NOTES – 1945

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PUBLICATIONS PMSS
NOTES 1945
February

NOTES – 1945

“Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School”
February

GALLERY

At Pine Mountain,…instead of a report card filled out by the teacher, the parents and guardians of our children receive regular reports made by the children themselves.

TAGS: NOTES – 1945 FEBRUARY: Christmas, Open House, Nativity play, Mummers, evaluation letters to parents, education, cooking, needs, Oscar Begley, Dan Turner, Becky May, Granny Creech, Sarah Bailey, Captain Slasher, Mrs. Birdena Bishop, Mr. William Hayes, Pine Mountain Cooperative Store, Brit Wilder, farm, dietician

TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 1945 February

P. 1

NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

PINE MOUNTAIN * HARLAN COUNTY * KENTUCKY
Copyright, 1945, by Pine Mountain Settlement School 

Volume XVIII     FEBRUARY, 1945    Number I

EVERY year we have letters from friends who want to hear about our Christmas week. It is true that few places celebrate Christmas so completely as Pine Mountain and this year was no exception. Not a carol nor a candle was left out. We observed the sorrow and tragedy of our day with no curbing of our deeper joys, yet the observance had perhaps a more poignant meaning because it stands as the embodiment of values that many have left all to defend and four of our own have died to save.

Christmas begins on the heels of Thanksgiving. The weeks before the week itself are like the tuning up of the orchestra before the players poise their bows on their instruments, the director raises his baton and the symphony begins.

From the time the farm boys deposit the great bags of laurel and hemlock and pine at each door, (we set our neighbors a good example by preserving the native holly) the children are busy wreath making, garland twining, mantel and window decorating. On the last Sunday before the holidays, this year the 16th of December, we stop to think of others and have our sacrificial meal. In place of the usual good Sunday dinner, we all enjoy cornbread and milk, that the pennies thus saved and multiplied into dollars may swell our charity fund.

Thus begins the overture of Open House. On that Sunday afternoon every building is a blaze of hospitality and good cheer, every fireplace is alight, each house family is at home to visitors, and every boy and girl at his cordial best, for hospitality is instinctive in the mountains.

The gay overture suddenly changes as evening comes on, to the quiet andante of the Nativity play in the chapel. This is more than a play; it is a feeling one has as dusk falls. He is mystically aware of the life beginning to grow, in and around the still church building. Dim figures appear in the twilight, little family groups come quietly down Greasy and Isaac’s Creek, through the Line Fork woods, like pilgrims to a shrine. There is an unrealness about them, familiar as they are to us every other day in the year; Dan Turner and his big family from Little Laurel, Oscar Begley and Becky May and Mallie and small Patsy, Granny Creech from Divide, Sarah Bailey and the Huff girls who have walked five miles, all the way from Incline, and the rest of the company. But they have an unreality here and now, as though they were creatures of the imagination. It is the prophets and wise men and angels and shepherds who are of the living. Every year it is the same and one likes to think that with these shadowy folk come other shades — memories and dreams and hopes of boys and girls all over this wide world who have lived here and loved this time especially.

From the first “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people” to the lighting of the star, the wistful gathering of the shepherds, the sacred nativity moment and Mary’s “Lullay thou little tiny child” to the “Come let us adore Him” the mystery and miracle deepen. Then reverently the audience, row after row pass up the aisle, to the creche, as always…

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…singing, “O Come all ye faithful” and dropping their pennies, nickels and dimes into the cradle manger. The hush continues and no words are spoken, until we are in the open again, our beautiful nativity another treasured memory.

Now the music shifts to the brisk allegro of Monday which is an ordinary-extraordinary busy day until supper time, when comes Big Log‘s turn, the time for which the younger girls have long been preparing. We file into the darkened dining room, stand at the tables until everyone is present, then we are seated and wait in silence. Breathlessly we catch strains of “Silent Night, Holy Night” as the girls, in white dresses, each bearing a lighted candle, come slowly up the stairs. Two move softly from table to table lighting a candle on each one, singing this dearly beloved carol, lighting the Christ Child into our Pine Mountain valley.

