To quote comedian Steven Wright; ‘Whenever I think about the past, it brings up so many memories.’ That line is so true when thinking about my grade school and high school days. The old assembly room above the gymnasium in the now West Concord Historical Society (WCHS) Museum, is where Mrs. Betty Osborn taught a morning class and an afternoon class of about 30 kids each for 6 weeks in the spring of 1959. It’s funny how I can walk into that room and show you the very spot where a little pile of sand was laying on the floor outside the sandbox that we had in there. And to this day, I’ve never told anyone it was Doug who did it. I’m sworn to secrecy. We weren’t banned from the sand but were told in no uncertain terms to not do it again.
In third grade we were out for noon recess on the playground in the spring of 1962. If you went to school there, you may recall how big icicles would hang from the edge of the roof from the melting snow. Well two teachers, Mrs. Marian Moreland and Mrs. Charlotte Roberts were on recess duty that particular day. It was a somewhat mild day and the snow on the roof was warming up. Again I can show you the exact spot I was standing when I happened to look up at the giant stalactites when suddenly, one of them broke loose and started to fall. The two teachers were standing in its path. The icicle turned a little so the point of it was not coming straight down. The bigger part of the icicle did hit Mrs. Moreland on the head and shoulder and she went down. It could have been much worse, but she did suffer a concussion from it but otherwise came through it okay.
My 4th grade teacher was Mrs. Elizabeth Stukel. She was in the first of two years of teaching in WC. After our class, I’m surprised she lasted a second year. Among our exploits was the many times I, along with accomplices Joel Sackett, Grant Ness, Merlin Moreland and Jim Monical would run down to the basement boy’s lavatory when school was done for the day to climb out the little basement window. We had to get up on the top of the urinals and then grab some pipes to get to the window.
We did this several times and all was good until one day, one of our girl classmates told Mrs. Stukel that 5 boys were climbing out the basement window. So we were marched into our classroom which was upstairs on the west side and is today the fashion room. Well we got an ‘old fashioned’ talking to and we had to stay after school which led to more being ‘talked to’ at home.
Surprisingly, in the fall of 1963, I was advanced to 5th grade. My teacher this year was Mrs. Nina Noser. She was one of my favorite teachers when I think back to those school years. However, she kept discipline in her classroom anyway she needed to. Sometimes that would involve a little tugging of the ear. On this particular November day, two of my aforementioned window-climbing accomplices had their ears pulled because they did not come in during the noon recess for a previous infraction. She got their attention by yanking on their left ear and asking why they were not in their desk during recess. This was a day that will live in infamy but not because they ‘forgot’ to come in during recess.
Our classroom was on the upper floor on the southeast corner of the grade school. There is a door between the two rooms on the south. After the ear stretching exercise, we hear the other half of our class of 71, being taught by Mrs. Delzer, listening to the radio. At first we were jealous that they got to listen to the radio but then suddenly that door swung open and the radio was turned up a little more and we realize that they were listening to the news of the JFK assassination. That’s a moment in time that we all remember where we were.
I mention some of these memories because I am so grateful I can still go into these rooms and generate so many memories of a place in time. In 1994, community leaders formed the WCHS and saved the old school from demolition. The pictures on this page illustrate that Kenyon students may have the school memories but they can’t visit that room or walk on the wooden floors or go see where someone autographed the wall in the attic back in 1935. Yes those autographs are still on the wall at the WCHS Museum. All that’s left for former Kenyon students is the sidewalk.
For West Concord Alumni, we have the ability to revisit our past. It has taken countless hours of volunteers; first to save the building, then transform it to a museum and to do a lot of maintenance work to keep it in good repair. Those many hours of volunteer work continue today. Speaking for the current board of directors and for many past directors and volunteers, we thank you for your support and hope you appreciate what our little town has, something Kenyon and several other small towns around the Midwest wish they had.
