Acting Up In Class

This picture is probably from the very early 1900s.  Those big ribbons in the back row were very popular when my Aunt Rose was a little girl.  She was born in 1910.

The reason I bought this photo was because of the two girls wearing black in the middle row.  They could be related but I thought they looked like best friends who dressed alike.  On second thought I think they are really sisters because if they were friends they would stand together, wouldn't you think?

Once I got to studying this photo I found so many things I loved about it.  "Acting up in class" is at the right end of the same row as the girls, three from the end.  What is that boy up to?  He looks like he is about to drop dead! His posture tells me that he is fairly proud of his ability to stick out his tongue.  I wonder what his mother said when she got hold of that picture, the one and only picture of him she had for the entire year probably.

I love the little girl leaning half behind her brother at the left of the front row.  What a cute little thing she is, wearing her coat all day when everyone else seems quite warm.  There is another little one hiding behind one of the girls in black.  Is this a family?  The girls in black, the hiders and the boy in left-front?

Off to the right is a boy in what looks like a prediction of 1970s black turtle neck and jacket.  He looks very polished.  Except for those creepy hands!

The teacher in this photo looks like a first time teacher.  She can't be much older than her students.  If she were not a bit taller and standing off a bit by herself I would have thought she was one of them.  So young to be off working.  I wonder what drove her from home?  She probably lives with one of the families in the district.  Things were so different then.  The parents built the school, hired the teacher, put her up, supplied the students.  It was very local.  Very Local School Board!

The three girls in the top row are the cream of the crop.  They dress nicely and are sharing some kind of giggle.  They are so lucky for their time, going to school to the ripe old age of probably 13 or so.  They may end up being the very next school teachers.

Who would I want to hang out with in this photo/in this school?  I would choose the boy in the front row at the left who hides the little girl in her coat.  He looks like a lot of fun.  Always have been attracted to those boys who cause trouble.