'Old Farmin' held a special place in community's heart

By BOB GUNTER

(Before his death, L.G. “Bud” Moon expressed the sentiments of a great number of Bonner County residents when he said in an interview: “It was a sad day when they tore it down.”

As Bud shared his thoughts, it was evident that the school he called, “Old Farmin,” was to him more than a building made of bricks and wood. It was an honored place in which friends, teachers, families, and a community would together build a lifetime of memories. Below, in his own words, Bud shares with you his recollections of “Old Farmin.”)

“I went to the old Farmin school down where the bank is now in town. The Farmin School was three stories and it had a gymnasium on the top floor. My father went through the Farmin School also. It was high school and the grade school.

“He had great stories about playing basketball in that third-floor gymnasium up there. They’d dribble the ball around and they used to delight in running the opposing team into the chimneys that were on both sides of the sidelines. If they could scrape off a guy on a chimney they could make a pass up the floor a lot easier. They finally had to quit and not hold athletic events because it was shaking the whole building apart.

“My first-grade teacher was a woman named Nell K. Irion and her husband had the local title company.

“Anyway, Nell, I should say Mrs. Irion, was the teacher and she would not tolerate left-handed kids in her class. We all got whacked with the ruler if we picked up the pencil so I now write right-handed but I can write equally well with my left hand, which is poor. Anyway, that was the teaching method in those days.

“In grade school, we all learned to read and write and we quickly learned discipline. It was mandatory that we pay attention. I remember Charlie Stidwell was the principal and he was a young man in those days and he had a very commanding appearance. The second day I was in school, the door banged open to the classroom and this huge man stood there with his arms folded, his head back, and glaring at the kids. That was Mr. Stidwell. There was no messing around as far as the kids went and if you were sent out in the hall for being disruptive, you were in trouble. In the class, you quaked in your boots because if Charlie, Mr. Stidwell, came down the stairs it was like that was the end of the world. On his bookcase in his office, the principal’s office, he had a rubber hose and everybody knew that if you were bad he would get the rubber hose out and give you a whipping. The funny thing was that after you got to be an adult, and you got to know Charlie Stidwell, you knew that hose never came out of the bookcase.

“He was quite a guy. In fact, Charlie’s reign included two of my daughters in junior high school. When Charlie would come into a group meeting, or a dance or something like that, he would hold up his fingers like they do in the Boy Scouts. He wouldn’t say a word, he’d just hold his fingers up and everybody immediately quit talking. I think they need more Charlie Stidwells in the schools these days. Anyway, he was a magnificent fellow.

“Charlie was also involved in the Boy Scouts. He had Troop 1 and he was one man that really participated. They used to go on hikes, did campouts, and that sort of thing. In retrospect, we did have a lot of fun but we had a lot of discipline. I don’t think the discipline inhibited us in any way and it didn’t warp our little personalities. We got along just fine and we certainly knew right from wrong.

“At Old Farmin, we used to have recesses and they had swings and giant slides and I remember one time swinging really high like everybody tried to do and then bail out. I’d waited until it was too high and I remember coming down and spread-eagling on the ground. It took me about two minutes to get my breath back; I never did that again.

“It was great fun.

“It was a sad day when they tore it down (Farmin School) because that was home to all of us kids during the school year. It was a massive building and they had a hard time tearing it down.”