Kindergarten

Original Raymond school building

Mrs. Virginia Elmore

My mom always saved random stuff, so it’s not surprising that while going through some boxes, I found my Kindergarten report card from the 1969-1970 school year. Although (ahem) that was many years ago, I remember the old Raymond elementary school that sat right along Rt. 48 on the block where the Community of Faith Church is located today. It was a two story, red brick building and the playground was a large blacktop, and the site of many accidents resulting in skinned knees.

That’s where I met Mrs. Elmore. She started teaching Kindergarten in Raymond in 1962, and continued teaching morning and afternoon classes for 24 years. Her granddaughter, Kate Hampton-Dabbs, who provided some information and photos for this week’s post, told me that she estimates that Mrs. Elmore taught over 1,000 students in Raymond.

I clearly remember my first day of school. Although my mom was a little nervous about how I would react to going to Kindergarten since I had never had a babysitter or been under someone else’s care, there were no worries with Mrs. Elmore. She had a special way about her, and she had all of us five-year-olds under control right away. I loved school. We sat at tables, not at desks, and we kept our set of eight jumbo crayons in metal coffee cans and played with large wooden toys and puzzles. Mrs. Elmore read to us, sang to us, and consoled us when we missed our moms or got hurt. When necessary, she carefully applied the Mercurochrome antiseptic on all our scrapes and sent us on our way, good as new, with pinkish-red stains on our arms and legs. I cannot imagine the amount of patience required to put up with dozens of kindergarten students each day. She truly was a saint. 

When the new high school opened in 1971, junior high classes were moved to the old high school building and the lower grades, including Kindergarten, were moved to the old junior high buildings. The original Raymond school was eventually demolished. Mrs. Elmore retired from teaching in 1987. She continued running the family farm with her husband, Keck, and the couple enjoyed travelling the country in their motor home. 

Mrs. Elmore died last April at the age of 95, while holding her husband's hand. The couple had been married for 77 years. According to Kate, several people who paid their respects at the funeral mentioned that Mrs. Elmore had inspired them to pursue a teaching career. Kate, who currently teaches in Springfield, said that her grandmother not only inspired her to become a teacher, but also to believe in the power of prayer.

The last time I saw Mrs. Elmore was almost 12 years ago when she volunteered to help in the kitchen at the luncheon following my mom’s funeral. Ironically, the funeral and luncheon were held at the Community of Faith Church, that was built on the very grounds where I went to Kindergarten. At some point during lunch, I noticed that things seemed a too quiet and my son, Jon, who was seven at the time, was nowhere to be seen. Upon investigation, I found him on a stool in the church kitchen with his elbows propped up on the counter next to the pie plates and casserole dishes and a bowl of jello salad with marshmallows, talking up a storm with Mrs. Elmore. By then, she was in her 80's, but she had the same big smile and was speaking to him in that same nice tone of voice I remembered hearing all those years ago. I always felt fortunate to have such wonderful teachers like Mrs. Elmore in my life.

24 years of teaching

Keck and Virginia Elmore in later years

Just A Little Pinch

When I read the notice below about the Chest X-Ray Bus from the October 8, 1970 issue of The Raymond News, I immediately thought of the occasional TB testing we had to endure in grade school. Back then, two strangers from the Health Department would show up at our classroom with what looked like a giant staple gun. Our teacher would tell us to line up and we would all stand there waiting and watching as each student stepped forward for his or her turn to get the "shot." Even though it barely stung, it was scary, especially in that moment when the heavy gun was pressed up against your little seven-year-old arm. 

And if that wasn't enough, probably due to suggestions from your older siblings, you had to worry about the spot on your arm. Was it raised? Did it look funny? Even slight redness could be a sign that you were going to be separated from your parents and taken away to a sanitarium where you would certainly die an agonizing death. After a few anxious days, the strangers would return to school to check everyone's arms, and we would all be cleared until next time.  

