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Reflections November 2014

A Young Boy's Terror: December 7, 1941

By Edward A. Joseph

Len was terrified when the minister stopped speaking. He started looking out the window, expecting to see planes dropping bombs on the school. He had no idea where Pearl Harbor was. Every step he took while walking home filled him with fear, as he kept looking up for planes and bombs.

While traveling on scenic Route 28, which meanders through the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, I saw an American flag fluttering next to a large sign encouraging visitors to stop and visit the "Old Stone School House." Being a retired social studies teacher, I couldn't resist the invitation.

I first saw Len Utter while walking around the outside of the building. He was standing at the back of the school with another tour guide looking at an old railroad right of way that was no longer in use. Since I was the only visitor at the time, both guides appeared happy to see me. After Len and his colleague, Barbara, told me a bit about the railroad that formerly ran by the school, the three of us went into the building.

Looking around I felt like I was on the movie set for a film about a one-room schoolhouse.  If you close your eyes and imagine wooden desks with inkwells, a wood burning stove, a large teacher's desk in the corner, and an old chalkboard with some spelling words on it, you will have the picture of what I saw. And if you add in the ubiquitous "school smell" that seems to permeate every building where students have been taught, you will have the whole experience.

Len Utter was a retired dairy farmer, a large, outgoing man with a quick smile and an obvious love of local history. He mentioned that he took a lot of kidding because of his former profession and his last name.

Len did not attend the Old Stone School House as a young boy; he lived just over the district line in Margaretville. However, the Old Stone School House had a duel use: On Sundays, church services and Sunday school took place in the building and Len attended both.

After the school closed in 1940, the Sunday services and Sunday school continued. Len pointed out the desk near a window that he was sitting in on December 7, 1941 – the day Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor.  I sat at Len's old desk exactly where it was on that terrible day as he related how the minister came into the room and interrupted the Sunday school lesson to announce that the class was over because enemy planes were bombing Pearl Harbor.

Len was terrified when the minister stopped speaking. He started looking out the window, expecting to see planes dropping bombs on the school. He had no idea where Pearl Harbor was. Every step he took while walking home filled him with fear, as he kept looking up for planes and bombs.

As he told the story his face changed, almost as if he was reliving those frightening moments that had happened so long ago. When he finished, I said something about how adults have to be careful when they speak to young children about important matters. Len's face broke into a smile as he nodded his head in agreement.

As I walked to my car from the school, I looked up at the sky, the same sky Len looked up at more than 70 years before, and I wished I could have gone back in time and while walking him home taken that small boy's hand and calmed his fears.

 

[Historical Note: The Old Stone School House, located in the Town of Middletown in Margaretville, New York, opened in 1820 and was rebuilt in 1860 because the original stone mortar had deteriorated. In one of its most crowded school years, 1858-59, 112 children between the ages of 4 and 21 attended at one time or another. From Brief History of Old Stone School House by George Hendricks Jr., and John Mclean.]

 

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