School Days

Written for the 6/2/2009 Edition of Andrea's Random Thoughts:

You are cordially invited...to take a look at my days as a student in Belchertown. Prior to my putting together a tribute for my daughter's class (BHS '09) in honor of this Saturday's graduation, I thought that it might be fun to relive some memories.


Twenty-two years ago, in 1987 to be exact, 92 of us processed into the former BHS gymnasium to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance" for an evening graduation ceremony on June 4th. It was a magical evening full of proud moments and big dreams, mixed with a sense of finality. Some of us would never see each other again and we knew it.

I started out in kindergarten at Cold Spring School, attended first through third grades at Franklin School in the south end, went to Center School for fourth grade, fifth and sixth were at Lawrence Memorial Hall, and then I spent the next six years at the high school on North Washington Street. Our principal at BHS was James Rokas followed by Dennis Pike, who had just started the position at the beginning of our senior year. Robert Byard was the Superintendent at that time.

Over the past week or so, while covering some retirement events for Belchertown-News.com, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit with some former teachers (Bettencourt, Smith, Vaz, Kirk, Beresky, Mierzewski, Knightly, Beebe, Oparowski, and Brennan) which helped to kick off this trip down memory lane. It’s amazing that some of them actually remembered me. After years of teaching so many students, I can just imagine how their memory banks might get a bit full. I think it’s a real testimony to the dedication and nurturing of the teachers in our “small” town and less about me standing out for any particular reason. I certainly didn’t set fire to the third floor bathroom at BHS or anything remotely close to it. Honest!

I tried to think about what really distinct memories that I have from my school days in Belchertown. Ok, here we go: Kindergarten—making green eggs and ham (Dr. Suess) and the long hallway down to my classroom at Cold Spring; Franklin School—learning to read, the jungle gym, dressing in colonial period clothing for a play, and meeting my best friend; fourth grade—Mr. Beebe, and playing kickball; fifth and sixth grade—walking to Parsons Field and the Old Town Hall for gym class, moving desks aside in Mrs. O’s class for afternoon dancing, and also learning the state capitals; playing card games or marbles at recess in the back of the Town Hall; and singing in the musical “Oliver Twist”; seventh and eighth grade—feeling like somewhat of misfit in a school with the big kids, and, of course, hating the locker room; and then high school (9-12)—dissecting a frog in biology; Bunsen burners, goggles and all kinds of chemical symbols in chemistry; re-enacting Belchertown history in the Federalist Fair in Mr. Bresnahan’s history class, as well as a trip to a monk’s cave in his Anthropology class; learning about the Holocaust in Ms. Shenkman’s 10th grade global studies class; the Junior Stand; the Junior Prom, the Candy Cane Ball, four great years of Spanish with Myra; and the girl who took (and refused to return) my combination lock for my locker at the time they were reissued at the beginning of senior year. I had that darn thing the five previous years and I still can remember the combination—6 to right, 8 to the left, 13 to the right. I guess she thought it was easy to remember too. It’s kind of ironic that the only thing that was ever taken was my lock, and I wasn’t much of a bully. Isn’t it funny the things that we remember? There are actually too many wonderful memories to include here. Thank you to our teachers--past and present!

Next week I will share some of the class of 2009’s finer moments and hopefully not embarrass them too much in the process. It’s hard to believe that the time has already come. I hope they realize how lucky they are to have spent their childhood years in Belchertown.