Did you have an 8th grade graduation?

SNOWDOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
IUKA, MISSISSIPPI
EIGHTH GRADE CLASS OF 1955


When I was in the 6th grade we moved from Iuka to the Snowdown community three miles east of Iuka. We has a small local elementary school that had three teachers. Mrs.Edmondson taught the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Mrs. Grisham taught the 4th, 5th and 6th, and Mrs. Foote taught the 7th and 8th. After graduation from the 8th everyone went to Iuka High School. I started in the early spring and we got out in April, a full month before Iuka did. The rural schools did this so kids could help their parents on the farm. I was a full blooded "city" girl so it was good for me because I was out of school and didn't have to help farm. School would start back in September so we had a long summer break.
The school only had three rooms including an auditorium. It was an old building that sat off Oldham Road where the Iuka Country Club is today. The Clubhouse actually sits where the school was and I heard that they used part of the old building but I can't see where so if they did they hid it good. We had large pot-bellied stoves to heat the rooms and we used outhouseS outdoors. We had one for the girls and one for the boys! We really had a lot of fun. We had a girls and boys basketball team and we would play the other rural schools in the county. We had a 4-H club and we would attend meetings both at our school and in Iuka when they had county meetings. Each fall we would go on a trip to the Memphis Midsouth Fair and on trips to the Zoo and to Shiloh Military Park. The students would always put on plays for Thanksgiving and Christmas and at Halloween we would have a cake walk. All the kids and grown ups would be there. Kids today don't realize how much fun you can have just doing simple things with family and friends. I always had dreams of being a journalist or author and the year that I was in the eight grade, Mrs. Foote said we could write a story about the pilgrims and we would present it on stage. She picked mine as the winner and although I can't remember what it was about I remember how proud and nervous I was when we presented it for the other students and the parents.
We only had six students in the eight grade, five girls and one boy. I had the highest grade and had to make the valedictorian speech. I found a picture my mother sent my sister and on the back she wrote that I had to make the speech and that I was so nervous and excited. I don't remember anything of what I said!
Of the six who graduated, five went on to graduate from Iuka in 1959. Three of us are still close friends today. We had our 50th high school reunion last year and four of us were there.
I didn't realize at the time how important this school and these people were to me. Mrs. Foote was what a teacher should be. She encouraged us to do our best and I can say she was probably the best teacher I ever had. We didn't have modern conveniences and there was nothing high tech about an ink pen and notebook paper, but what we learned was the basics that are not taught today. The 3 r's- reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic! They helped prepare us for the "real" world.
Norma, Jane, Janette, Lois and David, Thank you for being my friend and making a new girl in school feel welcome!

Vela Artesia Frederick Fell 3-25-1905 to 7-2-2001

Today is my mother's birthday. If she were alive she would be 105 years old. My mother was born March 25, 1905, the oldest of fourteen children born to William Penn and Lena Bell Davis Frederick. She was born in Prentiss County, Mississippi, to an 18 year old mother who had fourteen children and died of cancer at the age of forty-one. She was born at a time when there were no luxuries and very little money. Times were hard and it is hard for someone of my generation to imagine what a hard life she must have had. She herself had eight children but lived to be ninety-six!
I was the eighth of her children being born when she was thirty-seven years old. We had a special bond. My older brothers and sisters with the exception of one brother who was three years older than me, were married or gone from home when I was still a little girl. Most of the time we were home by ourselves and she would let me do most anything I wanted. I was so spoiled, she would cook and wait on me and everyday when I got off the school bus she had me a snack waiting. She loved her grandchildren with all her heart and they adored her. When she was ninety she broke her hip and although she had surgery she was unable to live alone and was in a nursing home for the rest of her life. After this surgery her mind began to get bad.
In 1998 I had a massive stroke and spent 3 months in the hospital learning to walk and take care of myself. We decided not to tell her and it was over six months before I was able to visit her. I would try to hide my cane and did not talk about it. I really thought I was being smart at hiding it until one day she just casually mentioned that I needed to take care of myself since I had been so sick. We had not fooled her at all!
After her mind begin to go bad, she would never call me by my name. I would say, "Mama, do you know who I am?", and she would pat me on the hand and say," Of course, I do, you're my baby!". To the end she aways knew best. I may have been fifty nine years old but she still knew I was and always would be her "baby".
I loved my mother so much. There is never a day that goes by that I don't think of her. She was the sweetest, kindest, person I have ever known and she will never be forgotten!