The Guernsey Dale School Bell

This bell has some family history behind it. It's from the one-room country schoolhouse where my mother went to school back in the Thirties and early Forties. The Guernsey Dale School, out in the countryside over in central Wisconsin. In fact my mom didn't have far to go to get to school, since the schoolhouse was located right next to the farm where she grew up.

A little white country schoolhouse, all the grades together in one room. And this was the bell that the teacher would ring, to call the kids in from recess.

Some years later, the Guernsey Dale School closed, and seeing as it was right next to their farm, my grandparents bought the schoolhouse. (Later my cousin bought the schoolhouse from them, nice for a weekend getaway from Milwaukee, deer hunting, et cetera.) At some point my grandmother gave this bell from the Guernsey Dale School to my mom, and Christmas before last, my mom gave it to me. And now it sits on the end table in my living room, an interesting piece of Wisconsin history and family history.