FORMER BURFORDVILLE SCHOOL STUDENTS REFLECT

The Burfordville School recently closed its doors but it will always live on in the hearts and minds of many of the students that attended there.

Larry Sides, who still lives in Burfordville, attended the old Burfordville School in the late 1940s, the one that stood before this one, and he says he only has fond memories of the school house.

"It was just a small country school," Sides said. "All eight grades were taught in one room, but we still only had about 20 kids."

Sides said his father owned a store in Burfordville so he didn't have to walk far, but many children did.

"A lot of the kids walked as far as two or three miles," Sides said.

Sides had come from a larger school in Texas, so this style of education was certainly different, but he'll never put the Burfordville School down. He even sees certain advantages to the one-room classroom.

"The kids in the lower grades listened to the teacher when she was talking to the higher grades and they picked up on some of that," Sides said.

The students in the one-room class got more attention, Sides said.

"You could get the individual attention if you needed it," Sides said.

The old school had a library in the back of the room, Sides said, and he remembers many times going back there to get a book to read while the younger students were being taught.

But Sides said his best memory has nothing to do with the academic aspect of the school.

"Everybody at that school were all friends," Sides said. "In high school, the upper classes looked down on the younger ones. But at Burfordville School, we all helped each other out."

Lane Cunningham, who now lives in Jackson, was one of Sides' classmates.

He remembers when he and his classmates used to play a game called anny-over. Kids would line up on both sides of the school and one child would kick the ball over to the other side of the school.

"The other side didn't know where the ball was until they saw it," Cunningham said.

Cunningham said he remembers many less wholesome fun, too.

"Yeah, I used to throw spit balls and pull the girls' pig tails," Cunningham said. He said he spent most of my time with his nose in the center of a circle his teacher drew on the chalk board.

"She drew it so high that I had to stand on my tip toes to reach it," he said.

Cunningham can remember when he would get a spanking sometimes.

"If you got one at school, you could expect to get one at home," Cunningham said.

While things were simpler then, Cunningham said, he admits they had their vices back then, too.

"We liked our ciggarrettes," Cunningham said, adding that they were much cheaper then. "If you wanted to buy a pack, it would cost you $.18."

Cunningham said he has many fond memories, too.

"The community was one big happy family," he said.