80. A Word about Schools
BY DR. ABEL ABBOT (ABOUT 1780)
A WORD about schools. These were poor enough. We
used to read, spell, write, and do numbers. The primer,
spelling book, and the Bible were the books. My father
became aware that the schools were useless and hired Mr.
John Abbott, who was then in college, to teach a month in his
vacation. He then invited other people to send their children
free.
This made the schools there of a different sort. For a number
of years after this good teachers were hired for about eight
weeks in the winter. They were usually students from
college. Other places then began to have as good schools.
I respect my father and mother deeply; for their anxiety and
sacrifices to give their children the best education possible. Their
children, grandchildren, and so on to the twentieth generation will have
reason to bless the memory of parents of such true worth.
Now for something else. For breakfast in olden times there
was bread and milk, as soon as the cows were milked. About
nine o'clock there was a luncheon of bread and cheese, or
fried pork and potatoes.
For dinner we had a good Indian pudding. Often there were
blue-berries or suet in it. We had also for dinner pork and
beef, through the winter and spring, besides potatoes,
turnips, and cabbage.
At four or five o'clock in the summer evenings, we had some
bread and cheese or the like. For supper we had bread and
milk.
When there was company chocolate was used for breakfast,
but no coffee. Pewter basins and sometimes wooden bowls
were used. Wooden plates were used for dinner. When a
friend dined pewter plates and spoons were used by father,
mother, and the friend.
I do not think that swearing was ever heard in the town until
after the Revolution. I do not remember seeing my father or
mother angry; but they were sometimes displeased no doubt.
I do not remember more than one man being drunk.
Rum was commonly used at the raising of buildings. If the
raising was finished before night, the men amused themselves
with wrestling, goal, and coits. Goal was the favorite game
of the boys after thanksgiving and Election days, the only
holidays which I remember.
