THE STORY OF JOHNSON CHAPEL SCHOOL

I want to share with our Hartselle Enquirer Readers this week the story of Johnson Chapel School, taken from “The Heritage of Morgan County, Alabama” book published by the Morgan County Genealogy Society and the story was submitted by Norma Ozelle Sharrot McAbee of Hartselle.                        (Johnson Chapel School)- A picture of the students from the 1910-1911 classes of the Johnson Chapel School is included with this story. We don’t have the names of the students, however the teachers name was Mrs. Mabel Aldridge.                        It was the typical wooden frame building used for schools during that period of time, heat being supplied with wood burning stoves. Water was usually from a dug well with a common water bucket and dipper to be used by all the students. The toilets of that period were replete with a one or two hole seat adequately supplied with a Sears Roebuck or other sales catalogs. Leading to them was the common footpath in a remote corner of the property in a wood or field area nearby. It was the days before plastic toys. Some hand made wooden toys were made for the children. The more common games for children at that time were hop-scotch, jump-the-rope, rubber balls, marbles and drop the handkerchief. The foot race was a common pastime for boys and some girls. At lunch time, the tin lunch pails were brought out with the meal mothers had hastily put together before leaving home. You will remember those were the days before rural electricity, telephones, radio and television causing us to provide our own entertainment for the most part. Church meetings and gospel singing offered the most part of our social life. There were few automobiles for transportation and crime was almost unknown. Some still remember this era as the “good old days.”                                                              The Members of Shady Grove Baptist Church express Christian love and heartfelt sympathy for the following families and they are Mrs. Ruby Self and family in the death of her sister, Lois Speakman, Paula Blackwood and family in the death of her grandmother, Pauline Shell and also Tommy and Janis Spinks and family in the death of his father, Robert Guy Spinks.                                                          I have been ask to share this story this week with our Hartselle Enquirer Readers concerning a woman who had a weird encounter with a man at a Decatur Walmart. The Lady said that she was approached by a man who offered her a job that paid two hundred dollars a week which consisted of walking his dogs but she had to come to his home and work from 10:00 p.m. till 2:00 a.m. and be energetic and fit to chase the dogs. However he only wanted single females and no men, because he said that only women had a special way with dogs. He also stated that he only wanted single females with no kids or spouses and that his dogs were German shepherds. The guy was wearing a black cap with 101st air force on it. So Ladies, beware if you are approached by this man because he could mean you harm.