By Marianne Austin

When people grow up , many feel their school days were the best moments of life . Good times and crazy friends make the best school memories .

Jack Lowe shared some of his memories of school days in Blissfield . He completed his first eight grades at Blissfield School until 1950 when he went to Warsaw for high school . His family lived 2 miles west of Blissfield , so he rode the school bus to school . There were two school buses to Blissfield , and one of them took students on to Warsaw for high school .

“ Blissfield had a Ford dealership at that time ,” Lowe said . “ VanKannel ’ s Store sold Model T Fords . The dealership brought the cars in on the rail . The Pennsylvania Railroad went through the village and on down to the sand plant , and some kids rode the train to high school in Warsaw

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Juanita Wilden started teaching at Plainfield School when she was 20 years old . She attended Plainfield School for 12 years and taught for four years .

instead of taking the bus . You could lay a penny on the rail , and after the train ran over it , it would be the size of a silver dollar .”

When Lowe attended school there , the village had three stores and the post office . Blissfield School had grade 1-4 in one room , and grade 5-8 were in the

same room with one teacher , Clinton Fry .

“ Merton Guthrie was the teacher for sixth to eighth grade ,” Lowe said . “ Grade 5-8 had arithmetic first , recess , then English . After lunch we had history , recess and geography . The lower grades had reading , writing and arithmetic . Vernie

Waters taught English to third- and fourth-graders . Before the three teachers , the school had only one room and only one teacher , Miss Clark . She married a Branstool . We had a Christmas program every year , and that was special . We had a field day held during the school day where we would hike to a place we called the Devils Tea Table .”

Lowe ’ s mother , Stella Cooper Lowe , also attended Blissfield School and graduated twice . The school had only 10 grades when she graduated in the 10th grade . The next year they added an 11th grade , so she and several classmates went back to school and graduated again .

The school was built in 1912 to accommodate the increasing younger population of the town with grade 1-12 until 1929 when the high school was moved to Warsaw . Blissfield School closed in 1957 .

Public schools have

been products of the culture and values that made them . When children were taught in the home , the first schools looked like houses . When education became public , schools took on a civic character . Building types have changed from the one-room schoolhouse to the metropolitan school in the 1900s , the early 20th-century outlying suburban school and the late 20th-century city school .

Plainfield was laid out in 1816 . It was named from its setting upon the plains , and by 1833 businesses in Plainfield included one store and one tavern . Plainfield was incorporated as a village in 1878 , and Plainfield School was built in 1939 with the addition added in 1957 .

Juanita Wilden started teaching at Plainfield School when she was 20 years old . “ I was young , taking everything very seriously , and I wanted to do everything right ,” she said .

She attended Plainfield School for 12 years and taught for four years . Her three children attended school there too . “ The school was in a very good location ,” Wilden said . “ Everything was very well done . They were good years . We were very disappointed when they closed our school .

“ I started teaching the fifth grade and fourth grade . The next year I taught third grade . The end of the second year , I found out the fourthgrade teacher was leaving , and I asked the principal if I could teach the same third-graders the next year . I had enjoyed them so much . This was not usually done , but I taught them again in the fourth grade . So they had the same teacher for two years , but not because of anything they had done . I still see some of my students that live around here , and we make jokes about it . We

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