Merle, In Dec 1955, my parents moved from Dearborn, Michigan, to a farm in rural Washtenaw County, Michigan, so my father could be closer to his job. I was 11 years old and it was a shock going to a one-room school. It had all grades from 1st-7th. I was there for 2 yrs, then went by bus to town to a junior high school for 8th-9th and finally a high school for 10th-12th. Yes, we played where the ball was thrown over the roof of the school. One side had a small baseball area and can still remember the windows on that side of the building having metal grates so the windows didn't get broken. There were two toilets, boys and girls and across the hall from them was the furnace room where you were taken to be punished. I made it there once but because I was from the city wasn't punished. Still I had to watch the other boy being punished. Never had to go there again that's for sure. Then they closed down the rural schools sometime in late 60s, early 70s. We lived about half a mile from the school with a big hill in between. On the hill was our nearest neighbor next to the school. One Sunday morning in mid 80s, I think it was, the neighbor called and said the "volunteer" fire department was burning the old school down. I grabbed my camera and walked to there and watched them burn it. They spent most of the day doing that as they would get it going and then put it out, etc. for training. There was only the chief and maybe 2 others on salary with the rest being "volunteers", when in actual fact the "volunteers" were paid for each fire they were called out for. If you needed a house or barn burned you called them and they would do it for "free" for the practice. The school sat on half acre that was donated to the school district with the septic field on the neighbors property so that no one could build a house in place of the school. That's about all I remember of my time in the one-room school. Eric Blocher Sorry, when I clicked on reply this was sent to Bob Harter by mistake.