Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut
Collection: Mary Carttar Hartley
Title
Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut
Subject
Hartley, Mary Carttar
Essays
Autobiographical
Description
A young girl's reminiscences about growing up in Winfield, Kansas and attending Lowell elementary school in the 1940's. This is also where she met her future husband, Bob Hartley, the well-known writer of Winfield history.
Creator
Hartley, Mary Carttar
Source
Hartley, Mary Carttar
Publisher
Winfield Public Library, Winfield, Kansas USA
Date
ca 2000
Rights
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Type
Narratives
Citation
Hartley, Mary Carttar, “Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut,” Winfield Digital Collections, accessed December 21, 2024, https://winfield.digitalsckls.info/item/68.
Text
Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut
by Mary Carttar Hartley
The best thing my parents did for me was move to Winfield. My grandfather and great grandfather homesteaded near Rock before Winfield was platted. Dad graduated from Winfield High School and met Mother at Southwestern. It was a homecoming for them. Until then, Winfield was just the place where I visited my grandmothers.
We made the move in 1944 and life was simple. “Mayberry on the Walnut River” might describe the idyll of my elementary school years. My friends and I pedaled bikes to the swimming pool on lazy summer afternoons. I rode my bike to piano lessons at Southwestern’s Downtown Studio above the Regent Theatre and roller-skated on errands to the Co-op Market. Two or three times a week 1 went to the library to soak up the delicious cool of the basement children’s department presided over by Helen Crawford. I checked out as many books as possible then rushed home and read as fast as I could in order to go back for more.
I loved the freedom of summer, but it was Mrs. Brooks’s sixth grade at Lowell School that provided me with special memories fora lifetime. In that final year of elementary school our class went from little kids to responsible persons capable of making decisions and accepting responsibilities. The year was 1947.
Harriet Brooks was a formidable woman. (Of course we called her “Old Lady Brooks.”) She was at least 50 years old and “ancient” by our standards. Teachers then were authority figures, but she was the ultimate authority figure because she was the PRINCIPAL! To be honest she scared us. Who knew we’d label her as a “best teacher” at a class reunion fifty years later?
Lowell’s fulltime staff consisted of Mrs. Brooks, six other teachers and Mr. Teeter the janitor. Music and art teachers came to the school once a week. The day of school secretaries was in the future. We sixth graders were the secretaries. For a week at a time each of us took a turn answering the office phone and taking message. Students who were caught up on their schoolwork earned the privilege of biking to the high school where we picked up the school mail at Superintendent Evans’ office. The freedom of being out on my bike during school hours was heady stuff.
Classmates took turns as class librarian, checking out books and making repairs. I played the piano for our music classes and for the kindergarten. For parents’ day we wrote a script and put on a radio show. My dad built us a facsimile microphone that looked almost real. Bobby Hartley was the star and I appeared as “Ethel Jane and her notebook,” a take-off on a popular local radio show. No one remembers what our show was about, but we remember the thrill of performing.
Earlier teachers and our local children’s librarian nurtured my love of reading, but it was Mrs. Brooks who showed me authors are real people who happen to write books. Every student in Mrs. Brooks’s class wrote a letter to the author of a favorite book. At the time we wrote our letters it seemed as farfetched as writing to God. We didn’t know if anyone would respond. When our letters were answered, we were excited and thrilled. The day I came home and found a letter from Laura Ingalls Wilder was breathtaking. Students heard from Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, Lois Lenski, Carol Ryrie Brink, E. B. White and others. One author wrote that she knew Winfield because the Fuller for whom Fuller Street is named was her uncle.
Our move to Winfield enriched my life in countless ways AND the star of the 6lh grade radio show became my life’s companion.
--------
The 6th grade class at Lowell School is promoting Book Week. From 1 to r: Guylene Martin, Cathy Glantz, Judy Bell, Mary Carttar (standing behind) Al France (seated in front), Bob Hartley, Jerry Holloway, Vivian Edwards, Shirley Riley, teacher Harriet Brooks. At desks: Jim Compton, Robert Stewart, Bradley Allen.
Mrs. Brooks was a master promoter of reading and enjoying books. Every student in her classes wrote a letter to a favorite author and most received replies from the author. When Book Week came around there was a big children’s book fair at the high school library. Accompanying the books from publishers in New York was a woman named Mrs. Galliardo who talked with the children about new books. Mrs. Brooks’ class made a trip to the high school to see the books and to hear Mrs. Galliardo then they were able to make lists of books they wanted to see added to the class library. In addition to emphasizing reading, the students took note of book prices so the group could determine how many of the books fit into their book budget.
Helen Crawford
Children's librarian
(Carpenter Photo)
THESE GIRL SCOUTS of a Winfield troop recently collected and prepared for shipping the large parcels ready for shipment to New York City, and later to Hungary for needy peoples of that country. The large parcels weighed 148 pounds. Pictured are from left to right: Mary Carttar,
Eleanor Land, Janet Bailey, Jean Kemp and Patricia Riggs.
------
Girl Scouts & Brownies collected coats to send to Girl Scouts in Hungary in about 1946 or 1947.
When picture was printed the negative was reversed, making the cut line identifying the girls reversed.
