“It’s just a lot of fun reminiscing”

Published 9:19 am Monday, June 15, 2026

QUINCY — Daniel Merker remembers the fun times of attending Mounds School.

“We had a teacher (who) would go outside and play with us. She got involved with the games,” said Merker, who attended the two-room school on South 12th Street for six grades. “That was a lot of fun.”

But Merker said he and his classmates also learned a lot from that teacher.

“You had to learn,” he said. “Otherwise you got to go home and talk to your mom and dad about it.”

People who attended one- and two-room schools came together Sunday afternoon for a picnic at South Park and a chance to share some stories — and some laughs.

“It’s just a lot of fun reminiscing,” Merker said.

“You see a bunch of old friends,” said Kenny Schaffnit, a Plainville farmer who attended Linn Grove School on South 30th Street for eight years before going to high school in Payson.

“It was a one-room school. It had eight grades,” Schaffnit said. “I didn’t hate school. I guess I liked school, but I was always glad when April got here that we got out.”

Marge Griep helps coordinate the annual picnic, which has been bringing people together for some four decades.

“Since they’ve been coming so many years, they’ve become a family,” Griep said.

Griep’s husband, Wayne, attended three of the schoolhouses, but primarily Hickory Grove, which stood at South 36th and Deer Ridge Road for years.

“I did not attend one, but I made many new friends,” Griep said. “We don’t see each other very often. Everybody looks forward to it.”

They’re already looking forward to next year’s event — slated for Sunday, June 20, 2027, again at the large shelterhouse in South Park. People bring a covered dish to share and make a donation toward the cost of fried chicken, beverages, and tableware.

“We would like to invite anybody that went to a rural school — I don’t care if it’s here, Missouri, or Pennsylvania — we’d like for them to come. It’s for everyone,” Merker said.

Karen Goings said it’s important for those who shared the one- and two-room school experience to get together while they can.

“We’re all aging, and you never know when your time is going to be called,” said Goings, who attended LeRoy School and now lives in Ewing, Mo. “I like to visit with them. Some of them were my neighbors. Some were my best friends.”

Goings’ mother attended the school located in the river bottoms south of the foot of South Eighth Street, and so did several relatives, including Sharon Gilbert.

Coming to the picnic is fun “just to see the people. It’s a lot of my family,” said Gilbert, who lives in Quincy and attended LeRoy for one year. “We ask that people bring their history. We all have so much history, and it’s dying off. I’m probably one of the younger ones. We need younger ones to come.”