Visit the Old Schools

Carlton Mangold and Iowa State Rep. Larry Marek, D-Riverside, have the right idea. They want to designate the first weekend in June as a special day for every one-room school museum in Iowa to be open to the public. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.)

And there's a lot of them -- more than 125. It would be a great way for younger folks to turn back the clock to see what it was like in the good old days.

Carlton's focus is on Red Brick, a school built in 1873 south of Washington, Iowa.

Some of the bricks in it's construction go back to 1855 and the first one-room school in the area that had been built across the street and then torn down.

A few years ago, when the school was in much disrepair, Carlton and the Washington County Historical Society set about restoring Red Brick.

They've done a wonderful job, tuckpoing the bricks, repairing the windows, refinishing old desks, adding such fine touches as an old portable cylindrical ballot box and tin cups like those students used to drink from the common pail of water.

"You can see the dedication we've got here," says Larry.

That is obvious.

And this weekend, you can see that dedication, too.

Red Brick will be open to the public from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday (June 5-6, 2010). Admission is free.