Message:
Schoolhouse students hold reunion - 07/14/2003
Students who attended two-room Lulu School gathered Sunday to talk about old times.
IDA TOWNSHIP — It is true what your parents and grandparents said about their school days when they were younger.
They did have to walk miles, even in the snow, to get to school. "My kids don't believe me when I tell them that I had to walk 1½ to two miles to school; they think that was back in the 1800s … I tell them ‘No, it was in the 1940s and '50s,' " said Louis Golenbieski of Ida about his two sons. Those were the memories swirling around Sunday at Lulu United Methodist Church's community room during the sixth reunion of Lulu School, the former two-room school located in Ida Township. "We started meeting 12 years ago and we meet every other year," said Irene Folk, a former student at the school who coordinated the event. With about 25 students and 25 guests, many gathered Sunday to remember their school days. "Back then, we didn't have bathrooms … you had to use the outhouse," Mrs. Folk recalled. "We didn't have running water either. We had to bring in the water in ourselves. Things have changed quite a bit since then." The school was built in the 1900s and closed in 1951 when the school was consolidated. The school had two rooms that taught kindergarten through eighth grade. Classmates have not forgotten what it was like at the school. "We only had two rooms. One room was for kindergarten through fourth grade and the other room was for fifth through eighth grade. There was about 10 to 20 kids in each room; it varied," Clayton John Holtz of Ida said. "We had a slide and swings outside to play on and we didn't have running water or bathrooms in the building. Those were the good ol' days …" A potluck dinner was held during the reunion. Old photos and articles about the former school were displayed on a table. Those attending not only live in Ida, but also came as far as Hillsdale and Howell to be at the reunion. Mr. Golenbieski, who attended with his wife, Dee, was in the last graduating class of the schoolhouse. "The biggest memory that sticks in my mind is that we won a track meet in Monroe," he recalled. Mrs. Folk, who attended the schoolhouse from kindergarten through eighth in the 1940s, was pleased with this year's turnout. "We always seem to have a lot of people here, which is nice to see," she said. "It's not just for classmates. Their spouse or anyone else is invited to come out … this is a community event. The first year we had over 100 people at the picnic and they weren't all classmates. We just like to sit around and catch up on everyone's lives and have a good time."
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