Halloween Parade - 1946

The two in the mouse costume are Dennis Moyer on the left and Daryl Dwier on the right, the teacher behind them is Miss Longstreet.

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One of the biggest events of attending Groveville Elementary School was our Halloween Party, I believe this was the lower grades, only. On Halloween every child came in costume, store bought or homemade, most were homemade, this was Groveville, if you had enough money to buy a costume you had enough money to have chicken twice that week.

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The party usually consisted of Cookies, Cupcakes, Koolaid brought in by our parents. Then there was the parade, the entire school walked down Church Street, on the side walk, pretty much single file,and you stayed on the side walk, or else.

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We walked to Main Street, turned right, walked past the Firehouse, all the way to the Mill (Anchor Thread and Mercer Textile). All of the people of the Mills would come out and watch you walk past and cheer and clap, I think it was almost as big a deal to them as it was to the kids, because they all came out.

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We would turn around and walk back up Main Street, we would cross over to the other side when we reached Matlack's and Weiss's house, because that is where the side walk starts on the other side of Main Street.

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We would walk all the way to Lloyd & Mary Bowers, cross over Main Street there because the sidewalk ended there, to Phoebe Robinson's side of Main and came back to Church Street and back to the School.

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All the way parents, mostly Mom's, would be out on the street and out on their porches cheering, clapping and taking pictures, some ran out to straighten their child's costume, it was such a fun time.

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The amazing part of this was that it was not just the parents of the children in the parade, watcing, but everyone came out for the poarade. There were no flyer's or postings that the parade was today, everyone knew, it was discussed at the Post Office and at the General Store, most of the people of Groveville "Just Knew" today was the parade.

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Now days you see teachers with small groups of young children walking holding a rope between them so they don't get lost. We had no rope, we had teachers we listened too, after all we would be walking past out mothers, it was nothing for the teacher to say "Little Gary is not listening, and the reply from Mom would be, I'll take care of that when he gets home.

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We had costumes with full face masks that obscured our vision, costume shoes that didn't fit because they were from our older brother, Dresses that were long and dragged the ground from our mothers and costume pants too long and rolled up to look silly and easy to trip over and we never lost a Kid. So glad we now have laws and rules to protect us from having all this fun.

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This is just one more thing that the children of Groveville will have to cherish forever, I know I will.

October 1976 ~ Save Groveville School

Reading this article brought a tear to my eye. Dennis Moyer dropped this and several other articles and photos off to me, from his Mom, Erdith Dwier Moyer's collection.
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This was such a "Hub" of the community, I have lived across from the school all of my life. As I mentioned earlier in my blog, Mom's used to walk their children to school, then after the bell rang the Mom's would hang out in the School Yard or on the side walk and talk, then slowly make their way down Church Street to stop at the Post Office to pick up their mail and the latest gossip (no home delivery of mail). From there they would make their way to the corner store to make sure they had something for lunch (As kids we went home for lunch from school) and pick up something for supper, the corner store had canned goods, fresh produce and fresh butchered meat, like a mini super market.
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My mother Dorthy Lippincott graduated from Hamilton High in 1939, when she went to Groveville School it went to the 8th Grade in four rooms, by the time she reached 8th Grade it only went to 7th and she was bussed to Klockner School for 8th and then on to Hamilton High.
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I graduated Hamilton High in 1962, when I went to Groveville School it went to 5th Grade in four rooms, the large basement room was the cafeteria and sometimes on rainy days we had our recess time there.
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By the time I reached the 5th Grade the school only went to 4th and we were bussed to Yardville for 5th thru 7th. Eight was at the old Steinert, now Nottingham, then on to Hamilton High, now know as West.
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It was a sad day for the community when our school closed, it was a nice school with a personal touch.

For many years Dot Jones, still of Groveville, was our crossing guard at the corner of Church and Main Streets, she knew every student and their parents.
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One of our teachers, Sarah Brecht, lived on Main Street, and could be seen walking to school along with the children. She was also my Sunday School teacher.

When I was young we had a crossing guard at the school, a maintenance man, a janitor, a man in charge of the boiler, and a teacher's assistant, it was all the same man, Nimrod "Uncle Nim" Dwier, when he spoke you listened.

We didn't have a Principal at the school or a School nurse, The Principal and the School Nurse were at Yardville School, they were also responsible for Yardville Hights School. Many times a nurse would be need for a scraped knee or a bumped head and the nurse would not be available, they would go across the street to my house and get my Mother, Dot Lippincott, to come over, she was a Registered Nurse, she would dab on the Mercurochrome and a band aid.
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I am gratful the building is still there and is well maintained by the township, I just wish it was a school that my daughter could have attended. Its now used as our community center and the place where we vote, since the Fire Company left town, but that is another story.
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I have more articles to post on the school, but I want to get this up and work on the others.

Groveville-Yardville Memorial Day Parade - 140 Years

Ironton, Ohio lays claim to the nation's oldest continuously running Memorial Day parade, it has been a tradition since 1868. The first parade was held May 5, 1868.

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The Groveville - Yardville Memorial Day Parade was first held in May of 1870, we celebrated the 140th anniversary, this year, could this mean that we are the second oldest parade in the country, I am sure we may be the oldest continuing in the state. I am still searching for an older parade.

Groveville Fire Company - 1950 Banquet Committee

Groveville Fire Company - 1950 Banquet Committee

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Standing, Left to Right, Ted Wacowicz - Charles "Charlie" Thompson - Edward "Eddie" Jones

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Seated, Left to Right, Joseph "Jo~Jo" DeMent - Mildred "Millie" Williams - Nimrod "Nim" Dwier

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Yes, that is a real band in the background, no DJ's back then, you listened to what they played, and it was all good music.