Pictured in the photo above from the Cook County Historical Society are school cooks Selma Blackwell, Mary Ridgeway and Mable Lindskog.
Kenneth Skoog, former Gunflint Trail resident now living in Cartersville, Florida, shared some school memories with the Cook County News-Herald. Ken started school in 1938. He said he still remembers the names of all of his teachers through the eighth grade. “After that, different teachers taught different subjects, so I don’t remember all of them.”
Ken does however, remember the names of the cooks at that time, Adelaide Wishcop and Mrs. Corcoran. Ken said the menu at the time consisted of a mug of soup and maybe an apple for 3 cents. “Alot of the kids, including me, brought our own lunch because we couldn’t afford the soup. Though whenever they had cream of corn, I managed to find 3 cents. Discarded nickel pop bottles were worth 2 cents. In other words, the contents cost 3 cents if you brought the bottle back.”
Ken also recalls riding the bus with Nelda Bockovich and all the rest of her siblings. They all rode Andrew Shold’s ‘37 International schoolbus all through their school years. “The only heater in it was up by the driver! Every one of the Shold boys drove that bus at one time or another—Lloyd, Lester, Erland, Roger, David and Wally.”
Ken also remembers that Andrew Shold had a shoe repair shop and a gas pump across from the Holiday Store. “After school I would run down to his shop so I could pump gas for him, for the bus. Gas was about 15 cents a gallon!” chuckled Ken.
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