Back to School

Did you think I was never coming back? I was beginning to wonder, myself. It's been a hectic few weeks as I've been getting my own classroom ready for the beginning of the year.

This picture by Normal Rockwell cracks me up. I love how the kids are sitting so straight and still. That never happens! At least not in my school. But I love them anyway.

I got thinking about school as I was planning this post. (Yeah, I think through what I'm going to write ahead of time. Usually. Sometimes. Ok, just this one.)

And I remembered an old clipping from the newspaper I found with the old pictures. It was a about the Bullock School. From what my Grandma was telling me, all of her older brothers and sisters went there.

Here's a picture of the inside of it in 1939. It's hard to make out all of the faces. I should probably check it out on the microfilm and get a better copy made.

Can you imagine teaching in a one room school house? A friend of mine did and I have to say, I don't think it's for me. Of course I teach in the city with 30 students just in my first grade and I know that's not for everyone either.

We had Enrollment Night the other night. While I dread this evening (it marks the final crazy countdown to the first day of school), I love it too. If you're a teacher, then you know that any child that walks through your door becomes your kid. And sure enough, even those 3rd graders (my first class here) stop down and see me. They remember what it was like 2 years ago when they were first graders. They laugh at memories or oooh and aaah at the changes I've made. They're super excited to tell their younger siblings all about me.

Makes me wonder what it'll be like 20 years from now.

Techno Chick?

 I've been busy the last couple of days. I haven't had a chance to write even though the research is ongoing. I stopped at the Ellis branch of the Monroe County Library. They have a wonderful research area and a huge collection available to genealogists.

For the past few weeks I've been on a hunt to learn more about my great-great aunt Meridia Palmer. I had only just found out through her sister's obituary that she was married. I still had no idea when or why she died.

I had followed her along the census route. In 1920 she was still living at home with her parents and sisters. The obituary said she was  married to someone by the last name of Southern. I eventually found him in 1930, widowed and living as a boarder in someone's home. I still didn't have all the information I needed.

So...off to the library and an amazing piece of technology known as the microfilm. Uh huh. You heard me right. Microfilm. It's the age of technology, people! Who uses this stuff anymore?

Apparently I do. The Monroe Evening News is our local paper. All...and I really do mean ALL of their archives up to...I'm not sure when...have been scanned and saved onto microfilm. (Their most current archives are online now. Did I scare you there for a minute? I nearly scared myself.)

The picture on the right is the machine I used to look through these archives. And look...and look...and look...and all of a sudden I saw it! Meridia Belle Southern (nee Palmer) had an obituary on October 14, 1927 with more details on the 15th.

I still don't know why she died. It only stated that she had passed away after an "illness of many months." One detail I was most excited about was finding out where she was buried. It's not everything I was hoping to find, but it's a start.


Another piece of slightly outdated technology is my new best friend, the flatbed scanner. It's an hp4700c. It's really old. In the great timeline of technology I suppose it really isn't that old. But it won't work on my lap top or my desk top. It only works with my dad's old computer. Or maybe it just doesn't like me?

Anyway...since my dad got it up and running, I've been scanning in photos like a crazy woman.

I had to be honest, I really didn't think the technology for affordable photography dated back that far. I finally looked up cameras of the 1900's and was surprised to find that Kodak's famous Brownie camera debuted in February of 1900. It was a cardboard case camera with a meniscus lens. It took 2 and a quarter inch square pictures.

This explains sooooo much! I was always wondering where all these smaller photos came from. And what's more, the first Brownie only cost $1.00. I know, a dollar was different back in those days...inflation...economy... It still doesn't change the fact that easily mobile photography had suddenly become affordable to the masses. Talk about some amazing technology!

And now I have the ability to scan all of these pictures. There are literally hundreds. And not just scan them, but clean them up. Make them clearer then they were before and fix up some of the wear and tear called time.

Just take a look at this before and after...

Whoa! There are distinguishable facial features. I can actually say for certain who two of these people are, even if I didn't have a note written on the back. (By the way, they are Left to Right: Rowland Kronbach, Rosannah Palmer, and Merrill Hunt Sr. Rosannah and Merrill were my great grandparents. Rowland was a great great uncle.) I've enjoyed using Picasa for the editing phase so far. It's not perfect and it doesn't have all the tools and effects other tools some of the other programs have. But it was free and it has tools enough for what I'm doing right now.

Working with all of these different things, it makes me wonder what they would think about all of the technology we have today.