Provided photo Pictured is Charlie Hettling (far left) and his six schoolmates at District 79 in November 1953.

We have been learning about Charlie Hettling, the firstborn of five children born to Agnes (Jacobson) and Floyd Hettling, and his early life on the family farm between Minneota and Taunton. As Charlie reached school age, his folks introduced him to the local country school.

“I went to District 79. My dad took me on the A John Deere my first time. It was my introduction the spring before I started. I sat between his legs and I thought I was really something because I was driving. The next year I was going to be in the 1st grade, so I went to the last day of school.”

Charlie learned that the last day of school at District 79 was a big deal.

“The teacher took us up a quarter mile to the river and she took us fishing. The neighbor brought hot dogs and ketchup at noon and we built a bonfire to roast them. She was out there with us to supervise building that little bonfire to roast our wieners; showing us how to do it; and putting a blanket down for the ketchup and hot dog buns. The neighbor lived a quarter mile away and it was in his pasture, so he’d drive his pickup out with the stuff. About a half hour later he brought out ice cream. When we were done, he came back, picked up the empty bottles, and picked up other stuff that was out. Then we walked back with our fishing poles and our little pail with whatever we caught, which wasn’t much. That’s how I got interested in fishing.”

Charlie’s first country school experience left a huge impression on him.

“I went home and I remember telling Mom and Dad, ‘I know I am going to love school because all we do is roast hot dogs, drink pop, and eat ice cream! Boy, that’s going to be fun!’ (Charlie laughed)

He described where District 79 was located from the Hettling farm and how he got to school.

“It was half a mile straight west. Sometimes the weather would be bad (snowing) and Mom would say, ‘Walk along the fenceline. You don’t want to get lost.’ They didn’t want me walking along the road in case cars came by and hit you, so she said, ‘Walk in the ditch, but walk along the fenceline and follow the fence. You’ll come out right by the school.’ So, I always walked in the ditch and walked along the fence.”

Charlie described the school yard and the students’ favorite recess activity.

“It had a girls’ outhouse and a boys’ outhouse. The teacher had a little shed outside where she would get coal for the stove inside. It also had a little place for softball. It wasn’t really a diamond, but we had stuff for bases. There weren’t enough kids for teams so some of the littler kids would be on one team and one or two older ones would be on the other team. There’d probably only be two of them, but there’d be five of us little ones. The teacher pitched and umpired for us. Once you’d get three out, then the other team would come up and she’d pitch for them and umpire and we’d try to get the other two out. It was a little unfair, but they were older, so they could always do better than us when we were little.”

He also described the school itself, beginning with the entryway.

“It was one room. It had a library (shelves) on both sides and one side had a little hand pump to the cistern to pump water (for hand washing). In the back we had a water cooler and a dipper for drinking water. We had teacher’s desk and the stove up front. She had to go in the morning and start up the stove before we got there.”

Charlie recalled his teacher with great fondness and shared what he knew of earlier District 79 teachers.

“I had the same teacher, Mrs. Kosmalski, for the five years I was there. She was married, lived in Taunton, and she’d come out to teach. Earlier, the teachers used to live at our place because we were a half mile away and had an indoor bathroom. So, when my grandpa had it in the ’30s, the teacher would live there. Often, they only taught for a few years because they got married.”

He explained that District 79 seldom had a large student population.

“Maybe seven in the whole first through eighth grades. Sometimes it would be more. They had maybe 12 desks in there. One time a new family came with six kids and we got full. I was in third grade and I had to share a seat with Beverly because there weren’t enough empty seats. Otherwise, there were always plenty of seats. It was grades one through eight and then you had to go to town school.”

Charlie described the lunch routine at District 79.

“You brought your own in a dinner pail and set them on a little bench. Then at dinner time if it was nice outside, you sat out on the front step to have your lunch. Otherwise, in the winter time you took it to your desk. Usually, it was a thermos with soup, a sandwich, and an apple. Maybe it’d have a bar or a piece of cake. That’d be our lunch.”

Mrs. Kosmalski prepared lessons for each grade with students. She also organized lessons and activities that involved all the students.

©2026 William D. Palmer.