Time on Our Hands:  Class of 1923

 

This class is posing in the Fall of 1923.  In their midst is a young lady named Margaretta Zimmerman who evidently owned this photo for a while.  This is a motley crew.  Only seven are girls in this entire group.  Looks like maybe 5 older girls and two younger.  I am guessing that Ms. Zimmerman is the girl in the front row wearing a dark sweater. Is that what you think?  

Why are there so few girls?  Were there just fewer girls in this community or was it considered unnecessary for girls to go on to school after a few years?  It looks like maybe a high school to me, with the younger ones in front and the older ones in back.  So only two younger girls.  That is a very small number to choose your best friend from!  

The five older girls look studious, well behaved and well groomed.  I think that in their age group there are only 2 or 3 boys.  They all look pretty serious about being up there in the back row.  

In the middle of the picture is a jumble of boys.  Short pants, overalls, work shirts, colored shirts, white shirts, sweaters and two jackets.  Wild hair and groomed hair.  Ties, no ties, scuffed shoes.  What a job!  

Why do you suppose that one boy is off by himself on the steps to the left?  I think he should have been down front at the end.  Maybe he was trying to escape to the privy?  Well, he never made it!  

The boy in the dark jacket in the middle of the front row has a sourpuss face.  He reminds me of a boss I had once who considered it a good day if he made one of the women in our office cry.  This boy needs to lighten up! Behind him and to the left are two boys with windswept hair and mischievous smiles.  There's something going on with the feet back there.  I suppose they are up to something that gave them great joy but it's hard to say what at this point in time!  

My mother was 3 when this picture was taken.  Three and a half.  She started school the next year just after turning four.  Many in this class would be the ages of her brothers or sisters, all but one of whom were older than she was.  Just a few more years until the Depression.  I wonder where all these young people went? Where did those shoes carry them?  Did this teacher prepare them well?  What kind of work did they do?  Did they marry and have children, become ministers, doctors, teachers, postmen, farmers, businessmen?  Did they own homes, land, a business?  Was one of them a banker?  Was one of them a dirt farmer?  

On this day, it doesn't really matter.  All the future was theirs the day this picture was taken.