• Thursday-What'sUP August 28 - 08:33 am

Donna MacIntosh is at it again, searching out the "gems" in the Keweenaw Bay area. This time it's the Baraga County Historical Museum and just in time for the beginning of school, Donna shared some old time school items she found inside. Except for the top photo which isn't directly related to school, but does at least refer to children. It's a Swedish bread board and the saying engraved on it translates to: "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Now I'm not exactly sure why you'd have that written on your bread board, unless it also served as a "board of control" in the early households. ;-)

The second and third photos do relate to school, with an abacus, the predecessor to the modern day calculator and some of the books youngsters read years back. If I'm not mistaken, that's Suzy Smart counting with the beads of that abacus. She was a much sought after doll from back in my day, with a plaid skirt, chalkboard and a little school desk.

Jim Dompier is the gentleman in the last photo. Donna said he was a "wealth of information" while they toured through this historical step back in time. If you're interested in making your own visit there, the Museum is located on US-41 in Baraga, with operating hours of 11 - 3, from Tuesday through Saturday.
Just in case you aren't able to stop by in person, Donna has also provided us with an excellent slideshow of a number of the items that caught her interest. You can take a virtual visit by clicking here: Baraga County Historical Museum.

Oh my gosh! It was a Bobbsey Twins book. I remember Nan & Bert & Freddie & Flossie quite well. I loved those books when I was a kid. I bought some for my granddaughter. Bought her Trixie Belden too. Those were my favorite books, along with The Boxcar Children. And the doll at the abacus looks just like one I used to have, right down to the messy hair.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

I was thinking more along the lines of "The Board of Education" in the local school, but you have to hand it to the Swedes; they were already multi-tasking nearly 100 years ago!! ;-)

Geez, I had to stop the slideshow so I can go and get ready for work. It was hard though. The pictures are such fun to look at. Will try to finish it up tonight. LOTS of pictures!!

When I was in school, boys who got in trouble & were sent to the Principal's office got "swats" with a wooden paddle. I never saw the paddle, but one might imagine... (as for girls, I suppose if one did something bad enough, she might have been swatted, but I never heard of it. Maybe they were smart enough to stay out of trouble?)

also many more great pictures of Baraga County donated by Clyde Emblad can be viewed at.
http://www.baragacountyhistoricalmuseum.com/photohistory/

I remember in grade school, we had a mean woman teacher straight out of a Betty Davis horror movie. One day a girl did something wrong and the teacher walked back to the closet and grabbed her peacemaker, a paddle with holes in it so she could swing it faster. As she slowly walked up to where the girl was sitting she said, and I quote: "I'm gonna hit ya till ya cry!"...and she did.

I was born and raised in Baraga,I have been away for 50 years. I went to school with Jim Dompier. the slide show bring me back as I know most of the people in it. It is a great museum.

You guys might be happy to know that the translation of the bread board's inscription is actually kinder than you might think:

"Butter and bread makes the child red"

Easier for the kids to take than that "board of education!" :)

Mary says: The first translation I found on the web is what I had in my notes: Spare the rod, spoil the child. So I did another search and I found a translation that goes like this: Bread and butter issues cheek rod(Similar to what Hilary is saying it means). Since the latter didn't make sense to me, I chose to use the first one. Any Swede's out there that can clarify what the true meaning might be? :->

Hilary, think you are right. My teacher that was Satan in person was a nun. Her name was Sr. Marie Antoinette. Should have been guillotined like her name sake. She would throw erasers and had an aim better then most of the pictures in town, would have made a better picture then a teacher.

Back in 5th grade, washington elementry school, we had a teacher that would use the board of education. One day a particular student needed to get the board. They marched out into the hallway and a little while later they came back in. We looked to see if he was crying or hurting or something but all he was doing was holding his wrist. Story has it that before he was to be hit, he slugged the wall. The walls in washington school are granite.

My husband has this exact bread board, and I have to tell you that your translation is *entirely* incorrect. It actually translates to: "Butter and bread makes cheeks red."

I have to confess that I too made the assumption the what it *looked* like it said was otherwise, but then, we live in the information age, and Google's translating features came to the rescue! That was several years ago, and I to be certain, I did it yet again this morning. Seems like someone needs a whooppin' for getting it wrong....

Addendum: I actually wrote this early this morning and had trouble logging in so it had to wait until almost 6:30pm to be able to sort things out and try again. When I translated this, I wrote the words (umlauts and all) into Google's translation feature. That got the translation I quoted. Now, I did not take into account that the cheeks being spoken of might not be on one's face... In which case, the first translation might be *partially* true...

Imagine our shock to see the exact same bread board we'd inherited from my husband's family here! That was COOL!

Mary Lynn (Tea and Nitpicker's Society...)

I really enjoyed the video on the Baraga Historical Museum. Many of the tems were familiar to me and I have some of the items that were my Mothers and others I have purchased. Deb, I have the and Mac and Muff reader from when I was in Primer Class(Kindergarden)They are fun to look thru and remember.

I remember having a couple of those dolls as little kids. After growing up, (so to speak) my sister and I would dress them up in different outfits and plant them in each other's houses/yards. I remember hiding one in a closet behind towels and getting a call a couple of months later....LOLOL!!!! Then one day I came home from work, and there they were...all in a line looking inside my sliding glass doors from the outside! Oh yes...Suzie Smart lives. And she's grown into a prankster!

Sounds like Suzy Smart should be re-named to Suzy Smarty-Pants