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My Boys and Girls Are in There: The 1937 New London School Explosion
On March 18, 1937, a spark ignited a vast pool of natural gas that had collected beneath the school building in New London, a tiny community in East Texas. The resulting explosion leveled the four-year-old structure and resulted in a death toll of more than three hundred—most of them children. To this day, it is the worst school disaster in the history of the United States. The tragedy and its aftermath were the first big stories covered by Walter Cronkite, then a young wire service reporter stationed in Dallas. He would later say that no war story he ever covered—during World War II or Vietnam—was as heart-wrenching. In the weeks following the tragedy, a fact-finding committee sought to determine who was to blame. It soon became apparent that the New London school district had, along with almost all local businesses and residents, tapped into pipelines carrying unrefined gas from the plentiful oil fields of the area. It was technically illegal, but natural gas was in abundance in the “Oil Patch.” The jerry-rigged conduits leaked the odorless “green” gas that would destroy the school. A long-term effect of the disaster was the shared guilt experienced—for the rest of their lives—by most of the survivors. There is, perhaps, no better example than Bill Thompson, who was in his fifth grade English class and “in the mood to flirt” with Billie Sue Hall, who was sitting two seats away. Thompson asked another girl to trade seats with him. She agreed—and was killed in the explosion, while Thompson and Hall both survived and lived long lives, never quite coming to terms with their good fortune. My Boys and Girls Are in The 1937 New London School Explosion is a meticulous, candid account by veteran educator and experienced author Ron Rozelle. Unfolding with the narrative pace of a novel, the story woven by Rozelle—beginning with the title—combines the anguished words of eyewitnesses with telling details from the historical and legal record. Released to coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New London School disaster, My Boys and Girls Are in There paints an intensely human portrait of this horrific event.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 5, 2015
This read was somewhat personal for me: my great-grandfather, a math teacher, was one of the victims; unfortunately, the casualty rate of his class was 100%. I learned quite a bit about this tragedy; the author's research is impressive, and he blends these facts with the magic of storytelling and compassion.
April 18, 2025
This is a story I’ve heard of all my life as I grew up next door to one of the survivors. A few years ago I went through the (very well done) museum. When I suggested this book for a book club, I was a bit nervous about how well written it would be. I needn’t have worried. The story, which I knew would be riveting and moving, is told so very well by Rozelle. His research is obviously extensive, but he does a wonderful job of bringing the details to life through his story telling skills.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who lives in this area of Texas,not every teacher or school administrator, to those who work in the oilfield and even to high school students. Actually even if you are not in one those categories, get yourself a copy and read it.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who lives in this area of Texas,not every teacher or school administrator, to those who work in the oilfield and even to high school students. Actually even if you are not in one those categories, get yourself a copy and read it.
June 1, 2021
This book is near and dear to my heart for a number of reasons. Ron Rozelle was my favorite English teacher in high school and such a great story teller.
This explosion was not only the reason natural gas smells bad now, it is also the basis for the founding the Professional Engineering board in Texas - as a Professional Engineer in Texas (among other states) this tragedy is exactly the type of event I strive to prevent though my work. Each year I am required to take an ethics course for continuing education and the one given by the board talks about this explosion each year. The details of the explosion and the aftermath are so much more devastating than I ever really imagined until I read this book. I would recommend this book to any and all of my engineer friends.
This explosion was not only the reason natural gas smells bad now, it is also the basis for the founding the Professional Engineering board in Texas - as a Professional Engineer in Texas (among other states) this tragedy is exactly the type of event I strive to prevent though my work. Each year I am required to take an ethics course for continuing education and the one given by the board talks about this explosion each year. The details of the explosion and the aftermath are so much more devastating than I ever really imagined until I read this book. I would recommend this book to any and all of my engineer friends.
August 9, 2023
Every Texas teacher should read this and know the history of this awful tragedy. The narrative style of the author was very appealing. Lots of famous Texans and Texas places referenced in this story.
December 7, 2024
Wow! I knew nothing about this disaster. This book gave me so much info. I loved the way Ron Rozelle told this story.
May 7, 2014
I'm not sure how I managed to live in Texas for fourteen years, working in a history-minded profession, and never heard of the story of the New London school explosion. Rozelle's book is moving, well-researched, and nicely told. This is a page turner and was an excellent choice for my "only sad books" Debbie Downer book club. Downer indeed.
July 29, 2014
If you live in texas, this is a must read!! How I never heard about this before is a mystery- I'm a teacher and this book is something I would have loved to read in college! So good!
