Newala School

Newala no longer exists, but at one time there was a school and a community of that name between Montevallo and Calera. The school sat where there is now a mound of gravel from the Chemlime Plant by the railroad tracks just after highway 89, where you turn to go to Walter's house from Hwy. 25. The school was a consolidated school, which the government had opened to combine several one-room schools in rural areas and to attempt to get the farm kids to actually go to school. If you notice in the picture there are kids of all ages even though the school was from first through eighth grades. This is because many farm kids didn't got to school very often and may have been 15 and not really know how to read. Technically, school was required through the age that students would normally finish eighth grade. However, in a farming community such as this, many parents kept the children home most of the time to work on the farm. They might to go school during the winter when there was not much farming to do. School was not a priority for most of the parents, who may or may not be literate themselves. In this time period, it is remarkable that both of my grandparents graduated from college, Walter Sr. from Jacksonville State University, and Clara from Alabama College (what is now University of Montevallo).

I always assumed the Newala was in someway derived from New Alabama, but that is not so. The name was the same as another community somewhere up north.

My grandparents both taught at the school where there were four teachers some of the time and three teachers some of the time. My grandmother taught first and second grade. She is the woman on the end of the second row in the picture below. Notice how she is dressed. Walter said she never knew how to dress and always looked shabby. My grandfather is on the end of the third row. Notice how he is dressed, always neat and rather formal. He taught fifth and sixth and then fourth was added and later seventh and eight grades, was the principal, and drove the school bus.

Walter is in the second grade in this picture. He is sixth from the right in the second row wearing the plaid jacket (106). My grandmother, Clara Adkins, is 94. My grandfather, Walter R. Adkins, Sr. is 35. Julian Hardy, MD is 74 and his more famous twin brother, James Hardy, MD, is 75. Walter's friend and neighbor, Buck Anderson, is 111. One of the other teachers, who Walter only knew as Ms. McLaughlin, is 93. My dad is not in the picture because he is not old enough for school at this time. This picture was made in spring of 1928.

There will be a dedication of an historical marker near the spot of Newala School on September 9, 2012, in memory of Dr. James Hardy, a pioneer in heart transplant surgery. I am proud to say that my grandparents were an integral part of the early education of some very influential people. Some of them are in this photograph. There are at least three doctors, one lawyer (who Walter believes became a judge) and, of course, one Colonel. Many of these kids remained in the community and were equally as important to the people there. Otis Bean became the town barber in Montevallo and was in business there as long as I can remember. Many of them were farmers who raised the food that sustained themselves and other through the depression.

Walter commented that even though many students would skip school often, most all of them showed up on picture day, wearing their best clothes. You can tell by the picture that this was a very diverse socioeconomically. The Hardy family owned a lime plant. Of course my uncle was the son of educators. Most of the others were either miners' children or farmers' children.

My father is not in this picture because he was not of school age yet. He told me that he was taught by his parents for all six of his elementary school years. His mother taught first and second grades. As he was about to begin third grade with a new teacher, his third grade teacher died suddenly and she was not replaced. Instead, his mother added third grade to first and second and his father added fourth grade to his fifth and sixth. My dad said that he received an excellent education from them and that he could have probably done just as well in college after leaving sixth grade as he did after graduating from high school. His parents made sure he did his work and taught him well. After beginning Montevallo High School in seventh grade, the system began what was called "progressive" education where they did not give grades and each child was supposed to move at their own pace. That didn't work so great for my father who's own pace was to skip school whenever possible. I guess this is a story for another post.