I debated whether even to post this photo. It has only a tenuous connection to family history, and I can’t identify anyone in it. In the end, I decided to post it because it reveals something about Mom and something about the era in which she attended high school.

Mom’s caption for this photo is simply, “High School Friends.” The photo appears to have been taken near the high school in Lebanon. Since Mom is not in the photo, I’m guessing she must have taken it.

It’s an interesting group of young women, just judging from appearances. They seem to be drawn from different social classes. It’s interesting that Mom had friends across the spectrum that seems to be represented here.

The other interesting thing is the style of clothes worn by high school girls in the late 1920s.

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Since we’re on the topic of high school… Lebanon Union High School was a bit over four miles from the farm in Tallman. Mom wrote about their transportation:

My brother and I had to decide on transportation to Lebanon for High School. First we went with a neighbor girl. Then we took the puddle jumper, a one-car train which was more like a street car. Upon arriving, we had to walk across Lebanon from the depot to the High School. The train schedule was early in the morning. We would get to school before the teachers. The last year my brother drove the family car. He was sixteen then. (Why didn’t I learn to drive?)

It seems as though Mom is mistaken about Uncle Barney’s age during their last year of high school. They graduated in 1928 and Uncle Barney didn’t turn 16 until July of that year. I don’t doubt that he drove them, and did so legally. But the laws at that time must have been such that he could do so at age 15. (I think even today a 15 year old can get a restricted driver’s license that allows for driving only to and from school or something similar.)

I’ll conclude with a photo of the high school building as it appeared when Mom and Uncle Barney attended there. Found on Wikipedia, this is a scan of a photo postcard apparently carrying a date of 1906. That may be what was printed on the postcard, but it cannot be correct because the building wasn’t built until 1909. Regardless, the photo was probably taken when the building was fairly new. It was 15 years old when Mom and Uncle Barney started high school there. It was not significantly changed until 1947, but was much modified over the years after that. The building was demolished in 2002. The site is now home to the Lebanon Public Library.