BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Remember bringing lunch in a syrup pail or riding a mule across the potato fields to a one-room schoolhouse for grades one through eight?

Few people in Baldwin County can remember those “good old days,” but a group of retired teachers brought those memories to life from January to March for children who spent a day in the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum in Bay Minette.

The schoolhouse, which has become an historical icon representing early education in Baldwin County, will be the center piece for School Heritage Day, slated Aug. 21 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Living history activities begin at 3 p.m., hosted by the Baldwin County Retired Teachers Association, followed by a 3:30 p.m. premier of a documentary on the structure. A special program begins at 5 p.m. in the Board of Education board room adjacent to the school. An historic marker will be unveiled at 5:30 p.m., and a reception is slated at 5:45.

The Baldwin County Commission designated Aug. 21 as Baldwin County School Heritage Day and commissioned the events as an official bicentennial event.

At one time, more than 90 community schools dotted the vast county. As transportation became more readily available, most were consolidated into larger schools by an expansive state building program in the 1930s.

The Little Red Schoolhouse was built in the 1920s by families in the Bromley-Blakeley community, where it served until it was moved to White House Fork School as a kindergarten room.

In 1985 when Delta School was built, and White House School consolidated, the building was preserved by Superintendent Leslie Smith, who had it moved to the central office complex, where it remains today.

The rare example of one-room schools has been recently refurbished as a part of superintendent Faron Hollinger’s Historical Schools Project.

The museum will be open for personal visits weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.. There will be no docent, but the superintendent’s secretary will open the facility for viewing.

Members of the Baldwin County Retired Educators Association will reprise the previous glimpse of a 1920s school day. On Wednesdays, fourth grade classes will enter the time warp when teachers open the schoolhouse door, ring the school bell, and share with fourth grade students what school was like in the 1920s.

Students enter the building in two lines — girls on one side and boys on the other. They learn to stand beside their desks while “reciting,” and even learn about how the Dunce Stool was used. Children do their lessons on slates, participate in a spelling bee from an authentic “Blue Backed Speller,” and come to the Recitation Bench near the schoolmarm for their reading lesson from the McGuffey Eclectic Reader.

Remember rulers with the Golden Rule inscribed and recess time? Students do their penmanship lesson using that axiom from those rulers — and learn those recess games that were typical of the era. Students even make a turn-of-the-century craft to take home with them.

Volunteer facilitators dressed in costume will show the children artifacts to help explain the chores performed before the school day began. Use of washboards, wood boxes, iron pots, wash basins, and an authentic pump are demonstrated. In addition to these donated items, the schoolhouse contains authentic student desks, teacher desks, a wood burning stove, a recitation bench, and many old school books.

The BCREA raises funds to provide the field trip experience at no cost to classes, and they hope to install a well as the next step and would like to build a model “outhouse,”but there are no definite timelines, according to Harriet Outlaw, a BOE special projects staffer who was one of the spearheaders for the project.

The Aug. 21 formal rededication of the facility will recognize the families who built the building, and Rebecca Thompkins, the original schoolmarm.

For more information or if you are interested in helping the project reach its goals, contact Harriet Outlaw, Special Projects, Baldwin County Schools, 2600 N. Hand Ave., Bay Minette, AL; or on the Internet at houtlaw@bcbe.org.