I will add them here
My father's teacher in the 8th grade was Anthony Mulder. My father said he was a teacher who believed that applying the rod to the “seat of learning”, if necessary, could build character. He was known to go outdoors at recess time the first day of school and select a sturdy willow branch. He took his knife, cut it to length and removed the bark. The word soon spread among the students that the teacher was making a “licking” stick. When he was finished, he laid it across the front of his desk. He rarely had to use it in Borculo School.
My father graduated from the 8th grade in 1921.
When my mother was a student at the smaller Corwin school in Blendon, she had to come to the Borculo School to take her 8th grade exam. She had to stay overnight after the first day with a host family in Borculo. My mother passed her test and graduated from the 8th grade at the age of 12. She had skipped kindergarten and the 3rd grade.
The 8th grade was the end of my parents formal education. The rest of their education they said came from the “School of Hard Knocks” or “a level of wisdom and knowledge acquired from life's experiences”.
My parents were Albert and Rena.
We lived on Port Sheldon West of 96th.
I attended this school from 1946 through 1951. I never made itto the 'big' room of Mr. Plasman. We moved to Zeeland.
Fond Memory: The hot lunch program. The cooks and servers all liked me because I always asked for BIG portions. I liked everything they served!! All except the Luke warm milk. I hated milk.
Daughter of Harry and Jenny Petroelje
Lived on Port Sheldon Dr. about 1 1/2 miles east of the school.
Attended Borculo school from K-8th grade starting in 1945
Some of my best memories are playing on the playground during recess time and noon hour, especially playing on the merry-go-round and the giant strides.
Since my Aunt Anna De Groot Walters and cousin Henrietta Walters were the cooks, it was always special for me to go downstairs to see them while they were preparing food. And it was always fun to see Aunt Anna spread another slice of bread with lots of peanut butter. All the food always tasted good because I was always so hungry at lunch time.
Son of Martin and Delia
Lived nearly 1/2 south of Port Sheldon Dr. on 96th Ave.
Attended BPS from 1941 to 1950
I started kindergarten in Borculo School in September of 1941. I walked to school that morning as did the rest of the students at that time. Mrs. DeRoos was the teacher of the primary room at that time. The school desks were all new.
On that first day of school Mrs. DeRoos read a story to the class that I had never heard before. It was about the 3 pigs and the big bad wolf. The first pig built a house of straw, the second a house of sticks, and the wolf huffed and puffed and blew these houses down. The third pig built a house of brick. I could identify with him as we also lived in a brick house in Borculo. When I got home from school that day I remember telling my parents the story in great detail. There was a lot of huffing and puffing especially when the wolf got to the brick house. You know how the story ended.
Every morning Mrs. DeRoos would read a Bible story to us. Many of these stories I had heard before. One day she read the story of the parable of the Good Samaritan. She told us to listen carefully as some from the classroom were going to act out the story later in front of the classroom. After the story was read she asked for volunteers for the characters in the story. Many of the boys wanted to be robbers.
As the drama began, the traveler walks slowly across the front of the classroom. Two boys who volunteered to be the robbers came running up to the traveler, tackled him, and he landed flat on the floor. “Stop! Stop!” said Mrs. DeRoos, “We don't want anyone to get hurt.” The robbers got off the traveler and left him lying on the floor. Next a priest and the Levite walked by. They each stopped, looked and then walked away. Finally the Good Samaritan comes by. He stops and gets down on the floor and helps the kid up from the floor. Most of you know the rest of the story and its meaning. This was one of the ways the teachers of Borculo School taught Christian ideals as part of the education we received there.
Don VandenBosch
Parents: George and Carrie
Lived 1/2 mile west of Borculo
Attended BPS 1945 to 1954
Borculo Public School wasn't too strong on the fine arts, nor was I. My first week of school my teacher Mrs. DeRoos asked me (and the rest of the class) to draw a bat and a ball. I don't recall that at our house we ever had paper and pencil available nor did we have a bat and ball, so she didn't know what miraculous feat she was asking of me, so I cried. I do remember in a later grade that a group visited our school to teach us some fine art. I assume it a college class practicing on us or perhaps it a government program to draw us country bumpkins out of our oblivion. They did make an impression on me. We were taught to draw a scene with a mountain on the right and one on the left with a stream meandering between the mountains and flowing past a cabin in the foreground. Other than coloring the outline of the head of Abe Lincoln, that was the extent of my art education and I haven't progressed from there.
