The people who gathered at Derby Neck Library on Tuesday (Sept. 10) evening had left their grade school days far behind.
But that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten memories of those days, which they shared Tuesday amidst laughter and a sense of nostalgia.
The occasion was the unveiling of the sign that graced the front of the Hawthorne School and now adorns a wall in the library’s reading room.
The old wooden school building, with a rickety fire escape, opened its doors in 1882 — at the spot where the library’s reading room is now located.
The Hawthorne School closed in 1964 and was demolished in 1972.
But more than four decades later, memories of the school are alive and well in its former students.
Timothy McCormack, the father of Shirley Erickson, who is president of the library board, saved the sign from demolition and stored it in the garage of his house, located next to the school.
He put the sign away for safekeeping “because it was so meaningful,” Erickson said.
Forty years later, her son, Rodney Erickson, found the old sign in the garage and donated it to the library.
“I wanted to see it in a much more fitting place,” he said.
The Hawthorne School was a two-room schoolhouse. The original Derby Neck Library was on the school’s second floor, said Bernard Williamson, vice president of the library board.
The present Derby Neck Library, a privately funded institution and a gem of the neighborhood, was completed in 1907.
Shirley Erickson described Tuesday’s unveiling and reception as “very, very sentimental and emotional.”
She was one of many at the gathering who attended Hawthorne School and recalled reciting the letters of the alphabet each morning and descending the fire escape to use the outdoor bathroom.
First- and second-graders were housed on the first floor, and third- and fourth-graders were on the second floor. A white line down the center of the rooms separated the grades, and there was one teacher for each floor.
Joe Teodosio, one of those in attendance Tuesday, said he may be the student who spent the most time at the school — he attended from 1939 to 1945.
“I was there for the whole World War II,” he quipped.
He entered first grade at age 4‑and-a-half, but repeated the year “because they said I was too young,” he said. He also repeated fourth grade “because they said I was too dumb,” he joked.
Although his early school years had some rough spots, he thinks back fondly to his days at Hawthorne School.
“The experience was unbelievable,” he said. “I really enjoyed my time there.”
Teodosio and others recalled the discipline that was common in schools of the era. That included being paddled, and hit with rulers and pointers.
“I deserved everything I got,” he said.
On the lighter side, he recalled the birthday parties held each month for students, and drinking milk each day supplied by from the local dairy.
Georgia McCormack Oko brought a photo of her first grade class and one of the school on the day it was demolished.
Others recalled riding their bicycles home for lunch each day.
Nancy Beaver Hawkins, who said she was “very small,” remembered hitting a very tall boy who wouldn’t stop teasing her, with her lunchbox.
Mary Childs Sosenko said she grew up on Frances Kellogg’s farm where her father was the gardener. She and Darlene Dimon Cavallaro took a limousine from the Kellogg property to school everyday. She remembers getting immunization shots at the school.
The library is leaving the Hawthorne School sign as is, with its eggshell blue background and metal letters, said Ian Parsells, head librarian.
Memorabilia, including old photographs of the Hawthorne Avenue area and a Hawthorne School beanie, will be displayed for the next six months near the sign.