Tuesday night is a jolly rondo. The great garland of laurel the West Wind girls have appropriately and skillfully been tying and twining is hung the full length of the balcony as “The Holly and the Ivy” rings down over the assembled family. Dinner continues and then suddenly the sound of music is heard outside and the men workers, white with snow, break in singing heartily “From Far Away We Come to You”, bearing the Christmas tree.

It is the Junior girls, who Wednesday evening hang their wreaths, huge ones of laurel, at either end of the balcony and at each window in the dining room, to the lovely tune of “Ye Shepherds Leave the Care of Flocks so Fleecy”.

At the end of the meal, in come the Mummers from Far House to disrupt all the peace and quiet with their rare bit of old time tomfoolery. The Mummers play, St George and the Dragon, is the traditional one brought from England. There in the old days the Mummers went about dressed in masks and singing songs, to the manor houses of the lords and ladies who rewarded them by throwing them gold and silver coins. At Pine Mountain our school family showers the modern Mummers with their saved-up pennies.

This year the boys seemed to enter into the spirit with unusual ease and great fun. Captain Slasher thumped in on his wooden leg, the dragon roared fiercely, the giant who had been too gentle in practice, stalked around and was so fierce that both babies in the audience screamed with fright. The  fools were superb and climaxed their act by giving a spontaneous imitation of the sword dancer’s act. The most thrilling moment came when the sword dancers ran to do their Kirby. It was a moment snatched from long ago with the white suits and red sashes, the earnest faces of the boys, who suddenly were not Ray and Elmer and Millard of every day but some shadowy people out of folk lore and history, the perfect formation, the steady pat-pat and click-click of the swords and the final perfect star of swords.

The next movement of the symphony is the Minuet, Thursday, our last night. The two lords handsome in knee britches and lace frills, the two ladies gowned in silks and bustles, come in very formally, are seated and served at their appointed banquet table by the dignified butler and the  “maid with the lily white smock“. Soon there is a rabble at the door. Boy’s House bearing the yule log on their shoulders, press in singing merrily “Wassail, wassail, all over the town”. They accost the butler, demand their wassail, and are presently welcomed to their places. After the feast the lords and ladies in two couples, with form and flourish dance, to our delight, their stately minuet, and we bid them adieu.

The spell is broken. The old world and old world customs have lent their beauty and meaning. But there in our midst appears Santa Claus, very local and very present and laden with gifts for every single one. He is welcomed royally and with his coming our Christmas spirits mount in a crescendo of good feeling and good will to the finale of Pine Mountain’s Christmas…

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…symphony.

* * *

Friends of the school have often been startled by and always interested in the statement that we give “no grades and no credits”. This is true, but we have in place of the grades and credits, a very satisfying grading system. We have felt that reports made by the teacher only may be somewhat one-sided, and that a shared report rounds out the picture, and makes it more meaningful. And we have felt that self-improvement and growth in personality really begin when we look at ourselves critically and try to do something about the trouble. At Pine Mountain, then, instead of a report card filled out by the teacher, the parents and guardians of our children receive regularly reports made by the children themselves. Each student’s letter discusses his conduct in the dormitory, his labor evaluation, and his progress in his studies, and suggests avenues for improvement. The student letter, copy of which is kept in our office records, is followed by a supplementary letter from the Principal. We make no use of letter or percent ratings.

Here is an example of a typical student letter. Most of the letters are much longer, but we have given you a short one because of limited space.

Dear Mom and Dad:

As we are at the close of another semester I am writing a letter of what I think I have done this year.

This year we are called “Co-ops” because we take care of and run the Pine Mountain Cooperative Store. I have learned to clerk in the store and learned of Co-ops all over the world. I put into this subject my very best and I think I have gotten lots from it. I have made good on all my tests and have tried to help in working in the store and helping with the truck on Thursdays when they bring supplies.

Biology is a subject which does not come easy for me. I have tried but I just can’t do very well. I have learned a lot but not as much as I should. We have done dissecting on animals and studied a thermometer and about trees and leaves and how they get food and water. I hope to do better next term.

I like the study of equations and other problems better than anything else and have done good work in that. In woodworking I have not done what I should, because I have not had so much interest in it. I have made just two things, but I hope to make more next term.

