Centerline Road, Alma - Winter 1964

     Here are two great photos posted on Rhonda MacPhee's (daughter of Donna Barbour MacPhee) Facebook Page!!  Thanks!

The Old Alma Schoolhouse

Poem written by Donna ( Barbour ) MacPhee

In the year 2006.

The old Alma Schoolhouse

sitting alone in the yard

with smashed panes in its windows

and a broken heart

Oh, what has happened

to the peace I was

I saw so many children

if only because

It was for their education

to set them free

to grow to be men and women

and independent be

My life of love was filled

with times both good and bad

but it was a learning place

that everyone had

An opportunity to become someone

to learn to read and write

oh, it wasn’t easy

it was quite a fight

I thought I’d always be

the place where the community met

but times were quickly changing

it wasn’t over yet

Every day I saw things happen

some I knew not why

there were those students

who didn’t come back

to say a simple good bye

They had moved on

they had to live

they wanted to be someone

I wept as life became harder

for the people who lived here

it was a struggle to pay

                  their taxes and bills

things were becoming dear

My walls and roof

a shelter so kind

for all who trod within

to develop their minds

I wondered why I was getting weak

my walls were bulging

my roof was sagging

                and beginning to leak

The pot bellied stove

that kept me warm

on the cold winter’s day

now had no reason for alarm

for it stood alone

in the middle of the floor

no heat in its innards

who opened the door?

It made no difference

if it was ice cold

There was no scuttle

so they’d be no coal

I wondered again

how this could be

I was only the old

               Alma Schoolhouse

and it was just me

The old pump outside

with its handle up high

would need to be primed

oh, but it was dry

The peeling paint

the shingles so rough

made me look like

I was ever so rough

I wasn’t tough

I was sad

If only I had people

It made me mad

to think that I

of all that was

of great importance

was simply alone and lost

The latch on the door

now idly hung

it didn’t need the key

the caretaker always brung

I was opened to the world

with privacy no more

if only I could...

close that door

Maybe I could

once again take control

and then the teacher’d

call the roll

The students within

my domain

would say ‘here’ or ‘present’

when hearing their name

But, I am only

old Alma School

to think I was important

would make me a fool

I am no fool

the fools are they

who thought they knew more

and needed a say

In better things

they strived to be

but left me lame

for the world to see

My only wish

is that I could be

once again who I was

not a prisoner, but free

To leave me alone

with no hope at all

made me weak and tired

would I fall?

I had no choice

but to let go

because there was no one

it was a bad show

I would have to bend

with the weight of the world

I would sag and buckle

as the destruction of

                     time unfurled

For I was lonely

as I could be

the people drove by

I could surely see

I was not blind

they thought I was

I was lonely and dejected

that I was

Would I see another year

I really didn’t care

Oh, there’s someone coming

Maybe they’ll be fair

What are they doing

I wondered to myself

as they took out their cameras

from the cases, themselves

I would be remembered

I knew how, too

I would be on paper

Oh, it was too good to be true

If I fell down

it mattered not

I was recorded in a photo

I would be – forgotten not

People would look at it

and they would say

Do you remember

the other day?

It was the other day

the one long lost

Rough times I had known

the price a high cost

If you see me on paper

you’ll never guess

that I won the battle

now I must rest

for I am

        The Old Alma Schoolhouse

* I wrote this story in 2006, knowing that the demise was near for Alma Corner.  The school would be surely gone.  The very same school – Alma School No. 43 – served the community well in many ways.  It was a place of education, community functions, school picnics and the interaction of the people on both the Western Road and the Centerline Road.  I was alway remember the old Alma Schoolhouse.
**Photos taken of Alma School in 1994 by Donna.

Retired Farmer Recalls Early Potato Equipm't. WB McLellan 1978

  Another big thanks to Donna (Barbour) MacPhee for loaning me her scrapbooks - they're a wealth of articles from bygone days - including this one of W.B. McLellan of Lauretta. 

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The Shopping News.  Thurs. May 11, 1978 - 7
By Richard Wightman

     ELMSDALE-  W.B. McLellan of Elmsdale (formerly of Lauretta), recalled recently his efforts in 1919 to lessen the work involved in potato production.
     The retired farmer from the Center Line Road said they had on his farm at that time what all other farms had a plow and harrows.  The iron plow was likely made by a local blacksmith.  Some had plows from equipment makers such as Massey-Harris.
     Mr. McLellan saw the largest problem with his operation being the digging of the potatoes.  It was hard work in the fall when conditions were often poor.  He wrote letters to the major farm equipment manufacturers inquiring about their potato digging machinery.  He was told that the machinery for digging potatoes would not work well as too many weeds were allowed to grow with the potatoes which would keep the digger from working properly.  The farm equipment manufacturers told him weeds should not grow with potatoes.
GETS ADVICE
     The answer the companies suggested was to get a horse hoe cultivator to turn the soil up around the potatoes and disturb the weeds between the rows.  The cultivator required straight rows that would best be achieved by using a planter to get the potato sets in the ground.
     The planter required seed that was cut in regular sections, so a seed cutter was advised.  Bugs being a problem in the fields, a mechanical sprayer was suggested to stop that problem.
     Mr. McLellan decided he would be better off buying all the machinery at one time so he purchased it through Ed MacRae in Alberton.  He recalled the seed cutter had a seat on it.  It was hand feed and operated by foot levers.  The sets then fell into a basket.
     The planter was drawn by a team of horses and would do about one acre an hour, one row at a time.  The horse hauled cultivator would make a number of trips through the fields in a season.  The sprayer also used a team of horses and as it did four rows at a time and could do about four acres an hour.  
     The elevator digger dug up the full row on a digging chain with the soil dropping through the chain and the potatoes and tops falling off the end at the back.  It required a four horse team to haul.  To help pay for the new machinery Mr. McLellan did custom work for his neighbours charging four dollars an acre for planting or for digging.
     "You could do about four acres a day with the digger," said Mr. McLellan, "but you would not stop too long at that."
GOOD ADVICE
     The producer said he received good service from the potato equipment which totalled $600 in cost at that time.  He was one of the larger producer in the area at the time growing about 10 acres.
     "It lightened the work and made it easier for the people involved.  I was never sorry I purchased the machinery."
     The farmer recalled he was one of the first to grow registered seed in the area.  He was able to purchase a 90 pound bag of Irish Cobblers from a shipment to a group of farmers in Lot 16.  
     One year a group of farmers went together and imported fertilizer ingredients in bulk and were able to reduce the cost to each of them by four dollars a ton.  Nitrate was shipped from Chile, potash from Germany and phosphate from the United States.  It arrived in Charlottetown and was sent out to the farms by rail where it was mixed.
     "Sometimes a late spring is not too bad a thing," said Mr. McLellan.
     The farmer who will be having his 91st birthday during the summer recalled that a researcher at the experimental station in Charlottetown had kept track of the type of spring and the resulting crop for 35 years and found that late springs were followed by betters harvests than those with early springs.

- Below is the article as it appears in Donna's scrapbook -

Thank-you Donna ( Barbour ) MacPhee

     Recently Donna ( Barbour ) MacPhee brought me a whole lot of photos, clippings, documents, etc. relating to the history of Alma and Lauretta.  I've started scanning them and will post them over the next few weeks.  She has a valuable collection and I sincerely thank her for sharing!!
     Donna is the daughter of Waldron & Daisy (Rix) Barbour of the Centerline Road, Alma.