Wachob, Stack remember their days at Johns Creek School

By Rose Hooper

Both Lenior Nicholson Stack, left, and Irene Potts Wachob, began their teaching careers together at Johns Creek School in the Caney Fork community. The two talked about their teaching careers during a recent program sponsored by the Caney Fork Community Development Club. - Herald photo by Rose Hooper

"We never thought anything about it... they just used them for whittling... we never considered them dangerous weapons," said Stack, who started teaching at Johns Creek School in 1933.

"No, knives were never a problem, but now guns, that was a different thing," said Wachob, who began her teaching career with Stack.

"I remember the Cullowhee senior class trip of 1964 when we were coming back home on the bus after visiting Washington, D.C. All the girls were trying to sleep and a couple of the boys kept squirting them in the face with squirt guns.

"I told the boys just to wait until we got back home and we'd have a big squirt gun fight, but they didn't listen to me. Soon as the girls dozed off again, those boys squirted them in the face," said Wachob, who marched down the bus aisle and confiscated the squirt guns.

"I told those boys I'd keep their guns until the time was right and then I'd give them back. It's been 37 years, so I guess the time is right," she said, pulling a squirt gun from her jacket pocket.

Wachob presented the plastic weapon to Bonnie Stephens, wife of Ron Stephens, one of the infamous "pistol squirters" of the class of 1964. "Give this to your grandkids," Wachob told Bonnie, "so they can squirt their grandpa."

Johns Creek School

The event was an evening of reminiscing with Stack and Wachob about their teaching days at Johns Creek. That first year of teaching, before she received her certificate, Stack could not be paid cash. Instead, her salary was material to make dresses. But she quickly advanced to the salary of $55 a month, while Wachob, with a more advanced certificate, was paid $60 a month.

"As part of our salary, we had to visit 10 families a month," the two teachers said. With no vehicles of their own, that meant a lot of walking the mountain roads.

"We found a short cut by taking off our shoes and wading the creek," the two ladies said.

The oldest student in each family was responsible for "lunch," generally bringing all the children's lunch in one container. Lard buckets were quite popular. Inside you could find cold cornbread or biscuits and sweet potatoes. The teachers recalled having lunch by the creek bank when the weather was just right.

Lunch was a relaxing time with all the children in the family getting together. Now lunches in school cafeterias seem to be stressful, with one eye on the clock and a warning finger held to the lips for quietness, they say.

Even though it did not have a cafeteria during their tenure, Johns Creek School was one of the nicest schools in the county, the teachers said. "We had a big auditorium in the center, with classrooms on either side. And we had indoor plumbing, long before other schools," they said.

Wachob, who taught third grade, recalled many of the plays and activities that took place in that auditorium. "Every Friday we'd have poems and recitations and a program called Œsociety,'" said Wachob, who stood up and recited a poem she remembered Alma Phillips Henson composing.

Stack, who taught Latin, was proud of the fundamentals she drilled into her students. "When they went on to high school, the teachers at Cullowhee bragged on what good training they had."

Stack also played basketball with the girl's team, a team she recalled was "quite good. We never had much in the way of equipment, though."

School was eight months long, with no special days off for teacher work days, presidents' birthdays or holidays. "We got off Christmas and that was about it," Wachob recalled.

Don Stephens shared his memories of the sting of Bill Smith's paddle, an instrument "the principal was not afraid to use."

Wachob and Stack agreed they didn't have many discipline problems during their time together because "parents backed you up. If a student got in trouble at school, he knew he'd get in double trouble when he got home."

Stack, who taught for 42 years, told the crowd that the problem in school today is "too much socializing and not enough teaching. I wouldn't teach this day and time because there is no control and no respect. Besides, I make as much money now sitting at home as I did when I was teaching."

Wachob said when she retired the school board wanted to put her on the substitute teacher list. "I told them, 'Don't call me; I'll call you,' but I never called."

Back to Archive: 05/24/01.