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March 2014 Tassajara One-Room Schoolhouse: 125 Years Young By Jody Morgan
Serving Alamo and Diablo
The Tassajara One-Room Schoolhouse (the Schoolhouse) at 1650 Finley Road in Danville welcomes students Monday-Friday from January to June much as it did 125 years ago. Unlike the pupils who entered the building in 1889 ranging from first to eighth grade, children who come today are all third graders. Each class arrives in costume to experience old-fashioned education for a single day. On January 12, 1889, when the first Tassajara Grammar School was deemed too small, voters unanimously approved issuing bonds in the amount of $1,700 to build and furnish the present structure. The contract for construction went to J.L. Weilbye who completed the project in time for 41 students to study in the Schoolhouse that August. Roger Podva, a first grader in 1890, recalled students sitting two to a desk with
Recent rains have greened up the foothills of Mt. Diablo which provides a perfect opportunity for the Monta Vista High School Mountain Bike Club to get out and train.
Cake4Kids By Fran Miller
Docent Betty Casey explains 1888 school rules.
as many as 75 pupils attending at one time. During peak seasons, the children of migrant farm workers joined those regularly enrolled. Children walked, rode horseback, or arrived in horse-drawn buggies. Enrollment dwindled to 16 before the Schoolhouse closed in 1946. Parents believed their children would receive a better educational experience by transferring to the larger Danville system. Gordon Rasmussen, a sixth grader in 1946, was quoted in a 1972 Contra Costa Times article: “It was like hitting you with both barrels. In 1946 I had one other kid in my class, but then all of a sudden the next year there were 40.” Nancy Rasmussen Ramsey was the only student in her grade level. Her family lived at least three miles away, but no matter what the weather, the four Rasmussen children rode their bicycles to school. Nancy recalls that she always dreamed of arriving first, but as the youngest with the smallest cycle, she always came last. Games at recess had to accommodate the abilities of all the different age levels. The children made forts in the grass when it grew tall. Nancy can still smell the strong soap they used to wash their hands. The primitive privies, one for boys and one for girls, were not a hardship. Most of the children had outdoor plumbing at home. “Tassajara” sounds Spanish, but the word comes from a Native Californian word meaning “where the meat was hung to dry.” Although they initially tried farming, the Danish and Portuguese families who settled the area soon turned to cattle ranching. The Rasmussen property also had walnut trees. During the
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Just as Valentine’s Day and chocolates go together, and July 4 th goes with fireworks, so do birthdays and cake. Some may argue that a birthday isn’t properly celebrated unless a cake makes an appearance. But what if a birthday takes place while one is seeking refuge in a crisis center, or is in the care of harried foster parents, or is at a shelter or group home where baking is the last thing on anyone’s mind? Enter Cake4Kids, a unique Bay Area organization whose volunteers aim to fill the birthday cake void for disadvantaged and at-risk children and youth. Cake4Kids volunteers bake and decorate cakes in their home kitchens for delivery to at-risk youth, ages one to 21. Serving A Cakes4Kids volunteer baker adds the a wide variety of Bay Area agencies, finishing touches to a birthday cake that will be delivered to a child in need. the Cake4Kids’ mission is to help one child at a time feel good about his or her self at least one day each year. “We are serving children who, due to extreme Volume XIV - Number 3 3000F Danville Blvd. #117, circumstances, are often forgotten on Alamo, CA 94507 their birthdays,” says Cake4Kids board Telephone (925) 405-NEWS, 405-6397 member and acting executive director Fax (925) 406-0547 Julie Eades. “We know that that these Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher children are receiving basic essentials Editor@yourmonthlypaper.com and support from the wonderful agenSharon Burke ~ Writer cies we serve, and we strive to provide sburke@yourmonthlypaper.com opinions expressed herein belong to the writers, and do a little something more. Making and The not necessarily reflect that of Alamo Today. Alamo Today delivering a cake is such a simple act is not responsible for the content of any of the advertising
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herein, nor does publication imply endorsement.