The Old Log Swing

 

Recently Jane Lashier Harter, posted the above photo of the legendary "log swing" in the playground of the old school on the Facebook group, "If you grew up in Odebolt you remember". So of course, I had to try to find more information!

I ran a search for "log swing" on the newspaper archive site and this is what I found. The log swing was first placed on the playground in the fall of 1930.

- Barb (Girvan) Horak

ALL OF THE BELOW ARE FROM THE ODEBOLT CHRONICLE AT VARIOUS DATES

Thursday, October 30th, 1930
SCHOOL NOTES
Mr. Adams Gives Grade Pupils New Swing - A unique swing, like one Mr. W.P. Adams saw the children of the Philippines enjoying, has been set up for pupils of the public schools. The swing is perhaps unlike any that one has ever seen. It is a huge log suspended from a framework of steel. The pupils are truly elated over it, and are showing their gratitude to the donor by their enthusiasm.

Thursday, October 30, 1930
NEW SWING MADE FOR KIDDIES
A new swing which is decidedly unique has been provided at the new school grounds through the kindness and generosity of a friend who asked permission of the school board to install one for the pleasure of Odebolt kiddies.

The frame work of the swing is constructed of heavy galvanized pipe, very strongly braced at each corner with inch cable and to this frame work a highly polished cypress log has been hung on swiveled pipe, which allows the log to swing backward and forward end-ways. Upon this log the little tots are supposed to ride and the polished surface of the log make the feat difficult enough to put in the proper amount of kick to the entertainment.

We are not so sure that we won't slip up there some dark night and try a little ride for ourselves, and we know that the children will offer a vote of thanks to the donor for his kindheartedness. 

Thursday, April 1, 1937
W.P. Adams
Several years ago, while traveling through an island on the south seas, Mr. Adams noticed a novel swing made from a rough log suspended from a crude framework. He saw little native children playing on it and enjoying themselves to the utmost. When he returned to Iowa, he had a similar swing constructed with a steel frame and presented it to the Odebolt public school. It now stands at the southwest corner of the school grounds.

Thursday, October 31st, 1940
TEN YEARS AGO (1930) - A kind and generous friend donated a cypress log swing to be used on the local school grounds.

Thursday, November 1st, 1945
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO (1930)
A new swing has been placed on the school grounds for the children (the log swing)

Thursday, September 26th, 1946
ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN - Thursday night after school on the school ground, an accident occurred which made the students vow to be more careful. Lawrence Hoefling, a freshman, broke his arm while playing on the log swing.

Thursday, September 3rd, 1987
THIRTY YEARS AGO (September 5, 1957) - Work began last week on the new Odebolt school building. The old log swing will be removed and put on the new school playground.

MEMORIES

Jane's  post brought out a lot of comments from people that remembered the log swing.

Judy Pudenz
That log swing had to be the most dangerous swing ever. The senior boys would line up on it, standing, and got that log to swing back and forth as far as it would go.

Zola Jean Kelly
My first year in the new building was in 1st grade, which I believe was in 58/59. That log swing was moved to the new playground and I remember it well. I think it was there until I went to Arthur in 6th grade.

Charles Lashier
(Once it was moved to the new school playground) ... It was on the northwest corner of the playground just south of the elementary wing.

Jim Girvan
I remember the log swing. It was reinstalled when I was in grade school and sat at the southwest corner of the elementary wing. I think everyone knew if they walked in front of it when it was swinging it would probably kill them.

Sandi Lickteig
The log swing, terrifying especially when Kent Ogden got it going so fast that you slid back and forth with nothing to hold on to but it was always the first thing we were on. So many memories! Does anyone else remember when Bob Brower took the dare and stuck his tongue on the frozen monkey bars? I remember the teachers herded us all back into the school while someone "unstuck" him. Ouch!

Jennifer (Sellman) Shipman
I think that playground was my second home and needless to say, so close to our home. I remember that log so well. Roger Peters, Linda's brother would get us on it and get it going as fast as it could and we were scared to jump off.
..... (another post) love these old pictures and I saw so many people ride that log since it was directly across the street from our home on the corner.

Judy Frey-Hemphill
I remember when they were tearing down the old school building. My cousins Dennis & Danny McFarland and I had a lemonade stand across the street where Martha Kennedy use to live. We made enough money that we all went to Singers store and bought new bathing suits.

On moving to the new school
Bloyce Johnson
I remember volunteering to move the books from the old school library to the newer one. Quite a line up and it took us a while. Then two years? of using the bus barn for school lunches, band rehearsals, and maybe some classes, too.

OTHER CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS 
(If you have photos of the log swing, please send to our email address on the right column!)

 

Both the above photos, taken in 1932, are courtesy of Joan (Lundell) Paup. The bottom one is of her parents, Edmund and Lillian (Dahlstrom) Lundell.  Marvin and Edna Hultman asked Lundells to stand up for them at their wedding in Papillion, NE. Lundell's secretly got married there too and didn't tell anyone until Joan was on the way!