November 25, 2021
A lot of people do not know about this horrific accident, but on March 18 1937, at 3:17 p.m., a natural gas leak explosion blew up the New London, Texas school, instantly killing dozens of children and many of their teachers. There were approximately 300 deaths. This tragedy happened within the last hour before school was to end for the day, when sparks ignited after a switch to an electric sander was turned on by a teacher. The roof blew off the top of the building. There was no fire but the blast was so intense that the walls crashed and children were blown up. Identification of some of these mangled children was so bad that only small objects they carried with them or the clothes they had worn could identify them. One child, for instance, was identified by the small pocket knife he had carried with him in his pocket.
Residents in the area immediately went to help and dig out from the rubble to look for survivors. Workers from the nearby oil fields were relieved of work to help with the recovery. As the news quickly spread, people were outside the area also came to help. The area got so crowded that the Texas Rangers were called to the area in case things got out of hand and there were rioting. A new hospital, Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler, was opened early to assist with some of the injured. Walter Cronkite who was only 22 years old at the time, was called to the area by his employer as he was the closest reporter in the area. This became one of his first assignments of his long career. Other reporters were in the area, trying to get updates on the tragedy.
To save money, the school board had canceled their natural gas contract and had plumbers install a tap into Parade Gasoline Company's residue gas line to save money. Gas was leaking, and there were indications of this due to some complaints by students of headaches, but since gas is odorless and colorless, this claim was not followed up.
The incident caused the Texas Legislation to ask that strong odors be added to the odorless element in the future, so individuals could be warned of any leak. Ron Rozelle researched this book and talked to some survivors from this small East Texas town. The New London Museum and Cafe memorializes this horrific event and Ron Rozelle talks about his experience at the museum in Overton, Texas, which is only about 4 miles from New London.
Residents in the area immediately went to help and dig out from the rubble to look for survivors. Workers from the nearby oil fields were relieved of work to help with the recovery. As the news quickly spread, people were outside the area also came to help. The area got so crowded that the Texas Rangers were called to the area in case things got out of hand and there were rioting. A new hospital, Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler, was opened early to assist with some of the injured. Walter Cronkite who was only 22 years old at the time, was called to the area by his employer as he was the closest reporter in the area. This became one of his first assignments of his long career. Other reporters were in the area, trying to get updates on the tragedy.
To save money, the school board had canceled their natural gas contract and had plumbers install a tap into Parade Gasoline Company's residue gas line to save money. Gas was leaking, and there were indications of this due to some complaints by students of headaches, but since gas is odorless and colorless, this claim was not followed up.
The incident caused the Texas Legislation to ask that strong odors be added to the odorless element in the future, so individuals could be warned of any leak. Ron Rozelle researched this book and talked to some survivors from this small East Texas town. The New London Museum and Cafe memorializes this horrific event and Ron Rozelle talks about his experience at the museum in Overton, Texas, which is only about 4 miles from New London.
December 8, 2019
I've read this before. I did not finish rereading it this time. There are two real books about the New London disaster, this and "Gone at 3:17," and this is probably the better of the two (again, if I recall correctly).
My main issue with it is the writing style which is very "punchy." It likes to tell the story in extremely short segments all ended with a "shocking" or "ironic" clever line. It's hard to really explain what I mean, but something like this: this book wants you to stop and catch your breath and be impacted every few paragraphs. It tries to build up a little scene like a bunch of undetected natural gas in a crawlspace.
And then detonate it.
Like that, but pretty much every page. It gets annoying and feels unnecessary, as the story doesn't NEED this kind of repeated "!!!" every few seconds. The content is shocking and horrific enough without someone trying to be very clever about it, and would have benefited from a more matter-of-fact tone.
My main issue with it is the writing style which is very "punchy." It likes to tell the story in extremely short segments all ended with a "shocking" or "ironic" clever line. It's hard to really explain what I mean, but something like this: this book wants you to stop and catch your breath and be impacted every few paragraphs. It tries to build up a little scene like a bunch of undetected natural gas in a crawlspace.
And then detonate it.
Like that, but pretty much every page. It gets annoying and feels unnecessary, as the story doesn't NEED this kind of repeated "!!!" every few seconds. The content is shocking and horrific enough without someone trying to be very clever about it, and would have benefited from a more matter-of-fact tone.
February 15, 2017
I read this book and "Gone at 3:17" together. This March 18th (2017) will be the 80th anniversary of the explosion at the New London school that killed almost 300 students and teachers. My family had cousins who were killed that day, and so I've heard my entire life about the explosion. This book is very worthwhile to read, very important to read, but desperately difficult, realizing the overwhelming shock and tragedy that descended upon these families. We should never forget, so it is important to know what happened.
