TheDailyWoo - 1040 (5/7/15) Knotts Old Schoolhouse

0:03 Welcome everyone. Adam the Woo here.

0:03 That is an old schoolhouse. I am at

0:05 Knottberry Farm and I am wearing my new

0:09 shirt that I've got from

0:10 spreadshirt.com.

0:11 adamthe.spreadshirt.com. I actually

0:13 ordered one for myself. Heck it. You are

0:16 not supposed to wear your own t-shirt.

0:18 That's like wearing a band shirt to the

0:21 concert you are going to or playing in a

0:23 band and wearing your own band shirt.

0:26 But heck it. I try to march to the beat

0:30 of my own drummer. So, I now own my own

0:33 heckit shirt. Why am I at Knottberry

0:36 Farm? Why am I showing you this old

0:38 schoolhouse? Because someone left a

0:40 suggestion and I like hearing your

0:42 suggestions, reading your comments, and

0:44 actually trying to actually take those

0:46 suggestions to heart and actually

0:48 accomplish them. And today on this

0:51 morning, I am at Knottberry Farm here in

0:53 Buena Park, California. And I am going

0:56 to explore the old schoolhouse, which

0:59 was actually established in 1875.

1:03 But it did not arrive here at Knottberry

1:05 Farm until Walter not himself, the

1:07 creator of Knottberry Farm, transported

1:11 this building from Kansas all the way to

1:15 California in 1950ish.

1:18 In fact, right here, 1879, built by a

1:22 group of Iowa farmers who settled in

1:25 central Kansas, even though that says 79

1:29 and that says 75.

1:32 So maybe we can actually figure out why

1:34 there is a differential between the four

1:38 years. Let's go inside this old

1:40 schoolhouse. Actually, let's read this

1:41 first. Typical of a one room schoolhouse

1:44 of the 1800s is this one from Bloit,

1:48 Kansas. Built in 1879,

1:50 it housed eight classes at a time from

1:53 the first through the 8th grades. Mr. KN

1:57 brought the school outside and the

1:59 playground area at an auction, had them

2:02 dismantled, and trucked them here in

2:04 1952.

2:11 All right, let's go inside the old

2:11 schoolhouse here at Knottberry Farm. And

2:14 I also want you to look at this, too.

2:15 You'll see there is actually a school

2:16 bell on the top up there. The school

2:18 bell was actually added after the fact.

2:22 Walter Not himself actually thought it

2:24 would be very cool to actually have a

2:26 school bell on the very tippy top of the

2:30 schoolhouse. Originally, that was not on

2:32 the Kansas version. And just like the

2:35 rest of ghost town here at Knottberry

2:37 Farm, there are all these buildings were

2:39 actually transported from ghost towns in

2:42 the desert. So all these buildings or at

2:44 least a huge portion of a lot of these

2:47 buildings through the ghost town area

2:49 when you first enter just hang a left

2:51 instead of going to the roller coasters.

2:53 Hang a left and go through the ghost

2:54 town. A lot of these buildings were

2:56 actual facades and actual buildings that

2:58 were located in the old west and were

3:01 brought out here to Knottberry Farm. a

3:04 lot of people taking their pictures in

3:05 front of the old schoolhouse. But you

3:07 got to wonder if those people know the

3:09 history and the backstory and that that

3:11 was actually a real schoolhouse. You got

3:14 to wonder that. You can actually see

3:16 there's not a lot of people out here yet

3:18 this morning. Knottberry Farm. I

3:20 actually have a pass to Knottbury Farm.

3:23 It's called a seasonal pass. It's not an

3:24 annual pass, which means that it's not

3:26 good from point A like starting if I got

3:29 the annual pass today, it would not be

3:30 good an entire year. It would only be

3:32 good till the end of the year. So, it's

3:34 only good up until New Year's Eve, but

3:37 it's still a heck of a good deal to come

3:39 out here and see the ghost town areas,

3:42 the saloon over on the right. And then

3:44 out of the ghost town area, you can

3:45 actually see the water flume ride and

3:48 the knots dropping area. You can see

3:50 where it says Knots up there, KN O TTS.

3:54 And I will probably not, no pun

3:57 intended, be riding that terrifying ride

3:59 that drops straight down much higher

4:02 than the ride flume is. Now, as soon as

4:06 the herd of people that are back there

4:08 get done taking their photo opportunity,

4:10 we'll actually go inside the schoolhouse

4:13 itself. And it's interesting, too,

4:15 because school is still in session, but

4:17 you can tell there's actually a lot of

4:20 school kids out here at the moment.

4:23 A lot of kids come out here because what

4:26 do they call that? When you are part of

4:28 a school classroom that actually goes on

4:30 a field trip. A lot of field trips come

4:32 to Knottberry Farm all days of the week,

4:35 including the weekends. All right, the

4:37 old schoolhouse.

4:40 Let's go inside and check it out. These

4:43 old doors. Good morning.

4:45 Good morning.

4:46 We're here to check out the old

4:47 schoolhouse. And I was wondering how

4:49 come the sign says 75 and then 79 here.

4:53 So what year was it actually created and

4:56 then brought in? I know it was brought

4:57 in in the 50s but why does it what's the

4:59 difference in the four years?

5:00 Because

5:02 there was a school in this in the area

5:06 of Iowa starting in 1877

5:10 though not in this exact building until

5:12 1879.

5:14 Okay. So they built this building in 79

5:16 and then Walter not transferred it over

5:18 here in the 50s 1950s. Correct.

5:20 And a lot of the articles and books are

5:23 still in here.

5:24 Yes.

5:24 So I'm just going to take a look around.

5:26 I'm doing a little vlog for YouTube and

5:28 show off some of the some of the

5:29 remnants and some of the historical

5:31 facts in here as well. This is very

5:34 cool. Actually, someone suggested this

5:36 to me. I just bought an annual pass, a

5:38 seasonal pass to Knots. And my favorite

5:41 part is the ghost town area. I know a

5:43 lot of people like the roller coasters,

5:45 but I like history and and the likes of

5:47 that.

5:48 The ghost is the heart.

5:50 Absolutely. So, these desks, were these

5:52 original desks that came with the

5:53 school?

5:54 Uh, no. They're actually more from the

5:56 1950s, but they're certainly the style

5:58 that they would have had, including the

6:00 inkwells.

6:01 Oh, yeah. The inkwells are still here.

6:04 Nailed in so they don't walk off, but

6:06 those are slates as the children would

6:08 own. And the uh thing there, we have

6:12 slate pencils.

6:13 Oh, okay. This is what they use.

6:15 Is it similar to a chalkboard? Like a

6:16 miniature chalkboard?

6:17 Yeah. Uh it's two-sided. And that's what

6:20 they would have used for almost all of

6:22 their writing. They would do their math

6:24 problems on it. I would check it. If it

6:26 was correct, they could erase it and go

6:28 on to the next thing.

6:29 Okay.

6:30 You know, it's a renew, it's a reusable

6:32 resource.

6:34 Now, I see you have the McGuffy readers.

6:36 I was actually homeschooled uh when I

6:39 was younger and my dad actually taught

6:40 us through the McGuffy readers. Do you

6:42 actually have any of the McGuffy

6:44 readers?

6:44 You mean right here on my desk?

6:46 Oh, right here. Oh, on your desk. Oh,

6:48 there you go. See, this brings back a

6:50 lot of memories. I actually learned to

6:51 read from these exact books right here.

6:55 Very cool. Those those bring back a lot

6:56 of memories. So, this is what you ring

6:58 when they get out of hand. The kids get

7:00 out of hand.

7:01 Uh no, when it's uh usually when it's

7:03 dismissal time. Oh, lunchtime or

7:05 dismissal time or something of that

7:07 nature.

7:07 This is a grade 1 through eight school

7:10 room.

7:10 So, you would have all eight grades in

7:12 one little classroom.

7:14 Kind of reminiscent of Little House in

7:16 the Prairie.

7:17 Very similar.

7:17 Very much so

7:18 to that.

7:19 How you survive it is very simple. Uh,

7:22 small groups.

7:24 All of the different levels would have

7:26 work to do in their seats. And I would

7:29 bring up first the reading groups based

7:31 on McGuffy levels up to the recitation

7:34 bench while the others are quietly

7:36 working.

7:38 Oh, okay.

7:38 And we swap out the groups. Then we go

7:40 on to math.

7:42 Very cool. Now, I read somewhere online

7:45 that the writing on here was original

7:48 writing or is it a recreation of the

7:50 writing of the very first teacher that

7:52 taught here? Uh this is a recreation, a

7:56 permanent recreation of what typically

7:59 would be on the board.

8:02 And you will notice it's all cursive.

8:05 Yes, everyone wrote in cursive back

8:07 then.

8:09 All right. Well, thank you very much.

8:11 You're welcome.

8:14 Come on in, folks. Have a seat. You got

8:16 an amazing tour guide.

8:35 You can see a lot of people are now

8:35 actually starting to enter the

8:36 classroom.

8:46 Check out the rules for teachers. 1872,

8:46 teachers each day will fill lamps, trim

8:48 the wicks, and clean the chimneys, as

8:51 well as nine other things that they were

8:52 responsible for doing other than

8:54 actually teaching the kids. All right,

8:57 thank you very much, Sandra.

8:58 Did you notice that?

8:59 Ah, what is this?

9:01 That is a hand pump organ.

9:02 A handp pumped organ.

9:05 Because this was a multi-purpose room,

9:08 on Sunday, it would be used by one or

9:10 two of the local churches.

9:11 Oh, okay. I could see that. Very

9:13 interesting.

9:14 This Beethoven organ is also from Kansas

9:18 18.

9:19 Welcome to our wine house.

9:21 All right. Thank you very much, Sandra.

9:23 I appreciate the information.

9:25 So, there you have it. The old school

9:27 house. Thank you for the suggestion. I

9:29 am not sure. I cannot remember who

9:31 actually left the suggestion about

9:32 visiting the old schoolhouse here at

9:34 Knottberry Farm, but I wanted to thank

9:36 Sandra and Knottberry Farm for allowing

9:38 me to film in there and showing you guys

9:40 a little bit of history, a little bit of

9:41 a relic of Knottberry Farm goodness from

9:44 way back in the day. If you find any

9:47 information online that I did not share,

9:49 feel free to leave some comments down

9:50 below. And remember, you can get

9:52 yourself a Heckit t-shirt or another

9:54 AdamWoo shirt over at adamthe.com. And

9:57 you know what? I was just thinking I

9:59 don't think I did the intro. It's my

10:00 second channel, Daily Vlog channel. It's

10:02 the Daily Woo intro at the end of the

10:06 Daily Woo vlog. Please subscribe. It's

10:08 absolutely free. I look forward to

10:10 hearing what you dig up about the

10:11 history of this fantastic place as well.

10:14 Love you guys and I'll see you guys

10:16 tomorrow, but only if you subscribe.

10:18 Goodbye.

TheDailyWoo - 1040 (5/7/15) Knotts Old Schoolhouse

Transcript