Mr. “Rip” Cannaday enjoys sharing stories of his boyhood near Tullos, and according to feedback I have gotten, others enjoy these stories too. This week, Mr. Cannaday tells about his days at the Curry School.

My First Day at the Curry Country School

The Curry School was in Winn Parish, about six miles west of Tullos on Hwy. 84. The Calvary Baptist Church now stands on the old school site.

On my first day, I didn’t want to go, but my mother, Grace Cannaday, got me ready and pushed me out the door. I walked out to Hwy. 84 to the end of the Castor Creek bridge. Then I hid behind a big oak tree. The bus came, drove in our road, and sat there a while. Then it backed out slowly and went west toward the school. I went skipping home and told Mother that I had missed the bus. You talk about a mad mama, because she knew she sent me out to the bus stop in plenty of time. She grabbed me by the overalls and put me in our 1931 Model A Ford and away we went to Curry School.

At noon I was in bad need of a bathroom. There were two outdoor toilets, one for the boys and one for the girls. Some of the older boys told me that the one on the left was the one I should use. So, I went in and was getting relief when around the door came the first-grade teacher, Aunt D (Delia) White. She had her paddle with three holes in it. I turned real quick and peed on her high top shoes. Remember, I was just seven years old and couldn’t help it.

I went back up to the trail to the school house. The older boys were laughing because Aunt D was behind me with the paddle. I told her that the big boys told me where to go, but it didn’t help. I’ll always remember the day I went to the girls’ outdoor Jane.

Years later, in the 1970s, I went to see Aunt D. It was in August and it was very hot. She lived in a frame house east of Winnfield. She had a little box fan on the floor and that’s all she had to keep cool. I told her that I’d written a song Old Country School and The Paddle with Three Holes. She looked at me and big tears rolled down her face. I said to her, “Please don’t cry. I came to tell you that I love you and I thank you for the days and time I spent with you and Miss Fannie Owens”, (the 3rd-5th grade teacher). Miss Owens and Aunt D. are buried in the Magnolia Cemetery.

Second Grade Memories

One morning I was running through the open door of the 1st and 2nd grade classroom. Back in those days, the boys and girls went barefooted until the first frost. This day I stuck a splinter in my foot from the wooden floor. Aunt D. couldn’t hold me still to get the splinter out, so she got some of the older boys from Miss Fannie’s class to sit on me so I couldn’t move while she got that big splinter out of my foot.

The school had wood heat and in the fall of the year the teachers would let us go out of class to pick up pine for the kindling. The School Board would bring us Red Oak firewood for the heaters.

We drank water from a well on the north side of the school ground. Miss Fannie was in charge of that. She made everybody line up and the girls got to drink first, all from the same old dipper. The older boys ran the rope and bucket. They liked to show off their muscles.

One morning we lined up to drink. The girls got to drink out of the first bucket, while we boys got ready to drink out of the second. When the second bucket cleared the top of the well, there was a big mouse swimming round and round in it. The girls screamed and ran. We boys had a lot of fun out of that.

The School Board, or Police Jury, got involved, and came out to drill a new well. The new well turned to salt water. I had forgotten that, but my friend Wesley Cox reminded me of it. Wesley and I were lifelong friends. After the well went bad, they closed down the Curry School and sent us to school in Winnfield. This was about 1947. Later we moved into Tullos and I entered LaSalle High in 1952.