HILLSDALE—Hopefully by now you have finished all your back-to-school shopping—but did you remember the argyle socks?
We wonder how many of these children got new clothes before school started in 1933, when this photograph was taken in Hillsdale. Those were hard years—Americans were still feeling the effects of the Great Depression and money was tight for many families. Clothing was often homemade (with varying levels of ability), and existing garments were passed down, remade, and mended. The fashion for girls was knee-length collared dresses. Boys wore knickers with argyle socks.
That school year the Hillsdale PTA’s efforts were focused on relief for struggling Hillsdale families. They sponsored fund-raising dances and card parties. The school teachers took on acting roles in a dramatic production to benefit the unemployed. They arranged a soup kitchen and free milk for children who needed it.
In this picture the children are standing on the steps of the Hillsdale Public School, which is now George G. White Middle School (that same Mr. White was their principal. All children in Hillsdale from K-8 attended this school, the only one in town.
Education in Hillsdale was starting to become a multimedia endeavor. In the autumn of 1933 the school board approved an expenditure of $22 to be spent on a radio for use in classrooms. The board also debated buying a motion picture projector for educational purposes. Principal White told the board that such devices were important for modern school programs.
Joining her class on the right is teacher Miss Bessie Heale. A lifelong Park Ridge resident, she started teaching at the Hillsdale school in 1917. She spent 41 years in the district before retiring, during which time she had taught about 1,800 children, including several second-generation pupils.
Speaking at a 1958 retirement dinner in her honor, Miss Heale said children were only getting brighter and learning more quickly as the years went by.
She told everyone, “The boys and girls travel more and learn so much faster. Television reveals what is going on in the world. A teacher has to be more alert to anticipate the interests and curiosity and knowledge the children attain. Arithmetic is so different; there is not so much drill. Books are so much better, in content, illustrations, and construction. Today study can be a joy.”
— Kristin Beuscher is president of Pascack Historical Society