I remember when we were in school the School Board used to come round if you stayed at home from school and we were all afraid of him. He came from Penrhyn. We also had a nurse coming round and she had a good look through our hair to make sure it was clean and nothing was moving in it!
My friend Trefor from Cefntrefor Isa had a nail from the Smithy and it was very sharp and as he was playing with it he tore some pages from a book and of course he had the cane and after dinner he ran to Glanywern to the Church school there, with Person Hughes, and he went the following day as well. There were many children going to our school then as there were big families - more than ten in two or three families, and it was only the scholars who could go to Barmouth to the County School, and then perhaps their families could not afford to send them. They were so poor with only the father's wages coming in. Miss Lloyd, Ty Gwyn. was teaching the infants, Mrs Rowlands, Standard one and two, Parry Williams 3 and 4 and Edmund Williams, the Headmaster, standard five. I can only just remember Mr Thomas as he died in 1917.
When we went to Soar in Winter to the Band of Hope we would go over to the Foel behind Ysgoldy and we would put a match to the dry bracken and in the excitement we would be lost in the smoke and the flames and be very lucky to be back in time for the Band of Hope. In Summer we would go to Soar to look for jackdaw nests, and we would take some young ones home and keep them like a budgie, and they used to fly over the houses and if there was a window open they would go in and take anything that was shiny and of course that was trouble for us.
Talking of jackdaws, they go on their holidays when the billberries are ready in the Rhinog and you don't see them around for about a month. If you want to see a kingfisher, walk from Glanywern to Glyn Bridge and go on the path from bridge to bridge and if you are quick enough you will probably see one. Pont Gwyddelod is near Dolorcan, on the Maesyneuadd Road and if you go underneath the bridge you will notice that the first bridge was very narrow, with only enough room for the horse and for people to walk on it - perhaps they went through the river.