Sentimental Sunday

Waiteville School

[Waiteville Community Building]

Waiteville, Monroe, WV

This old school house held four classrooms.  It covered the kindergarten through junior high school grades. For many children in the community this was all of the education they ever received.

For those who decided to travel to Gap Mills to go to High School, they often walked over Peter's Mountain on Sunday, and boarded with other families. Walking back home on Friday evening after the last class, or on Saturday morning. [We're talking on rough trek!]

After the school closed in the 1960's, the Board of Education kept the rights to the property. And later sold it to the community. Today the building has been kept up in pristine condition, and is a wonderful community building. Complete with a small gym, the building is used for community and family events. And this is where my family holds theirs biennual reunion.

At our next reunion, in August 2011, we will be using the building for the entire weekend. We will be bringing our sleeping bags, cots, tents, and campers. And we will be spending an entire weekend together! [Can you tell I can hardly wait??? And I've got to wait a whole year yet!]

This old building stands a silent reminder of those who chose to learn, and who didn't have it quite as easy as we did, or our children, or grandchildren.

Here is where my Dad and several of his siblings attended school. It sits in the heart of the tiny Waiteville community. A place that will forever mean "home" to me.