In the following tribute to the school on Posey Run and to its teacher, Miss Eula Mick (at the left), Uncle Zeke gives us the rare treat of going back in time to a school day in the fall of 1930 on Posey Run. Miss Mick is playing a spirited game of baseball with her students of the one-room school. Miss Mick might have scored a run if only. . .
Our School
by Uncle Zeke, 1930
Miss Mick, our teacher, as a rule
Miss Mick, our teacher, as a rule
Is teaching a very successful school;
Her aim and purpose in the strife
Is to lead her pupils to a higher life.
At playtime on the school playground
The teacher and the pupils can be found;
They are hard to beat at playing ball,
Though most of them are very small.
One day the teacher, just for fun,
Knocked the ball into Posey Run;
She’d made a home run, slick as an eel,
If she hadn’t lost her wee shoe heel,
One day I went to visit her school—
Of course, I didn’t know the rule—
But I received a terrible shock
When she seated me on the old dunce block,
Of course I sat with discontent,
For I didn’t know just what she meant
Until she axed me for a speech,
Then for the doorknob I did reach.
You may search the country all around
No better teacher can be found;
She’s one of those that’s tried and true,
And knows exactly what to do.
She is very strict about her rules,
Which ought to be in all the schools;
The very things to do and say
She says and does them every day.
And if for knowledge I did lack
I’d take my books upon my back
And hike it out for Miss Mick’s school
And never more be called a fool.
Is to lead her pupils to a higher life.
At playtime on the school playground
The teacher and the pupils can be found;
They are hard to beat at playing ball,
Though most of them are very small.
One day the teacher, just for fun,
Knocked the ball into Posey Run;
She’d made a home run, slick as an eel,
If she hadn’t lost her wee shoe heel,
One day I went to visit her school—
Of course, I didn’t know the rule—
But I received a terrible shock
When she seated me on the old dunce block,
Of course I sat with discontent,
For I didn’t know just what she meant
Until she axed me for a speech,
Then for the doorknob I did reach.
You may search the country all around
No better teacher can be found;
She’s one of those that’s tried and true,
And knows exactly what to do.
She is very strict about her rules,
Which ought to be in all the schools;
The very things to do and say
She says and does them every day.
And if for knowledge I did lack
I’d take my books upon my back
And hike it out for Miss Mick’s school
And never more be called a fool.
The Mick family produced many teachers for the schools of central West Virginia. At least four teachers in the Oil Creek watershed were members of the Mick family: sisters Freeda and Eula and before them, their dad's (Albert "A. B." Mick) cousin, Lafayette "Lee." The fourth is Cleve Mick who, records show, taught at the Dumpling Run School for the 1935-36 term.
Lee Mick was born in 1865 and died in 1943. He taught at the Posey Run School in 1921-22 as well as the Orlando School. He married Jane
McCoy. Eula Mick graduated from Burnsville High School in 1926 and married a Kellar She was living in Seaforth, Ontario at last report.To the right is Lafayette "Lee" Mick with his students at the Orlando School. Opal Jeffries is the tall student in the back row with Mr Mick. To the left is Eula's sister, Freeda Mick.
Numerous entries include comments by the ever-observant "Uncle Zeke." Read about the newspaper columnist and B & O Trackman P.N. Blake of Posey Run in the Oct '06 entry Uncle Zeke From Buzzard Town and the Dec '06 entry Trouble At Uncle Zeek's House.
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