Mrs. Terrell's class, 2nd grade, Mrs. McFarland, 3rd grade Mrs. Whetley, 4th grade, Mr. Davis. I have my 2nd grade class picture and thank goodness, my mother put every student's name on the back!
Barbara Padgitt