This book was written by a man who grew up not far from New London, Texas. He grew up knowing about the horrible disaster, yet was amazed that so few people knew what had happened. He wrote this book in remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the explosion.
Why do so few know about the most deadly school disaster in US history? For several reasons, perhaps. Two months after the New London School explosion, the Hindenburg airship blew up. Rumblings in Europe soon led to the beginning of WWII in 1939. And also, because the people of New London chose to hold their grief to themselves and not talk about the tragedy for years. Like veterans of war, the New London community closed ranks, and grieved alone. Reunions of the survivors really did not begin until the 1970’s, mostly because the parents who had had children lost in the explosion, were themselves dead by then and the survivors could now open up and speak about what had happened.
One man remembered that his father, who had fought in WWI, could speak of what he experienced during the war, but never spoke about the long hours he spent digging and removing rubble at the site of the New London school explosion. He said his father could never speak of what he saw. It is understandable. Being in war, you perhaps are able to understand the death around you. But to see an explosion that kills mostly children, and then have to dig out debris and rubble by hand over hours and hours of work, finding body parts, shoes, feet, hands, heads…. this is the stuff of nightmare that can not be easily spoken of. Most of the deaths were in the 5th and 6th grade classes because their classrooms were over the center of the explosion. Some children were blown so high and so far that their bodies came down in trees and hung there. Families often were only able to identify the bodies of their children by clothing or a distinctive ring or pocket knife. The tragedy of those hours and days is almost unimaginable.
Most people also do not know why there is a distinctive “rotten egg” smell with natural gas. Natural gas by itself is odorless. In the years of the oil boom, natural gas was bled off the oil wells and used to supply power for the oil company productions. The natural gas was considered a waste product. Many individuals and businesses tapped off these “bleed lines” and thus provided light and heat for homes and businesses using the raw natural gas. While not legal, it was not uncommon. The New London superintendent and school board agreed to save money and use a bleed off line to provide natural gas to the new school. The school was built to be heated via steam boiler radiators, not natural gas. As a result of the bleed-off line, natural gas leaked under the school house, where the floor had a solid concrete floor. The crawl space under the floor had no ventilation, so the natural gas eventually filled the cavity under the school. And there waited until a spark from the shop teacher switching on an electric sander cause the explosion. (See http://engineeringethicsblog.blogspot... for a good explanation of this). When the cause of the explosion was determined, eventually two laws were passed to keep this from happening ever again. The first was the addition of a “malodorant” to natural gas so that any leak will cause the smell to be noted and those around to be thus warned. The second law was to make sure that anyone who works on natural gas lines must be trained and certified for that work by the state of Texas. These laws were then adopted by others states and are now mandatory across the world.
So let us never forget the death of these young children and teachers, the grief of their parents and the loss in the community.
This book was written by a man who grew up not far from New London, Texas. He grew up knowing about the horrible disaster, yet was amazed that so few people knew what had happened. He wrote this book in remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the explosion.
Why do so few know about the most deadly school disaster in US history? For several reasons, perhaps. Two months after the New London School explosion, the Hindenburg airship blew up. Rumblings in Europe soon led to the beginning of WWII in 1939. And also, because the people of New London chose to hold their grief to themselves and not talk about the tragedy for years. Like veterans of war, the New London community closed ranks, and grieved alone. Reunions of the survivors really did not begin until the 1970’s, mostly because the parents who had had children lost in the explosion, were themselves dead by then and the survivors could now open up and speak about what had happened.
One man remembered that his father, who had fought in WWI, could speak of what he experienced during the war, but never spoke about the long hours he spent digging and removing rubble at the site of the New London school explosion. He said his father could never speak of what he saw. It is understandable. Being in war, you perhaps are able to understand the death around you. But to see an explosion that kills mostly children, and then have to dig out debris and rubble by hand over hours and hours of work, finding body parts, shoes, feet, hands, heads…. this is the stuff of nightmare that can not be easily spoken of. Most of the deaths were in the 5th and 6th grade classes because their classrooms were over the center of the explosion. Some children were blown so high and so far that their bodies came down in trees and hung there. Families often were only able to identify the bodies of their children by clothing or a distinctive ring or pocket knife. The tragedy of those hours and days is almost unimaginable.