I found the above photo in the on-line archive of Odebolt school yearbooks. It is from 1946. If someone has this yearbook and can get a better scan, please send it to me!

 

This photo is from Mike Peterson and shows Dan Griffin and Mike on their first day of school, September 4th, 1956.
Note the school buses in the background. 

Steve Loger posted this photo, which has a development date of June, 1957.
From the right are:  Dave McDonough, Daryl Hoefling, Bruce Hokanson, Scott Bergren, Steve Loger, Myron Siebrecht, Kerm Ziegmann, Carl Moberg, Roland Schmidt & unknown on the far left.

READ ANOTHER POST ABOUT THE LOG SWING

Odebolt School History

Added history from the 1916 school yearbook to the School History page on the Odebolt History Pages

Rural School article

Iowa Rural Schools Museum, located in Heritage Square in Odebolt, was featured in the August 2017 issue of Family Living Magazine.

Click here to read it.

The First Appearance of Blarney Stones in Odebolt?

from the Digital Archives of the Odebolt Public Library and the Odebolt Historical Museum:

Page 2 of the June 12, 1930 issue of The Odebolt Chronicle

In January 1930 The Odebolt Chronicle sponsored a free cooking school.  It was held in the basement of First Presbyterian Church, and was so successful that the May 29, 1930 issue of The Odebolt Chronicle announced another cooking school to be held June 10 to 13.  One of the sessions would include a meat cutting demonstration, local merchants would "co-operate to a far greater extent than they did before," and planners hoped that this cooking school would be bigger and better than the January session.  Sac County Electric Co. would provide Hot Point electric cooking ranges and a General Electric refrigerator for the classes.

Odebolt merchants placed many ads in the June 5 and June 12, 1930 issues of The Odebolt Chronicle.  These ads assured readers that the lady conducting the classes, Miss Gladys Looney, recommended what the merchants were selling.  Business owners set up display booths at the cooking school.  They also provided ingredients for the cooking demonstrations and donated prizes to be given away at the close of the cooking school.

The June classes were attended by 200 to 250 people each day, and must have provided a welcome diversion during those grim days of the Great Depression.

Among the many recipes demonstrated on Wednesday, June 11, was the above recipe for Blarney Stones.  Could this have been the first appearance of these Blarney Stone cakes in Odebolt?  For some Odeboltians, they've become a St. Patrick's Day tradition.

The Old Log Swing

Photo of the Log Swing gets many responses on Facebook

[Editor]  I posted this photo on Facebook on September 17th and was surprised at the number of responses it received.  It has been viewed by 2,113 people!

The original post with the photo:  I was looking at the Odebolt History Pages and ran across this photo of "the log" from the playground at Odebolt school. The photo is from Joan (Lundell) Paup. Many of you won't recognize it, but it used to be a big deal on the playground. To the left is the OLD school, long gone, and the original high school is in the background. We used to get on it 7 or 8 at a time and the big kids would push it. If no one ever got injured by it, it was a miracle! Very dangerous, but so much fun!

Here are some comments (people's names removed).

I certainly remember this from my grade school years. That log swing was a major challenge!! Lots of fun though!

The challenge was to jump on it while it was swinging! You didn't want to miss!! AAAAHHHH the days when I could actually jump that high!

Sure, I remember the log. I also remember that occasionally kids got big slivers from it. It was really a unique playground thing.Too bad you don't still have it for historical value.

We lived across the street when I was in high school for a couple years, loved that swing.

Who could ever forget the log!

I remember it well!

Much too dangerous for today's kids.

It is a wonder that no one was killed on the log swing. I was on it one time when some bigger kids had it going high and I could hang on in fear.

Sooo dangerous and soooo exciting!!!

Dad, Class of 1940, told us of a prank he and some other kids pulled with this log swing. The Supt. back then was Mr. Coon and his daughter June, was one of his classmates. She got her Dad's keys to the school and that night, they stole a cow from Mr. Peterson's pasture next to the school, took down the log and used the cow to pull it into the school.They left the log in the hallway and locked the cow in the Principal's office overnight !!!

I attended Odebolt grade school from about 1937 to 1947 and I remember playing on the log. As I look back; it blows my mind that no one (that I know of) was ever hurt and that the school was never sued. I remember wearing my corderoy knickers and long socks; it was the style.

This thing was hazardous (incredibly fun) and I winder how many kids were maimed by it. If you sat on the end you were pinched by the bars that it swung on, and if you were walking past the end, you could be nailed by the end of the log.

It used to be a very big deal to hop on the log while it was swinging. It was pretty scary getting on as well as getting off while it was swinging. But oh so much fun!