Music was a strong suite at BPS. We would sing a few mornings a week with a precocious girl playing the piano and we with our hymbooks. There too a government intervention happened. This time the college age adults taught us “My hat it has three corners. Three corners has my hat. And had it not three corners, it would not be my hat.” With that our music education was advanced. Before I leave the subject of music I should mention that it was decided by the school board that “She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes” was an inappropriate song and would lead us astray.
To be fair I must say that we did have a music teacher when I was in the 5th grade. She was not well received by the students and I recall some students stuffing packed snowballs up her car's exhaust pipe.
Memories of Our Annual Trip to Detroit and Briggs Stadium by Robert Essenburg (personal informaton given earlier in this blog)
Every spring, grades 5 through 8 looked forward to watching the Detroit Tigers play baseball. Some of us kids were already listening on the radio to Harry Hielman's play by play on the radio. We listened to these games during the week. Listening to Tiger games on Sunday was strictly forbidden in Borculo in those days!
We would travel by car with an adult driver and 5 students. We all took along a good lunch which we ate at a stop near Lansing. We then headed for the parking lots in downtown Detroit near Briggs Stadium. Walking up the ramps into the stadium for the first time was an amazing sight as the ball diamond was lit up with sun's rays overhead.
Some of our favorite Tiger players in those days were George Kell, Hal Newhouser, Johnny Groth, Hoot Evers, and Dizzy Trout. One year the score was tied up in the 9th inning and we watched 4 more innings until Detroit finally won. After the game was over, we headed back home, stopping for our supper at Ralph's Cafeteria in Lansing.
Jay Zuverink 1961
My parents, Gerrit and Minnie Zuverink lived at 5845 84th Ave.
We are going to miss the reunion, Don. Thanks for the invitation, hope you have a great turnout. My memories of Borculo School involve lots of disciplinary action of which I was the deserving target. LOL
Son of George and Carrie
Lived ½ mile west of Borculo
Attended BPS 1945-1954
Somewhere around the year 1952 Meyer Music House in Holland convinced the School Board that Borculo School or the Borculo community should once again have a band. Each of the students whose parents agreed to participate was fitted for an instrument. I decided the instrument for me was the trombone. My cousin, Jerry Koop, who was a year older than me chose the saxophone. We would be given assignments and once a week were driven to Meyer Music House by our parents for a lesson.
One day as Jerry and I were ostensibly practicing our instruments upstairs at Jer's house which was attached to Koops Store, we in our wisdom decided it would cool to blow smoke through our horns. Jer had access to cigarettes from the store, so that is what we did, we filled our lungs with smoke and expelled the smoke through our horns. It was a rather fun experience.
The next day I took my trombone, which by the way my parents were renting from Meyer Music House, and put it to my lips, but the smell of that horn was as disgusting as old cigarette butts and the smell would not go away. I convinced my parents that the trombone was not something I wanted, so it was returned and my weekly lessons were done. With that my future illustrious career in a band vanished never to be resurrected.
There never was a band that formed because of Meyer's 1952 efforts as far as I know.
Technology at Borculo Tech by RobertEssenburg
When I attended Borculo School, there were no laptop computers, cell phones, or calculators. Television was still in its infancy stages and we did not have one at school.
One bit of technology we did have was a 16mm movie projector. About once a week, Mr. Plasman would get an educational film from a film library and would show it to our classes.
The movies included movies dealing with the U.S. History like Williamsburg, Virginia or films about the National Parks and many other topics.
We were also able to view movies each year from the West Michigan Soil Conservation District. One evening at our school, they would show movies to our parents about conserving the soils on the farms in our district. In order to get the fathers to come out to the meeting, they would include movies like Abbott and Costello for us kids. We would make sure our fathers would take along for the evening.
The first television sets started to come to market in 1948, when I was in the 6th grade. At the time, 1% of all homes in the U.S. Owned a T.V. Set. Six years later in 1954, that percentage had risen to 55%. The World Series game was first televised in 1947. Mr. Plasman bought a TV set to school one October day, so we could watch a World Series game on TV.