In the study of literature and writing I think I have done good work although I am very bad at spelling. I’m ashamed of my papers sometimes when I get them back. My big fault is not getting my papers in on time. Our teacher is fine but sometimes when I am in doubt on a question it is hard to get the answer.

In my labor I did not do so well the first nine weeks, but after I talked to the Counselor I think I did better. I like my work and have a good supervisor. Instead of telling you to go do something to a furnace, Mr. Wilder* will tell you how it was with him when he was a boy, and this makes the work easier.

There are many ways I can be better and more helpful as by not swinging on trees, not rassling in dormitories and so forth. I don’t guess it would hurt me to study a little bit harder and I hope I can be more useful to other people and do all of the things that I should do.

The thing that has meant most to me this semester happened the night of the Senior Bazaar. A teacher was auctioning off a Scottie pup for the charity drive and one of the younger boys wanted it for his little sister. When the students heard that he didn’t have enough money to get the pup they started one by one toward the table where he was sitting with money to help pay for it. This helped me to understand more clearly the true spirit…

*Mr. Brit Wilder, former Pine Mountain student, now in charge of trucking furnaces and assistant farmer.

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…of the school and that everyone was ready and eager to help his fellow students.

I have tried to give you an account of my life here, and I hope that you are pleased with my report.

Your son,
John

* * *

The farm is our mainstay, and we depend upon the garden, the boys, and Mr. [William] Hayes our able farmer, to furnish us with a large part of the vegetables, meat and eggs, which we use throughout the entire year. Close to the farm and dependent upon it, is the kitchen. We have sat at clean tables, eaten and enjoyed and thrived upon wholesome fare, but not many have been aware of exactly how Mrs. [Birdena] Bishop, the dietitian, feeds this family of 120, three ample, balanced meals a day, with a budget cash allowance of 13 [cents] a meal, per person. At a recent staff meeting we were figuratively taken into the kitchen, and told the inside story. Mrs. Bishop’s responsibilities have much in common with those of institutional planning everywhere, but there are many problems peculiar to Pine Mountain because we are isolated, because we are dependent on our own student work program, and because we are closely limited financially.

Mrs. Bishop’s job is to make the menus and to fit them to such foods as must be used at the moment. “By all means” she says, “I must avoid the mistake of planning very many days ahead. As long as the farm can furnish produce. I know not when Mr. Hayes will come with the message, ‘Tomorrow we’re cutting corn, so these will be your last roasting ears’, or ‘To- morrow you can get your first sweet potatoes’, or ‘Use green beans, or turnip greens, every day, for as long as they last’. It is foolish to schedule cheese souffle for a meal a week ahead of time when in the meantime the hens may have gone on strike, or to call for a bread pudding when perhaps on that particular day all the bread may have been scrupulously cleaned up.”

As often as one crop is nearing depletion or another coming, the farmer and the dietitian must confer about dates, age, ripeness of food which the boys will gather, to be sure it will be gathered at the right stages.

As much of the food preparation as possible must be entrusted to children during their work period, and this, Mrs. Bishop says is the most trying, and yet probably the most fruitful part of her duty. She must be instructor as well as supervisor and provider. And along with the work of preparing meals is the work of keeping in order the whole of Laurel House, the home of the kitchen and dining-room. Thirty-one girls work in the house in the course of a day. If she is to undo bad work or conduct habits, or help with the formulation of desirable ones, she must get acquainted with all the thirty-one, and bring about a sense of comradeship and fellowship. Mrs. Bishop says, “My objective is not simply to get the work done. More important than that is my desire to see the children develop habits which will make life more satisfying to them, their families, and their communities. Our goal for our children is gracious living. May I strive, may we all strive, toward that end!”  

PINE MOUNTAIN NEEDS

    1. Old rugs and carpets which have wearing quality left in them
    2. Curtains which may be recut
    3. Woolen garments and rayon stockings for making rugs in the weaving department
    4. Sewing machines, scissors
    5. Large covered roasters
    6. Diapers and layettes
    7. Aprons, clocks

NOTES – 1944
Next:
NOTES – 1946

See Also:
EVENTS Christmas at Pine Mountain Settlement GUIDE
FARM and FARMING Guide

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