This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
DeKalb County History Center and several partners in DeKalb County, IL collected 100 objects about the country that will be displayed in an exhibition titled “History of DeKalb County in 100 Objects,” opening on June 11, 2022. Inspired by this exhibition and as a part of Museum on Main Street’s Coming Home project, area students created a project inspired by one of the 100 selected objects. Each student completed deep research on the topic, interviewed local residents, and edited and produced a video. Topics include: the North Grove One Room School, the Olympic Torch, the Navy’s TDR – 1, and the Sycamore Pumpkin Fest.
Speaker 1 (00:01): How long have you guys been living in Sycamore?
Alice Whitney (00:05): Almost 82 years.
Carol Lichty (00:07): Yeah. I moved from Chicago to Sycamore when I was three, so 77 years.
Speaker 1 (00:19): And where did you two go to school?
Alice Whitney (00:23): North Grove One Room School out on Brick Hill Road in Sycamore.
Carol Lichty (00:30): Then you went into Sycamore though into town, didn't you?
Alice Whitney (00:34): Oh yeah. When it closed in 1952, right?
Carol Lichty (00:38): Mm-hmm.
Alice Whitney (00:40): Then we transferred into town.
Carol Lichty (00:44): We knew everybody. I think what's important is the school was not only for education, it was a community center. School wasn't a scary place at all because I'd been there so many times before. And let's see, about six or seven of us or eight of us, were related, so we'd been to each other's houses. We had played. We'd had picnics. So school was just like another part of my home.
Alice Whitney (01:20): One big happy family.
Carol Lichty (01:22): We really were. And poor Mrs. Clark, our teacher, she had to come in in the morning and start the stove and do the sweeping and the cleaning before she ever rang the bell for all of us to come in. We didn't appreciate that. I mean, we didn't know that she did all that. It was just done.
Alice Whitney (01:45): Right.
Carol Lichty (01:46): Uh-huh.
Alice Whitney (01:49): It was the same teacher all through.
Carol Lichty (01:50): Yeah, Mrs. Clark was our only teacher the whole time we were going there. I think Mrs. Clark, I think she was a widow. She lived in town. She lived in Sycamore, and she was a widow, and she had a daughter that went to Sycamore in town. She was a good teacher. I don't remember thinking, "Oh Mrs. Clark. I just love her," but I sure didn't... I mean, she was just Mrs. Clark.
Alice Whitney (02:22): Yeah. Uh-huh.
Carol Lichty (02:23): She was just there.
Alice Whitney (02:24): I didn't appreciate her until after I was out of school, married, and I took a tailoring class at the high school one year, and she was in it.
Speaker 1 (02:43): What makes those one room school houses different from our modern version of classrooms?
Alice Whitney (02:50): Well, it's one room. And you've got all grades from first to eighth grade in that room. Where your modern schools you have... Well, I think, didn't and we in junior high move from class to class like a high school did?
Carol Lichty (03:15): Mm-hmm.
Alice Whitney (03:15): Yeah, so you went to different rooms for your different classes. I think that's the biggest difference maybe.
Asset ID: 2022.27.04
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