Memories of the Train Trip to Chicago
When I was in Mrs. Plasman's class in the 5th grade, the students in grades 5 through 8 were given the opportunity to take a trip from Holland to Chicago. The cost for the trip was $4.40 and 50 students left on this trip on April 11, 1947 along with a number of parents as chaperons.
It was an exciting trip as most of us had never ridden on a passenger train before. Once we arrived at the Chicago train station, we took buses to our destination. We visited the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Soldiers Field. Visiting these places was an educational experience. Riding the rails through Chicago took us through some of the poorest areas of the city. There were miles of tenement houses as we looked out of the train windows. After arriving home that night, I was glad to be back living in the wide open spaces of Borculo.
On a very warm day in 1951, when I was in Mrs. Plasman's room in the 5th grade, our 5th grade class was seated in two rows on the south side of the classroom. Also on the south side of the classroom was a fire exit which after the noon hour was now open because of the heat. As we were all seated, my long-haired, blond, best friend Sandy meandering through that door and came to sit under my desk. She was one of many cocker spaniels who were special in my life. She was also the dog who accompanied me on a bike trip to the “dump” on Blair Street. This is when we lived on 96th Ave across from the feed-mill. At supper time I rode home, but Sandy was no longer with me. After supper I retraced my bike ride and when I neared the dump a dog quickly came out of the ditch growling but then was happy to see it was me. My ball glove had fallen off the handlebars of my bike and she had stayed there to guard the ball glove!
Memories of Nature Hikes at School by Robert Essenburg
Some of my best memories came from Borculo School activities outside of the classroom. I remember the nature trip we took with Mrs. Plasman and the 3rd grade class in the fall of 1945. We started out on our walk going west on Port Sheldon Street. We crossed 96th Avenue walking westward on this street until we arrived at 100th Avenue.
At the northwest corner was located an old abandoned farmhouse. We called this place the haunted house as many of the windows had fallen out. We walked up to the house and looked around. Peering into the windows would remind you of the gospel song “This Ole House” written later by Stewart Hamblen. I often wondered who lived here in this house in the early days of Borculo.
In my research I came up with one family who bought the farm in 1889 and lived in this house for a number of years. It was an immigrant family from the Netherlands named Hiemenga. They had a son John Hiemenga who attended the Borculo School at this time. After he graduated from the 8th grade he continued his education until he graduated from Calvin Seminary and became a CRC minister. He later accepted the position of being the 1st president of Calvin College in 1919 and served in this position for 5 years.
In 1946, Don VandenBosch's family purchased this 40 acre farm and replaced the haunted house with a new one.
Don VandenBosch
This is a memory which will need some older BPS alumni to fill in the details. I recall going from house to house with some older friends pulling a Red Flyer wagon collecting newpapers and bringing them to the schoolhouse, and another similar event collecting milkweed pods. I suspect this happened even before I began attending BPS because it was my impression that what we were doing was in some way war related. However I did not begin school until September of 1945, about the same time as WWII ended. Another vague memory was of going from house to house selling “Christmas Seals.” I would appreciate someone filling in the details of what we were really doing.
Today I received a letter from Bob Essenburg answering my question about the milkweed pod collecting we did. Thank you! Here is Bob's response:
Collecting Milkweed Pods During the War Years
When I started Kindergarten in 1941, it was also the year that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Soon our lives changed as we faced WWII. There were soon shortages of food, gasoline, rubber, and products made out of steel. There were also a few years when we had a national speed limit of 35 miles per hour.
At this time all of our military life jackets and flight suits were filled with the flossy fiber from the kapok tree grown in the east Indies. As the war continued, the Japanese captured and occupied this area cutting off this important resource needed to make life jackets.
Fortunately for our country someone discovered the qualities of the floss found in the pods of the lowly milkweed pod were a perfect substitute for the kapok fiber from the East Indies. The problem was that the pods were much more labor intensive to harvest. The weeds could be found anywhere along ditches or in open fields.
There was an immediate effort in our country to recruit school children to help in harvesting milkweed pods. The children of Borculo were also willing to participate in this effort.
