Clyde’s Corner: A first-day-of-school glitch had a happy ending

by Clyde Whitaker

Hello, everyone. The new school year is off and running, and local kids have had a chance to get used to their school routines. As I see the school buses on our rural roads, it brings to mind a first-day-of-school memory I thought I would share with you. This story is only known by a few people. I’m pretty sure even my Uncle Willis Jackson hasn’t heard this one.

As most of you know, I was born in Stockbridge at the Rowe Memorial Hospital on Center Street. At the time of my birth, my family lived in one of the small houses on the Krummrey Farm, just outside of Stockbridge, where my father Jim Whitaker was the farm foreman. We lived on the Krummrey Farm until my parents purchased a house on Territorial and Fitchburg roads, just outside of Munith.

It was always dusty on the farm, with all of the trucks running back and forth on the roads and in the muck fields. Our next-door neighbors on the farm were Weasel and Martha Poe, with a son Cletis and daughter Phyllis. Cletis and I rode our bikes all around the roads on the farm, waving as the trucks drove by, even though we were only 5 years old.

In addition to bike rides, Cletis and I also share a special memory from that year: Our first day of kindergarten at Emma Smith Elementary School. I don’t recall much about that first day, except for our ride home on the bus. It seemed like an eternity that Cletis and I were on that bus, sitting in the right-front seat, watching all the others depart one by one.

Eventually, Cletis and I were the only students left on the bus. The next stop had to be our turn! At his last stop of the day, the bus driver pulled over, opened the door and said, “Here you go.” I looked out the front-seat window, frozen in fear. This was not our farm!

Cletis and I immediately burst out into tears, crying uncontrollably. We told the bus driver we didn’t live here; we were sobbing and scared to death. You see, the bus driver thought we lived on the Baldwin Farm, which also was just outside of Stockbridge.

Realizing this was not our home, the bus driver made the trip back to Stockbridge and to the Krummrey Farm.

Needless to say, we were overjoyed to finally be home, and that is one first day of school I will never forget!

Clyde Whitaker is a 1973 Stockbridge graduate. He and his wife, Mary, raised four children in Stockbridge, and they still reside in the Stockbridge area.

All photos by Clyde Whitaker

The house the Whitakers lived in on the Krummrey Farm, just outside Stockbridge. Cletis and his family lived in the house next to the Whitakers.

Entrance to the Krummrey Farm, where the school bus should have left Clyde after his first day of school.