Open House! It's Back to School Night
Like most of the pages on the Sherborn Stories site, we hope this one can be crowd-sourced. We invite you to share your recollections, pictures, film clips, documents and more so that we can share with fellow Center, Pine Hill, and DS school alums. Either email at kmdelaney1963@gmail.com or hit the button below.
So you say you like buses? Hop on board this Big Yellow and get ready to be schooled by David Blaney, a true Sherborn bus savant! David wrote this piece back in the late 1980's and then updated more recently. Especially for those of us who cruised to school in the 1960s and 1970s, this is a rare drive back in time, our very own Magic School Bus.
March, 2024: Another gem Margo Powicki picked from the files, the classroom layout just before the expansion with a cutting-edge media center (not a library) and pods (not classrooms). Experimentation 70's style, a great time to be in school.
March 13, 2024: Here's a fun story that Mrs. C. Arthur Dowse (Betty) recounted decades back, oral history that relates the classic Yankee frugality (miserliness?) in regards to a South School debate. "Those kids don't need no stinkin' heat! Back in MY day..."
Anne Shaughnessy tells us where this schoolhouse once didn't keep the students warm in her 1974 History: [South District School] "lay on the right of South Main Street just south of and opposite the entrance of Snow Street. This had been a wooden structure and the School Committee suggested that “It would do well to place a few posts around this house, not only to accommodate visitors, but to prevent the tying of horses to the trees and parts of the building.” It was replaced by a brick building whose foundation is still visible."
At last, some GenX content! (pirated off FB, but OK, it's here). Who are these whippersnappers?! We know a handful, especially rockstar teacher Mrs. Goldsmith, who guided this collection of youngsters who were among the vary last to grace the corridors of Center School.
The Sherborn History Center's Margo Powicki uncovered this 1861 gem, The Wreath, "published by the scholars of District No. 2", also referred to as the Plain School, which to this day survives as a remodeled private home at 60 North Main Street.
"Editresses for present number Martha A. Dowse and Lydia P. Lathrop" expertly guided the pamphlet through to its final form.
The Wreath a wonderful collection that demonstrates the thoughts and skills of a talented bunch on the eve of the Civil War, a subject that makes a few appearances along the way. For a taste of 19th century "project-based learning" (to use a modern phrase), give it some time, it's well worth it! S
October, 1958: Baby Boomers in action! Eliot Taylor captured a handful of Center School candids (recess and the before school lineup). Thinking a random adult taking pics at a school playground might not go over so well today?
1963: Here's a fun Sherborn video featuring Mrs. Chickering's Happy Hill Nursery School on Curve St. A 30 year old Bob Delaney is just getting his home movie mojo going and captures a scene with a 4-year old Peter and what looks like Carol Currier and David Blaney. The pièce de résistance is a background shot of Lollipop Mountain, a near mystical place where every Friday tootsie pops would grow for the entire class!
