Nanticoke School
The Nanticoke School was opened in 1914 and covered every grade from first through eleventh, the highest grade possible until 1949 when grade twelve was added to all county high schools. The high school continued until the late 1930’s, at which time it was reduced to only a grade school.
Even though restoration efforts in the last thirty years have been attempted, the results do not look good for the old Nanticoke School. Throughout the 1950’s, and until it closed for good in 1967, the guiding force behind the school was a teacher by the name of Mildred Turner. She had two passions in life – the Nanticoke School and the Baltimore Orioles. The story goes that she took most of the school on a class trip to Washington in 1960. She was so proud of the school that she had beanies made up and everyone that went had to wear a beanie. This included teachers, chaperones and all students. She picked the colors of black and orange, which just happened to be the colors of her beloved Baltimore Orioles. Well, during the trip, in Washington, a taxi cab hit their bus. Thinking that the driver of the cab had caused it, Ms. Turner jumped out of the bus and began giving the cab driver a severe tongue lashing. When he had heard enough, he told her to get herself and her stupid-looking hat back on the bus.
Nanticoke has always been a close-knit community, and the lunches were provided by many of the local ladies who wanted to make sure their “little darlings” had a suitable midday meal.
I think the only sports team they ever had was a soccer team. They even won the county championship one year. There is a team picture taken around 1930 hanging on the wall of the Westside Mini-Market, and one of the players was none other than Harold Kennerly, Jr., who eventually took over his father’s oyster business and founded Nanticoke Seafood.
There are but two schools that I know of that were active in the 1960’s, Nanticoke being one and Pittsville being the other. Both have now gone by the wayside. Even Hebron once had a high school. The only one still active is in Mardela. Now most of the upper grades are bussed to Salisbury to attend Wicomico, Parkside or James M. Bennett schools.
We may have all the technology known to man in our modern schools, but we are still graduating students that cannot read nor do simple math. Sometimes, I think the three R’s that we learned way back when, were a better foundation than what they are teaching today.
