New Exhibit Opening: “School Days: When We Were a Couple of Kids”

The exhibit “School days: When We Were a Couple of Kids” opened on July 16 and will be available through the end of December at the museum. The Program and Museum Committees have done their homework and have passed several tests, earning gold stars as they were getting the displays ready! School artifacts from A to Z featuring our seven Indiana County public schools - Homer Center, Indiana, Marion Center, Penns Manor, Purchase Line, River Valley, and United - are on display. These explore academic subjects, sports, and band, and include a collection of class rings, diplomas, and lunch boxes. You’ll also see a mock-up of an early classroom with a replica of a potbelly stove, lots of school pictures, textbooks of the time, yearbooks, and many more school-related items from the past.

Many of the featured items are on loan from Indiana County’s seven school districts, the HGSIC, the Blairsville and Saltsburg Historical Societies, Saltsburg Public Library, and many individuals. The Program and Museum Committees extend our thanks to these many contributors. Without their help, this exhibit would not have been possible.

While researching the schools, we were surprised to see how many one-room and two-room schoolhouses actually existed in Indiana County and how differently classrooms look and function today. I’d bet a few of you used a hornbook, but a chalkboard was a mainstay for decades only to be recently replaced by new technology.

When you were in school did you ever play “Anti-I-Over”? This game was played by one group of students throwing the ball over the one-room house roof to another group of students on the other side of the building. The skills developed by playing this game were team work and coordination. And let’s not forget kickball, red rover, and eraser tag!

The role and responsibilities of the teacher have changed dramatically, too. Decades ago, teaching was a female-dominated profession. She had to be single and follow a list of rules of what she could do and where she could travel after school hours. There were also special duties for teachers in the classroom setting. Teachers were expected to keep the classroom neat and clean by sweeping the floor once a day, scrubbing the floors weekly, cleaning the blackboards daily, and starting the fire in a potbelly stove by 7:00 a.m. to have the school warm when the students arrived.

So, gather some classmates and take a trip to the museum and reminisce about your school experiences as you view all the displays. You may find photos of family and friends from your own school days and see artifacts that you remember. The exhibit will be on display Tuesday - Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Join HGSIC in honoring our Indiana County Public Schools.