Bonnie is not on Facebook, but sent me the following about the log swing. It includes the origin of the log!  About "The Log"

I remember that a big kid would stand at each end of the log facing each other.  While gripping the cables with their hands, they'd alternately "pump" the log with their legs.  While I was in grade school I think the original log was replaced with a new one, which was really a laminate made of boards glued together.  It was thicker than the original log and not rounded on the bottom.  We'd lie chest-down on the new log, but it was so thick that it was hard stretch our arms and legs far enough to get a good grip at the bottom.  We had to hold on for dear life as the big kids pumped.

In the September 26, 1946 School Chronicle there's an account of a student breaking his arm while playing on the swing after school.

Here's a story about the origin of the log swing:
The Odebolt Chronicle
October 30, 1930

Mr. Adams Gives Grade Pupils New Swing

A unique swing, like one Mr. W. P. Adams saw the children of the Philippines enjoying, has been set up for the pupils of the public schools.  The swing is perhaps unlike any that one has ever seen.  It is a huge log suspended from a framework of steel.  The pupils are truly elated over it, and are showing their gratitude to the donor by their enthusiasm.

Other photos of the log

The below photos are hanging in the Odebolt Community Center

READ ANOTHER POST ABOUT THE LOG SWING

Class of 1965 50th Reunion

The Odebolt-Arthur High School Class of 1965 held its 50th class reunion during the 2015 Creek Days weekend.  They rode in the parade Saturday afternoon (June 20) and held their reunion that evening at Prairie Pedlar Gardens.  (Click the photos to enlarge them.)

Old Photo

This circa 1905 photo is my grandmother, Hulda Meyer, with her students. Her parents were Frederich Meyer & Sophia (Frevert) Meyer of Odebolt.  She was born in 1885 and went to Charles City College, later moving to California where she married in 1909.

I would like to know if anyone in Odebolt might recognize the students as their grandparents or relatives or possibly the schoolroom setting from other photos. 
I RETAIN ALL COPYRIGHT PRIVILEGES.   - Stanley Wiemeyer

Please leave your comments below or email

A 128 Year Old School House Takes a Journey

From KMEG - Odebolt Schoolhouse to teach Again

One room school houses helped teach rural America, and now one near Odebolt, Iowa is getting a second chance to do just that.

If you look around Iowa's country side, you'll probably see quite a few old one room school houses.

Many of them are falling apart, but one is being rescued and getting the chance to teach again.

"All those stories your grandfathers were saying are true," says Carol Raasch, owner of a one-room school house that was being moved to Odebolt, Iowa on Tuesday.

OUTDATED LINK ... READ THE FULL STORY from KMEG


From KTIV - Old School house finds new life in Odebolt 

ODEBOLT, Iowa (KTIV) -
The small town of Odebolt, Iowa saw a big move in their downtown Tuesday.
"I think it's awesome! I think it's great, I mean this is history," said Brenda Manmiller.
"Oh this is wonderful," said Elaine Gunderson.
That was the reaction when folks saw the old Richland Township schoolhouse being trucked to its new location.


OUTDATED LINK: READ THE FULL STORY from KTIV

Class of 1956 Reunion

The Chronicle, Vol. 120, No. 28, July 14, 2011

ODEBOLT HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1956 celebrated their 55th reunion on June 17 and 18.  They met Saturday morning for a pancake breakfast, toured the old Odebolt State Bank building being renovated by Curt Wareham and rode on a float in the afternoon Creek Days parade. 

The reunion dinner was held Saturday night at the DownTown Cafe, where they were treated to a wonderful dinner and spent time reminiscing.

They honored class members who have passed away:  Sharon Fineran, Bob Girvan, Carol Herrig, Dorothy Hummel, Howard Purdy, Lloyd Roeder, Jim Waldemar and Russ West.

Those attending the reunion were:  Claudia Flogstad Olson, Freida Miller Stehr, John Danielson, Dick Hanson, Calvin Sewell, Marlene Lundell West, Deann Vaughn Kaspersen, Shirley Rohlf, Joan Thies Lund, Bob Gardner, Jim Buehler, Ellen Dresselhuis, Donna Buehler Demay, Patricia Brucker Hollander and Judy McDonough Haggard.

Class of 1966 45th Reunion

From the on-line edition of www.idacountycourier.com

Odebolt-Arthur HS Class of 1966 - 45th Reunion 
(click image to enlarge)

 

Richland #1

Click the photo to enlarge it. 

(Photo courtesy of Sandy Kessler Host) 
Richland #1 Country School - Class of 1945-46, Vilma Rehm, teacher
Foot, Bicycle, and Pony Transportation:
Back row: Margaret Einsphar, Joan Siebrecht, Elaine Miller, Calvin Sewell, James Buehler.
Front row: Genevieve Raasch, Donna Sewell, Patty Brucker, Helen Kessler.
Bicycles: Lois Kessler, Ruth Kessler, Howard Einsphar.
Ponies: James Sewell, Jim Meyer, Robert Siebrecht, Edward Brown, Paul Miller