Again we return to the Coventry Road School to relate verbatim the speech that Mildred Folsom Cochrane gave to the fourth grade students at the request of her daughter-in-law Kay.

“A COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE” - Continued

In the middle of the back room in the alcove formed by the two cloak closets, was a low flat-topped stove which kept us warm in winter, in which we burned wood. A bench along the wall on each side of the alcove was used to sit on when we removed our rubbers. We usually ate there also. We all carried our lunches in little round pails, the most conspicuous ones being colorful (red, blue, yellow, green, etc.) Cream Dove (lard) pails, with the child’s name scratched on it. These were kept on a shelf in the cloakroom.

At noon as soon as we had finished eating we went out to play. Our favorite games were soft ball and goal, played in the front yard and Stealing Sticks in the back yard. Probably your fathers and mothers played the same games. In winter Fox and Geese was a lot of fun. Sometimes the teacher would play with us but she was usually too busy looking over papers. A short distance back of the school property was a brook and in warm weather we liked to go over there and wade in it, catch minnows and crayfish. How we hated to hear the bell ring, calling us back to school.