In the fall of 1944, when I was in the third grade, an all out effort was made to gather milkweed pods. We sometimes did that by the classroom with a teacher, but also if we wanted to do this on our own. We collected these into open mesh onion bags. These bags helped the drying process because air could circulate through the bag. We would let them dry awhile and then the bags were sent to a processing plant in Petosky, MI where the flossy fiber was removed from the pods and separated from the seeds.
Two pounds of this fiber would fill one adult life preserver. It is estimated that 11 million pounds of fiber were harvested one year. Thankfully the war ended in 1945 and later kapok fibers were again available from the East Indies.
Don VandenBosch
Each year our class or more likely all three grades in the room we were in would go on a field trip. One such memorable trip was to a cereal factory in Battle Creek. Although the factory tour was interesting, that isn't the thing I remember. It was a very warm sunny day and most of the students were already on the bus preparing to return home. Because of the heat all the windows were open. It was at that time a vendor came next to the bus and sold me through the window a frozen treat which was new to me and so good that I can still picture it and taste it. It was a dreamsicle, vanilla ice cream on a stick with an orange coating.
Another trip which is vivid in my mind was a trip to Muller's Bakery on 28th Street in Grand Rapids. In this case the vastness and the efficiency of the production of bread and donuts made a great impression. But at the end of the tour we were each given a still warm powdered sugar covered donut which was so fresh it still had that little crunch of a freshly fried pastry. I am still addicted to donuts!
On still another year we were to visit the Tulip Time Festival in Holland, MI. I was always a bit miffed that that festival was so near and yet I had never seen it. So this was a highly anticipated event to me. The day finally arrived but it was cold and wet. I believe we did go, but the parade was called off and I returned home cold, wet, and greatly disappointed.
On one of our excursions as we were riding home, I was seated near the front of the bus and I made a request of the bus driver. The request I no longer remember, but I know in trying to convince him I made reference to a previous driver who had done the same thing. Later Mrs. Plasman reprimanded me saying I may have caused the other driver to be fired. I think I worried about what I might have done for over a year!
Although the next memorable excursion was not a real field trip, but one which I often wished we would do more often. On a warm spring day near the the end of a school year Mrs. Plasman took us for a walk east of the school on Port Sheldon Dr. I recall walking past Schamper's house. As we walked she pointed out the spring flowers which were blooming along the road and in the ditch next to the road. It was a great day for me!
Memories of planting pine trees at the Borculo School Forest
by Robert Essenburg
Each year beginning in the spring of 1946 the students in Mr. Plasman's classroom would go on a tree planting expedition to the school's tree farm located 2 miles north and 2 miles west of Borculo on Polk Street. This land was given to the Borculo School Board on a lease from the West Ottawa Soil Conservation District in 1946. The purpose of the lease was to give students the opportunity to help reforest and stabilize one area of western Ottawa County where severe erosion of the light soil there had taken place in the past.
The area was experiencing the same problems as the Dust Bowl in the Southwest part of our country in the 1930's. Forests had been cleared for farm crops on soils too light for row crops. When the strong winds were blowing in the northwest corner of Olive Township people would say, “Well, we are exchanging land again today.” The West Ottawa Soil Conservation District, the first district to be organized east of the Mississippi, was formed to address and correct the erosion problem starting in 1938. The picture we have that was taken in 1946 shows the classes of 1946, 1947, and 1948 receiving instruction from Mr. Plasman as to how to go about planting the trees.
There were racks on three sides of the truck but there was no end gate on the back so some of the boys could sit there with there legs hanging out the back. One year one of the boys sitting there decided to amuse himself and others by forcing a shovel down on the concrete pavement creating quite a trail of sparks as we headed north on 96th Ave to Polk Street. By the time we arrived at our destination the shovel was now quite a bit shorter than the rest. It was a good thing Mr. Plasman never did get to see that shovel!
When we arrived at the farm the rows had already been created for us by a neighboring farmer who had plowed with a single bottom plow furrows across the field that in which we were to plant.
We had to plant the seedlings in the bottom of the furrow 6 feet apart. One person would stick the spade into the soft soil and move it back and forth so another student could place a seedling in the slit in the ground and firmly pack dirt around the plant. We moved across the field quite quickly taking quite a few rows at a time. This furrow would also collect moisture for the seedling to grow during the summer months.
