This week in History’s Attic

Depression Era school dormitories. Tough Times call for tough choices, when living 15 or so miles or less from High school in the 30s, there had to be choices made if you could go to school. Colome provided dormitories for the students – one downtown for the boys and one for the girls in the old Tripp hotel. I am sure a nominal fee was charged or you worked for your room and board.

Most families only had one car and the dorm kids were lucky to go home on the weekends. My own mother lived with a family in Gregory. Her mother had died while she was in high school so she had to go home on the weekends and do the laundry for her brothers and cook. She said her dad would drive in with the old farm truck and pick her up on Friday (which I am sure they were glad for a decent meal after batching all week). Many families had the same problem, so I am sure they were happy a couple mouths less to feed during the week, and their kids still got an education. The dorms to me did look like one big fire trap so I would guess there was that fear to. But times were different and they got by and still kept the high school program alive.

The photos shown are dated 1938 so it was still tough times, ’36 and ’37 were very dry and bad years on the Rosebud country. One lady on a cooking show I watch on Depression cooking stated she could not go to high school as the family could not afford her socks to go. Imagine in this day and age when a pair of socks could keep you out of school.

Author Richard Papousek, February 2024