By BOB BOWMAN

FEW THINGS STIR the nostalgia of our lives as the days we spent in our schools decades ago.

Most of us remember with clarity the children we knew as classmates and the teachers who taught us. And even today, we remember the details of school events, graduations and the buildings where we learned our lessons.

For the people of San Augustine County, Harry and Kelly Noble have refreshed these memories with a new book, Schools of San Augustine County: A History. The book is significant because the county, as one of the oldest in Texas and was one of the first towns to establish a plan for an educational institution, the San Augustine University, when an incorporation was passed by the First Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1837 with an endowment of 4,428 acres of public land.

BY 1912, the county had 40 individual school districts with such colorful names as New Hope, Red Ridge, Logville, Harvey Creek, Turkey Creek, Henry Hill, White Rock, Spring Ridge and Bland Lake.

But, today, the county has only two independent school districts at San Augustine and Broaddus--the result of school consolidations, shifting economies, population declines and other reasons.

The Nobles’ book does a wonderful job of capturing the history and spirit of schools as they were decades ago. BUT THE BOOK’S most appealing feature is the hundreds of old photographs taken in the schools and newspaper clippings that reported everything from honor rolls to picnics--things you rarely see in today’s newspapers.

In December of 1930, a two-hour play, “Little Miss Jack,” was featured at Chinquapin School. A clipping said the play was all about “Jackie in the slums of the city with no mother and seemingly no father.”

Since San Augustine County had no slums in 1930, it was probably a revelation to Chinquapin’s children.

At New Hope School, a clipping in 1934 reported that “some new work has been added to the cirriculum, namely a choral club, which is very much liked by the entire student body.” NEW HOPE, by the way, had a “propitious opening” in 1932. There’s a great word for kids to learn to spell.

A diary written by Annie Catherine Slaughter, who taught in a one-room school at Boren in 1909 and 1910, had some unique observations. “My school house has four rooms, but I only use one. It has a big, old-time fireplace at one end and I am expecting to spend some delightful days sitting by it with a big fire.” One day, she walked down to a beautiful spring to “get a drink of delicious water.”

On a Monday, rain came down in Boren and Annie wrote that she didn’t teach that day because she had only eight pupils. If you would like a copy of the Nobles’ wonderful book, they can be reached at 936-275-5660 or via e-mail at harrynoble4@sbcglobal.net.

(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman of Lufkin is the author of more than 30 books about East Texas, including “The Forgotten Towns of East Texas.”)