I do not know how many seedlings our group would plant in one afternoon.
When we were finished we all got back on the truck and went back to school.
I remember coming back to this farm when I was in high school to help harvest Christmas trees one fall day around Thanksgiving. Some of these trees were now 7 years old and ready to sell. Most of the seedlings were scotch pine.
I do not know when Borculo school stopped planting trees here. The school owned the lease for over 30 years. By this time to soils were once again stabilized and the Conservation District sold the land to a private party.
Son of Martin and Delia
Lived nearly 1/2 south of Port Sheldon Dr. on 96th Ave.
Attended BPS from 1944 to 1953
Memories of Borculo School
In the fall of 1944 I started kindergarten. We were the first class to only have to attend school half days.
Some memories of the school building include the 4-H room in the basement. In our third year of 4-H and getting tired of the simple projects in our 4-H craft books, some of my classmates decided we wanted a challenge. One of our group discovered that we could build a full size cedar chest by ordering a solid cedar kit that we could then assemble and finish. Some years later I gave the cedar chest to my wife Marilyn as a gift. She has used it in our home in Ann Arbor MI for the last fifty years.
I remember playing on the school's softball team when I was in Mr. Plasman's room. We played a number of neighboring rural schools in the area after school. Usually we would take two cars for the trip, but one day we did not have a second car available. Mr. Plasman said we would all have to squeeze into his car. That meant four in the front seat, four in the rear seat, and three seated in the trunk. We left for the game with the trunk lid held open with a ball bat!
When I was in the eighth grade I was getting tired of climbing the twenty foot rise over the Borculo Hill twice a day with a single speed bike. One day while traveling through the city of Holland, I saw a used Whizzer motor bike for sale. We stopped and I decided to buy it. It was then able to propel me over the hill when the weather was good. The bike could give you a thrill traveling over forty miles an hour riding without a helmet. There were three kids in my class who also thought the Whizzer was a pretty cool bike and also purchased one that year.
Son of Martin and Delia
Lived nearly one-half mile south of Port Sheldon Drive on 96th Avenue
Attended Borculo Public School from 1942 to 1951
Memories of Borculo School
I started kindergarten in 1942, during the Second World War. Our neighbor, Adrian Geurink, who was in the big room, often walked us to school. Sometimes he acted like a sergeant and barked out, “Hut 2 3 4, Hut 2 3 4,” as we marched over the hill. At Port Sheldon Drive we met other students and disbanded as a group. But we kept up a good pace.
The little room always seemed crowded. Occasionally Mrs. De Roos, the teacher for the lower grades, asked me to help other students learn their nursery rhymes.
In the middle room Mrs. Poppema, who mainly taught third grade but taught music in other grades as well, organized some of us into a choir. We were invited to sing at Overisel Reformed Church (Mr. and Mrs. Plasman’s church) and Beechwood Reformed Church (Mrs. Poppema’s church). It seemed different to sit in the choir loft behind the pulpit and face the audience! I always remembered that Mrs. Poppema said: “You may want to sing loudly, but it’s more important to sing sweetly!”
I especially enjoyed sitting at the feet of Mr. and Mrs. Plasman. Both of them were firm yet kind in their dealings with students. Spending five years under two teachers is rather unusual nowadays. Yet under the Plasmans (as well as the other teachers) we received a solid basic education. Indeed, if I had had the opportunity to nominate a Teacher of the Year, it would have been Mr. Plasman! He and his wife were people of great honesty and integrity, and were both clear and methodical in their teaching.
During eighth grade Mr. Plasman asked me to be the starting pitcher for the softball team. I did not pitch windmill as many other pitchers did, but I had a a left-handed screwball that baffled many hitters. Anyway, we did have some powerhouse hitters, and we did go undefeated until the last games, winning over schools like Harrington, Federal, and Allendale Christian. In that final, championship game I was very cold because of the weather, so I had a hard time finding the strike zone. Before long I asked to be replaced by a relief pitcher. We lost that game to New Groningen. If I found any consolation that field day, it was receiving a red ribbon for being second in the softball throw.
All in all, my education at Borculo School was a good experience and great preparation for future learning, life, and labor.