Most people also do not know why there is a distinctive “rotten egg” smell with natural gas. Natural gas by itself is odorless. In the years of the oil boom, natural gas was bled off the oil wells and used to supply power for the oil company productions. The natural gas was considered a waste product. Many individuals and businesses tapped off these “bleed lines” and thus provided light and heat for homes and businesses using the raw natural gas. While not legal, it was not uncommon. The New London superintendent and school board agreed to save money and use a bleed off line to provide natural gas to the new school. The school was built to be heated via steam boiler radiators, not natural gas. As a result of the bleed-off line, natural gas leaked under the school house, where the floor had a solid concrete floor. The crawl space under the floor had no ventilation, so the natural gas eventually filled the cavity under the school. And there waited until a spark from the shop teacher switching on an electric sander cause the explosion. (See http://engineeringethicsblog.blogspot... for a good explanation of this). When the cause of the explosion was determined, eventually two laws were passed to keep this from happening ever again. The first was the addition of a “malodorant” to natural gas so that any leak will cause the smell to be noted and those around to be thus warned. The second law was to make sure that anyone who works on natural gas lines must be trained and certified for that work by the state of Texas. These laws were then adopted by others states and are now mandatory across the world.
So let us never forget the death of these young children and teachers, the grief of their parents and the loss in the community.
April 11, 2021
Excellent read;Horrible Tragedy
This book captivated me, about a topic I knew absolutely NOTHING about. I am from Texas and until reading this book I was unaware of such a tragedy in a town I didn’t even know existed. My heart breaks for the children and teachers who were lost, and for the families that didn’t know how to process their grief but instead hid it away. I hope this book is read by many others to shed light on a little known tragedy, that made such a huge impact.
This book captivated me, about a topic I knew absolutely NOTHING about. I am from Texas and until reading this book I was unaware of such a tragedy in a town I didn’t even know existed. My heart breaks for the children and teachers who were lost, and for the families that didn’t know how to process their grief but instead hid it away. I hope this book is read by many others to shed light on a little known tragedy, that made such a huge impact.
April 17, 2020
A very well written exploration of a little known tragedy.
Ron Roselle takes the reader in a step by step journey of a tragedy that rocked a quiet Texas town back in 1937. This is a must read for the history buffs or anyone interested in fleshing out another untold Texas story.
Ron Roselle takes the reader in a step by step journey of a tragedy that rocked a quiet Texas town back in 1937. This is a must read for the history buffs or anyone interested in fleshing out another untold Texas story.
December 20, 2019
Excellent story of a little known Texas tragedy. It made me feel like I knew these people and ached for their losses.
February 28, 2025
I loved this. What a great story teller. I loved that the author is from East Texas and still uses words like “gully washer.”
The depiction of the families, volunteers and others was so spot on.
The depiction of the families, volunteers and others was so spot on.
September 4, 2025
Grief, community trauma, east Texas culture, death-avoidant society
March 18, 2012
An interesting and educational read about a little known tragedy that occurred in East Texas in 1937. The small stories about individual victims and survivors make it especially poignant.
Reading it soon after the Newtown, CT, tragedy made it especially touching, and some of the same ideas still resonate. This quote, from a survivor could apply just as well today, "Our daddies and mothers as well as our school teachers want to know that when we leave our homes in the morning to go to school we will come out safe when our lessons are over".
I had no idea it was due to this tragedy that natural gas now has a malodorant added.
Reading it soon after the Newtown, CT, tragedy made it especially touching, and some of the same ideas still resonate. This quote, from a survivor could apply just as well today, "Our daddies and mothers as well as our school teachers want to know that when we leave our homes in the morning to go to school we will come out safe when our lessons are over".
I had no idea it was due to this tragedy that natural gas now has a malodorant added.
January 1, 2013
Excellent book. It's a story I sort of knew about, but now I know the rest of the story. This book should be a mandatory read for every school professional. While we must worry about a variety of potentional problems, this one school disaster should remind us all, why school building health is so important.
May 8, 2012
This is a must-read for all Texans. Historical, intriguing, and compassionate. I love the character development, even those shortly-experienced are related to 1930s oil boom towns and to everyday family life. Excellent!
February 4, 2013
I never heard about this story until my friend recommended this book. Very interesting. Well written. Ill be reading more by Ron Rozelle in the future.
May 24, 2013
This book is beautifully written, careful to preserve the dignity of the dead and the spirit of the town where a terrible terrible tragedy occurred in 1937. Highly recommend.
June 27, 2013
I have not finished this book. It's pretty good, but evidently not good enough to keep my interest
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews