Interviewee: Becky Bailey
Date of birth/age at interview: 1918/unknown
Interviewer: unknown
Interview date: unknown, probably early 1980s
Interview location: unknown
Interview length: 30 minutes
Time span discussed: 1920s and 1930s.
Summary: Becky Bailey, a former New Hope-Solebury elementary teacher, and the unknown interviewer share a fast 30-minute review of local schools and student activities. Despite the focused topic one hears many interesting stories of New Hope village and small town America through the memory of a once small girl.
Time markers:
00:00 – talk starts in mid sentence; first grade at Carversville, then New Hope for second grade
01:40 – one-room schoolhouse in New Hope was only for first grade in 1925, located at Mechanics and South Main streets (current Visitor’s Center)
02:30 – names many of the teachers at that time, where they lived
03:55 – original painting Manchester Valley by Joseph Pickett hanging in the School, later sold to Metropolitan Museum in New York
05:08 – school and teachers repeated
06:15 – high school on the Mechanics Street site, Sears and Roebuck building
06:54 – Erma Newhart born in bank apartment corner Main and Bridge streets
07:10 – outdoor plumbing at school
07:35 – no playground equipment; played game Kick the Wicket at recess
08:25 – bell with rope to call students
08:42 – most students walked home to lunch; teacher cooked lunch for others
09:37 – layout of the school and classrooms
10:46 – names other small schoolhouses: Solebury, Brownsburg
11:12 – discipline, spanking
12:00 – desks with double seats; friend Ginny Ely
12:41 – learning multiplication
13:15 – music teacher story and work
14:20 – Gypsies in New Hope, their camp on hill (current Village II) with wagons and horses and South Main Street
15:18 – climbing the hill to school on icy days, returning home fun
15:54 – new school (current New Hope-Solebury High School) opened in 1930, teachers
17:58 – busing biggest difference; everyone walked in 1930s
19:19 – Dr. Charles Bain, Bucks County Superintendent of schools, speaker at graduation from eighth grade
19:48 – Worthington Hall (2 Stockton Street, across from RR station), largest hall around, for big school activities like graduation; more school stories
20:42 – one small bus driven by John Major
21:30 – 1929 sports and teams, boy’s football and baseball, girl’s hockey and softball
23:07 – subjects and academic competitions with other near-by schools
26:51 – other schools in area closed to join new school in New Hope
