(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Excerpts from “Growing Up in Vienna” by Norvell Chancellor continue:

“My first two years in Parkersburg High School I had to catch an eight o’clock street car in order to be at my first class at nine o’clock. We had two cows at that time and I had to get up before dawn, dress in work clothes, light my kerosene lantern and go to the barn. Once there I fed and milked the cows, fed the horse, pigs and chickens, put fresh milk in a large pan for the cats and dogs and then would go back to the house again, wash the barn smell off my hands and face, dress in school clothes, comb my hair, eat breakfast and catch the eight o’clock street car. Some times the temperature was near zero and snowy. All that seems like quite a chore now but, at the time, I certainly did not feel put upon as it was just routine and had to be done and my older brothers had done the same in the years before.

“My first two years at high school I was out for football and we practiced every evening after school until nearly dark. After a shower and a change to my school clothes, I would walk a mile to the car line and catch the 7:00 or 7:30 street car home. After dinner, (Mama always had warm food waiting for me in the oven) I would change to my work clothes, light my lantern and go back to the barn and repeat the morning chores mentioned before. I only had homework occasionally as I could keep up my studies pretty well during my one hour study period and doing some of my reading on the street car to and from school. The happy ending of this little episode is the fact that Dad sold the cows near the end of my sophomore year at high school. That day, Mother met me at the door as I returned from school and broke the news. We rejoiced together as I think she was as happy about the event as I was. After that, she did not have to strain and care for the milk, nor make butter and I did not have to milk those “boo, boos” nor crank the churn on Saturdays. Thereafter, we bought milk and butter from a neighbor. Our one grocery store in the neighborhood did not stock milk or butter and there were no dairies in the area.

“I have fond memories of my high school days. I entered Parkersburg High in the Fall of 1917. It was a brand new, two story brick school building with modern facilities on a twenty or thirty acre campus with approximately 1,000 students. It had forced air heating, a gymnasium, two cafeterias, one for girls and one for boys, library, and football field and baseball diamond. Our football team, the ‘Big Reds,’ won the State Championship two or three years while I was there. I never made the first team but played a regular schedule against some of the smaller schools in the state. We were known as the ‘Little Reds” and I played right end. I weighed about 140 pounds at the time. The local Lion’s Club sponsored special student trains to Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling and Clarksburg on the days we played those high schools in football. What fun and great adventures those trips were, win or lose. I quit playing football after my sophomore year owing to the fact that I got a Saturday job at Hull’s Shoe Store in Parkersburg.

“Hull’s was one of the finest stores in town and I sure did like the idea of making my own spending money. We started work at 8 A.M. and worked until 10:00 P.M. after which I caught the street car home.”

To be continued…

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.