Union City, Tennessee
(by Jane N. Powell)

The first school on these grounds was a two room building and said to have been taught by private subscription by Professor Cravens, assisted by Miss Fannie Foster and Miss Daisy Castleman (p. 209, Marshall’s Obion Co History). At some point, evidently this became a public school and two rooms were added in 1917 (p.210 ibid).

The school building was still standing on Florida Avenue in 1988 when the photo (below) was made.

Teachers during the years of 1936-38 were Miss Callie Howell, first grade; Mrs. Mike Meadow, second grade; Miss Ninnie Barksdale, third grade; and Miss Martha Temple, fourth grade and principal. Miss Callie’s room was in the back right corner, Mrs. Meadow’s (think she was the only married teacher and she had one son) was in the back left. A hall ran across the building in front of their rooms. On the front right was Miss Barksdale’s room with a center hall between it and Miss Temple’s on the left. We moved to Paducah while I was in the 3rd grade and Miss Temple was never my teacher, but she was my disciplinarian.

The girls entered the building from the east side (that’s on the left as you view the picture) and the boys from the west side and the restrooms were downstairs on the appropriate side. The girls played on the east side of the grounds front and back and boys on the other. The teachers sat under a tree in the back on the boys side at recess and if we happened to be lucky enough to have a penny to buy something, it took a lot of nerve and a friend or two to go to the boys side to buy it.

The best I remember, everyone went home for lunch. This was a four grade neighborhood school. And there were 2 things that were real no-no’s. Eating onions at lunch and having a hole in the heel of your sock. It was so hard to go home to peas and cornbread and not be able to eat the tender spring onions, but even harder to pull your sock under your heel far enough to keep the hole from showing. (Go without socks? Heaven, Forbid.)

The grounds had lots of trees, as did the whole street, and I think Miss Callie lived on the corner. Anyway, in the front yard by the side walk that wrapped around the building was a very nice hop-scotch area — in the dirt. Drawn there for so many years that the lines were etched deep into the ground. We each had our favorite piece of glass, colored if we could get it, or a pretty rock, for our “toy.” And the school or some of the girls, I don’t remember, had long ropes for two to turn while the others ran through or jumped. Many hours were spent jumping rope, running in and out, while we waited our turn to play hop-scotch. Remember, “One for the money, two for the show, three to make ready and four to Go?” Wish we could play just one more time.