Portage Area Historical Society President Irene Huschak speaks with Portage Area first graders about the town’s history 100 years ago. In the 1920s, families took baths in the same water once a week, typically on Saturdays so they could be clean and ready for church, she said. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

PORTAGE — First grade students at the Portage Area Elementary School learned what life was like in the town 100 years ago from Irene Huschak, president of the Portage Area Historical Society.

About 60 students sat in a cross-legged position Thursday morning in teacher Margaret Warfield’s classroom to listen to Huschak read two historically accurate fiction books, which were written by high school students 22 years ago.

Huschak has been presenting a local history unit in every grade level at the school since then.

Huschak showed photographs of what the Portage Station Museum looked like as an active train station in the 1920s before reading the stories, “The Wrong Train” and “My Sunday Clothes.”

There were train stations in every town, Huschak said, noting if people had to travel, they either walked, took a horse and buggy or rode the train.

After purchasing tickets in the office, people would walk up a set of stairs in the nearby Lee Street arch and wait for the train, which came through the town every 45 minutes, Huschak said.

In those days, children didn’t have televisions, computers or cellphones to entertain themselves, she said.

They made their own toys and games and only had a couple of outfits, according to Huschak.

Play outfits were often patched to repair holes and were made out of cow feed sacks, Huschak said, adding nearly every family in Portage owned a cow.

For church on Sundays, boys wore bow ties on their shirts with shorts and knee-high socks, while girls only wore dresses with bows in their hair, Huschak said.

Four students wore 1920s-style costumes, which were also made by high school students years ago, to show their classmates what boys’ and girls’ play and Sunday church outfits looked like back then.

According to Huschak, baths were only taken once a week on Saturdays. Since they didn’t have running water back then, family members bathed in the same water, starting with the oldest children first, she said.

Many students were visibly excited to listen to Huschak throughout the presentation and seemed eager to answer her questions about the town’s history afterward.

“As a member of the historical society, I think it’s important to share this with our kids,” Huschak said. “We have an amazing history.”

Warfield said the school’s staff members are “honored” to host Huschak every year, since many students take pride in their community after learning about the town’s history.

“They love to learn about the history of Portage,” Warfield said. “They love to dress up, they love to see the pictures, and the stories that those high school students wrote years ago are amazing. We still read them every year, and it’s an honor to those kids.”

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.