Interviewee: Filbert Fox
Date of birth/age at interview: 1904/78 (estimated)
Interviewers: Two New Hope-Solebury Elementary School students
Interview date: Approximately late 1981 or early 1982
Interview location: New Hope-Solebury Elementary School
Interview length: 37 minutes
Time span discussed: 1920s to 1930s, 1980s
Summary: Phil was a student at the Solebury one-room schoolhouse about 1920. He lived in various places in Bucks County during his life, including Lahaska, New Hope, and Doylestown. The student interviewers were well prepared with questions. The primary value of this interview is Phil’s reflections on how the school’s facility and day were organized.
Time markers:
00:40 – New Hope
01:15 – stone schoolhouse in Solebury
02:00 – school day schedule, recess
03:00 – sledding time
03:45 – wheelwright shop, his father was a wheelwright; Solebury Village center
05:00 – games for girls and boys
05:30 – sledding story, “ belly bumper,” two on a sled laying down
07:30 – Tinicum, Pineville
09:45 – boys chores at home on the farm
10:55 – two-seater school desk
11:50 – schoolhouse playground condition
12:50 – World War I
14:10 – World War II, including draft
15:55 – Depression
20:10 – John F. Kennedy
32:20 – hay harvest to barn
33:00 – growing up to be cowboys
35:15 – school year, late September to early May
Tape donated to STHS by Anne Bishop, past Solebury Elementary School teacher.
