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During his senior year at Oak Ridge Institute, T.E. Whitaker was asked to teach at Ridgefield School in 1885. He needed the extra money and the school term only lasted three months -- four weeks before Christmas and eight weeks after Christmas.

For a young man still in school himself, this was quite an undertaking for $25 per month. The school was a log cabin with a dirt floor, and most of the chinking was gone from between the logs.

Teaching 34 students with almost no books sounds impossible. Most of the textbooks had come down from former generations; some were so old they contained the old style "s." With the exception of Webster's Blue Back Speller, no two books were alike.

His students were Bob, Will and Dave Stafford; Martha, Will and Clint Stanley; Sallie, Belle and Nannie Booker; Star, Ed and Charlie Higgins; Jesse and Jim Bull; Bud and Martin Highfill; John and Charlie Stuart; Elva and Sallie McKaughan; Allen, Oscar and Jasper Peedin; Walter and Fanny Nelson; Bud and Mollie Huffines; Matt, Will and Vanny Rayle; Will Crutchfield; Tom and Delaney Peek; Tom, Ida and Mattie Knight; and Minnie Hunt.

The teacher boarded about a mile and a half from the school and started on his walk to school before the sun was up.

He only missed one day of school, when the water in the creek was too high to cross. The school day didn't end until every child had had his lesson. There were no desks; the children sat on backless benches made of slabs with pegs for legs. The only "writing desk" was a smooth plank bracketed to the wall, and the door squeaked on wooden hinges.

There was a big fireplace at one end of the building, and the older students had to go out in the nearby woods and get dead trees to burn.

There was a stove at the other end of the building. Even with a fire in both, the children were probably still cold.

Ridgefield School was near where Pleasant Ridge Church now stands. John Stafford, the grandfather of Sheriff David Stafford, gave the land for the first schoolhouse at Ridgefield. Some of the teachers who preceded Whitaker were Charles Case, John C. Bunch, Albert Clark, Joel Wilson, Clay Brittain, Martin McMichael, Jesse Stanley, Mrs. P. N. Hall, Mrs. Fanny Ross, Parthenia Henley, Mary Kirkman, Mollie Owens and J.C. Lasley.

On the morning before the Christmas holidays, when the teacher arrived at school, he found the door barred! He could hear the children whispering and laughing.

When he demanded entrance, there was a loud protest from inside. He pretended great wrath and threatened dire punishment if the door was not opened at once.

He was familiar with the custom of "locking the teacher out" until a treat was promised. He had come prepared with a bucket of store candy, which he had hidden in the woods.

After he promised the children their treat, the door was promptly opened and he sent some of the students to fetch the candy. The children had to wait impatiently until noon for their treat.

Two young men came by about noon with their banjos, and after the candy was distributed, they furnished music for outdoor games.

One of the parents complained that the teacher had allowed banjo picking and dancing on the school grounds.

Whitaker was sure he was going to be fired, but when the school committeemen visited the school and listened to the children spell, read and recite, the complaint against him wasn't even mentioned, much to his relief.

At the end of the school term, public examinations were held during the day, but the program that night was given over to indoor games.

Some of the games they played were "Drop the Handkerchief" and "King William was King George's Son," with the teacher also taking part. Music furnished by two banjos and a fiddle was the highlight of the evening.

There was even a young couple from Oak Ridge there on their honeymoon.

Even though the children enjoyed the end-of-school entertainment, "locking the teacher out" and the Christmas treat was probably their favorite school memory.

Gladys Scarlette is a local historian, lifelong of Summerfield resident and author of two books about Summerfield.