School Memories by Susan Kristi Anderson

By Susan Kristi Anderson (Werner W. Anderson family), August 2014

School: When I started school at the East Gull Lake School in 1951, I was one of 8 first graders.  This particular class was unusually big for the one room country school.  That was the last year that 7th and 8th graders were in attendance because consolidation with the Brainerd School System was beginning.  Every two years after that, another Anderson child started school.  Six of the Anderson children attended EGLS.  We loved it! We really liked recess, and spent a great deal of time in the woods behind the school building forts and climbing trees.  As we got older we tutored the younger children, helped the teacher order library books, and kept order in the classroom.  We swept the floors and washed the chalkboards too.

In 1957, my class went to “town school” for 6^th grade.  Sending 8 of us off to Brainerd reduced the overcrowding.  The next 2 classes stayed at EGLS for 6^th grade but in 1959 consolidation moved ahead in earnest.  A couple years later the school was closed.