Published October 8, 1970 in The Raymond News

Before Facebook, we had "The Raymond News"

After checking my Facebook news feed every day for many years now, I've noticed that most of the posts can, for the most part, be lumped into a few general categories: social events and birthdays; concern/prayers for community members; photos of people's children; posts about politics/current events; inspirational posts; information about diet/exercise; and posts about travel experiences. As I was looking through my collection of clippings from the front page of The Raymond News from the 60's and 70's, it occurred to me that I can identify the same themes back then. Here are a few examples:

Social Events/Birthdays

December, 1962

September 17, 1970

Concerns/Prayers for community members

April 30, 1970

Photos of children

June 11, 1964

Political posts/current events

April 28, 1966

Inspirational posts

January 22, 1970

Diet/Exercise

April 23, 1970

Travel experiences

January, 1978

Back in those days it seems that the The Raymond News was sort of like an old fashioned version of Facebook, only then, the "likes" and the “comments" happened in person over coffee at the White Cottage or Spring Air, after church on Sunday morning, on meeting night at one of the many community organizations, or on the party lines out in the country. Now in 2020, the "likes" and "comments" are made online, and are still discussed around town and all across the country, even in New Jersey. It seems that the old cliche, "the more things change, the more they stay the same," applies here. Regardless of the platform, we’ll always find a way to share (and over share) the information that's important to us.

The Raymond Park

From the The Raymond News, May 21, 1970

The Raymond Park Board was organized on June 25, 1970. Bruce Hall, Verne M. Pinkston, Pete Henderson, Howard Mitts, and Louis Stieren served as commissioners. The board purchased the property for $5,000 from John Johnson on May 18, 1971. This included the ground where a group of kids had made a ball field that they called “Crawdad Stadium.” The first playground equipment was ordered in November 1971 at a cost of $977.00. The equipment included the Muscle Man, Bunker Hill, six seat swing-set, and the slide.

The park project was a community effort. In 1973, members of the Raymond-Harvel Kiwanis helped plant 22 trees and in 1974, members of the Raymond Fire Department built the restroom facilities. Poles for the backstop on the ball diamond were set in place in May 1974, and the backstop was erected and dugouts were built. The original tennis court was built in 1974 at a cost of $2,700. The light poles were set on November 16, 1974.

The park was officially dedicated on May 26, 1975, and the baseball field was named Stieren Field in memory of former commissioner, Louis Stieren. A ceremony featuring the Lincolnwood High School Band and the American Legion Post #299 Color Guard was held to commemorate the occasion. The Raymond-Harvel Kiwanis and the Raymond Knights of Columbus little league teams played baseball following the dedication.

From the The Raymond News, May 21, 1970

In June 1977, a 24’ x 22’ shelter was erected. In June 1978, Graybar Supply Company demonstrated a new lighting system and the board purchased 30 light fixtures at a cost of $10,286. The tennis courts were improved in the fall of 1980, and in 1984, a second shelter was erected. In 1993, an electronic scoreboard was put in place at the ball diamond.

Apparently, when the idea of building the park was introduced to the community in 1970, there was disagreement about using tax dollars to support the project. I was too young to know or care about the controversy that took place. I only remember the fun that we had when the park finally opened, and I still have a few scars to prove it. My earliest memory was playing on the big slide. It seemed incredibly tall back then, and you would burn your backside if you attempted to go down it about 1:00 p.m. on a sunny summer day. My sister, Sue, taught my friends and me the wax paper trick and we would zip down the slide over and over, with some pretty hard landings at the bottom.

From the The Raymond News, May 28, 1970

Today, the park looks completely different than the park I played in as a kid. The saplings grew into nice, big trees that provide lots of shade, and there is an expanded playing field that was named Terry Todt RHSA Field in honor of Terry Todt who served on the Park Board for more than 20 years. With the help of the Place2Play Committee, headed up by Raymond resident, Amy Brown (who happens to reside in my childhood home), there is new, colorful playground equipment.  The grounds are neatly kept and it's a wonderful little park that adds to Raymond's charm.

The current Park Board members include: Kent Sorrells, Ty Herman, John Terneus, Kent Wagahoff, and Daniel Mulch. Verne L. Pinkston, who had followed in his father's footsteps as a park commissioner, recently stepped down after 30 years of service.