Original Format
Paper
Title
Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut
Subject
Hartley, Mary Carttar
Essays
Autobiographical
Description
A young girl's reminiscences about growing up in Winfield, Kansas and attending Lowell elementary school in the 1940's. This is also where she met her future husband, Bob Hartley, the well-known writer of Winfield history.
Creator
Hartley, Mary Carttar
Source
Hartley, Mary Carttar
Publisher
Winfield Public Library, Winfield, Kansas USA
Date
ca 2000
Rights
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
Type
Narratives
Citation
Hartley, Mary Carttar, “Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut,” Winfield Digital Collections, accessed December 21, 2024, https://winfield.digitalsckls.info/item/68.Text
Recalling Mayberry on the Walnut
by Mary Carttar Hartley
The best thing my parents did for me was move to Winfield. My grandfather and great grandfather homesteaded near Rock before Winfield was platted. Dad graduated from Winfield High School and met Mother at Southwestern. It was a homecoming for them. Until then, Winfield was just the place where I visited my grandmothers.
We made the move in 1944 and life was simple. “Mayberry on the Walnut River” might describe the idyll of my elementary school years. My friends and I pedaled bikes to the swimming pool on lazy summer afternoons. I rode my bike to piano lessons at Southwestern’s Downtown Studio above the Regent Theatre and roller-skated on errands to the Co-op Market. Two or three times a week 1 went to the library to soak up the delicious cool of the basement children’s department presided over by Helen Crawford. I checked out as many books as possible then rushed home and read as fast as I could in order to go back for more.
I loved the freedom of summer, but it was Mrs. Brooks’s sixth grade at Lowell School that provided me with special memories fora lifetime. In that final year of elementary school our class went from little kids to responsible persons capable of making decisions and accepting responsibilities. The year was 1947.
Harriet Brooks was a formidable woman. (Of course we called her “Old Lady Brooks.”) She was at least 50 years old and “ancient” by our standards. Teachers then were authority figures, but she was the ultimate authority figure because she was the PRINCIPAL! To be honest she scared us. Who knew we’d label her as a “best teacher” at a class reunion fifty years later?
Lowell’s fulltime staff consisted of Mrs. Brooks, six other teachers and Mr. Teeter the janitor. Music and art teachers came to the school once a week. The day of school secretaries was in the future. We sixth graders were the secretaries. For a week at a time each of us took a turn answering the office phone and taking message. Students who were caught up on their schoolwork earned the privilege of biking to the high school where we picked up the school mail at Superintendent Evans’ office. The freedom of being out on my bike during school hours was heady stuff.
Classmates took turns as class librarian, checking out books and making repairs. I played the piano for our music classes and for the kindergarten. For parents’ day we wrote a script and put on a radio show. My dad built us a facsimile microphone that looked almost real. Bobby Hartley was the star and I appeared as “Ethel Jane and her notebook,” a take-off on a popular local radio show. No one remembers what our show was about, but we remember the thrill of performing.
Earlier teachers and our local children’s librarian nurtured my love of reading, but it was Mrs. Brooks who showed me authors are real people who happen to write books. Every student in Mrs. Brooks’s class wrote a letter to the author of a favorite book. At the time we wrote our letters it seemed as farfetched as writing to God. We didn’t know if anyone would respond. When our letters were answered, we were excited and thrilled. The day I came home and found a letter from Laura Ingalls Wilder was breathtaking. Students heard from Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, Lois Lenski, Carol Ryrie Brink, E. B. White and others. One author wrote that she knew Winfield because the Fuller for whom Fuller Street is named was her uncle.
Our move to Winfield enriched my life in countless ways AND the star of the 6lh grade radio show became my life’s companion.
--------
The 6th grade class at Lowell School is promoting Book Week. From 1 to r: Guylene Martin, Cathy Glantz, Judy Bell, Mary Carttar (standing behind) Al France (seated in front), Bob Hartley, Jerry Holloway, Vivian Edwards, Shirley Riley, teacher Harriet Brooks. At desks: Jim Compton, Robert Stewart, Bradley Allen.
Mrs. Brooks was a master promoter of reading and enjoying books. Every student in her classes wrote a letter to a favorite author and most received replies from the author. When Book Week came around there was a big children’s book fair at the high school library. Accompanying the books from publishers in New York was a woman named Mrs. Galliardo who talked with the children about new books. Mrs. Brooks’ class made a trip to the high school to see the books and to hear Mrs. Galliardo then they were able to make lists of books they wanted to see added to the class library. In addition to emphasizing reading, the students took note of book prices so the group could determine how many of the books fit into their book budget.
Helen Crawford
Children's librarian
(Carpenter Photo)
THESE GIRL SCOUTS of a Winfield troop recently collected and prepared for shipping the large parcels ready for shipment to New York City, and later to Hungary for needy peoples of that country. The large parcels weighed 148 pounds. Pictured are from left to right: Mary Carttar,
Eleanor Land, Janet Bailey, Jean Kemp and Patricia Riggs.
------
Girl Scouts & Brownies collected coats to send to Girl Scouts in Hungary in about 1946 or 1947.
When picture was printed the negative was reversed, making the cut line identifying the girls reversed.
Original Format
Paper