The photo and information were taken from Raymond’s 125^th Anniversary Book

Lessons from the War

As I was preparing to relaunch my Throwback Thursday blog about Raymond, I read back on one of my posts from February 2015 that featured a letter to Tess Potts, editor of the The Raymond News, written by Raymond “Jiggs” Hough in 1942 when he served in the Army during WWII. In the letter, Jiggs, who was only twenty years old and homesick, tried to make the best out of his situation. “Sure is tough at first but after you get on to it, it’s not so bad,” he wrote. “A person doesn’t appreciate home and town life until he has to leave it,” noted Jiggs, and he concluded by stating that when the war ended, he would “make a bee-line to Raymond.”

I’m sure Jiggs’ sentiments were shared by the 230 men from Raymond served in WWII, as well as four women who served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, and one woman who served in the U.S. Marines Women’s Reserve Corps. Given the town’s small population, this number is astounding and obviously had a profound effect not only on those who served, but those who remained home as well. Many left their families and livelihoods, and everyone in town made sacrifices in one way or another.

I grew up hearing a lot about life during the war. My dad spoke frequently about his trip with Uncle Sam that began on May 26, 1943, the day his size 16 feet were squarely planted on the deck of the Queen Elizabeth as it sailed out of New York Harbor headed for Scotland. Once overseas, he was added as a replacement to the 861^st ordinance company at the last minute, a fluke that probably saved his life since the members of his original unit out of Fort DuPont, Delaware were sent to the Pacific arena where many were killed in action.

He spent over two years in England, France, Belgium and Germany, and during that time, logged the location of his unit on a piece of paper that he stored in his mess kit. Since his company advanced through Europe behind the action, his experiences in the war were mainly positive; he learned a trade, improved his physical stamina, and developed discipline and character.  

He loved to tell the story about a night in France when all the other guys in his unit spent an entire evening drinking, smoking, and gambling, while he spent the evening crafting a weatherproof bag out of old potato sacks that he could use to protect his gear. As predicted, heavy rains moved in and the next morning, and my dad, the youngest member of the unit, was the only one who had a dry blanket, dry socks, dry boots, and no hangover. 

“The other fellas had wet socks and cold feet for days, but mine were nice and dry and warm,” he would say with a big smile as he patted his leg. After hearing this cautionary tale dozens of times over the years, I came to realize that while it is true that having dry socks is important, there was a lot more to this story. It was full of timeless advice that could be applied to many situations in life: Don’t drink too much. Don’t gamble. Spend your time doing something constructive. Think. Don’t do something just because everyone else is doing it. Get your work done before you play. Sacrifice now and be comfortable later. These and all the lessons Dad learned during the war remained with him the rest of his life, and he tried to instill them in his children every time he had the chance.  

Just like Jiggs, Dad headed straight back to Raymond after the war. The last entry on his list was dated November 17, 1945: “Via Wabash Railroad to Litchfield, Illinois with Slats Eickoff, then hitchhiked home.”

He and Raymond resident, Elmer “Slats” Eickoff, happened to run into each other in Chicago on November 16, 1945, the day they received their discharge papers from the United States Army. The pair stayed overnight at the Red Cross in Chicago before boarding a southbound train the next morning. By 1945, passenger train service had been discontinued in Raymond and the closest stop was Litchfield. As they got closer and closer to home, the two discussed the dim prospect of having to pass right through Raymond without stopping and continue on south to Litchfield. They considered pulling the emergency brake, but worried about being arrested, so they sat back and watched out the window as Main Street and the Cottonwood tree went by in a flash. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at Litchfield and then hitchhiked back to Raymond on Route 66. (Another lesson: Be patient. Don’t do something stupid that you’ll regret later.)

Like my Dad, Jiggs Hough, and Slats Eickhoff, most came back from the war and went on to raise families, be leaders in the community, and make the most out of life. Sadly, eight men from Raymond gave their lives in World War II: 

Murray Bost – killed in action over Tunis, Africa on 4/19/43

Marvin Frank Brown – killed in action over Europe on 6/26/43

John R. Mitts – 7/10/43

Robert E. Mayfield – 2/22/44

Leslie J. Tucker – 12/11/44

Edward Martin – killed on Luzon Island on 2/19/45

Charles C. Varner – 3/8/45

Billy V. Vanzant – killed in Germany on 4/10/45

We are currently living in an age when many people no longer have first-hand knowledge about life during WWII. As we begin a New Year and a new decade, it seems more important now than ever to remember the people who served and reflect upon their examples of resilience, hope, and sacrifice.