by A. Donald Kennedy
Editors note: When I first moved to Dunstable, I couldn’t help but look at the old homes, and buildings like the Union School house and the Town Hall, and wonder what stories they could tell. In the period of 1985-88, Dunstable native A. Donald Kennedy gave voice to some of those stories in a series of articles he penned, called "Dunstable Village." Many of these articles were published by Ann Paquin in Neighbor to Neighbor in those years. Don's children, who include Dunstable Selectman Sue Psaledakis, Assessor Bob Kennedy, and well-known local artist Christine Kennedy, gave us a file of Don’s notes and articles and graciously invited us to reprint them. We will occasionally present one of these treasures here, complete and unedited.
"Don" Kennedy was born in Dunstable in 1912, and lived here until his death in 1988. For many years, Don raised dairy cattle on his farm at the top of High Street, where he lived with his wife, Lucy. He was the state’s youngest selectman in 1934 at the age of 22, and remained active in town politics throughout most of his life. He was dedicated to protecting Dunstable farmlands from development.
In this installment, Don describes school life at the Union School in 1918 to 1925, a period in which electric lights and running water were introduced to the school, and four grades were housed in each of the old school house’s two floors. --di
[0] To get to school there were barges which were similar to hay wagons. They were covered to shelter us in winter. The barge service on High St. as I recall was a little spotty. Actually, I preferred to walk down, got a look at all the changes you know. Several people drove school barges. Clara Tully, Main St. and out that way, Mrs. Loop drove High St. when I was in first. But school barges didn’t play too important a role in my life as I said. I enjoyed walking down. I think Ray Norton drove a route that went up Westford St. His daughter went to Dunstable although they lived in Tyngsborough.
[0]In my 8th grade Alice Butterfield had a 1924 or 25 Dodge Touring Car and that is what we rode. But she struck a deal with me. If I walked one way either to school or back home from school, she’d give me 50 cents a week. And I can see now, she’d come across the street from her house (which is now the Stoneworks) and holler “Don” and hold a 50 cent piece up. Boy, I lost no time getting down there. I wish I had all those 50 cent pieces. They were real silver. I felt real important having her call my name. I would drop whatever I was doing and run right over and get that 50 cent piece.
[0] There were 4 grades upstairs and 4 grades downstairs. That upstairs teacher had to be a genius, believe me. Imagine preparing kids for high school and 3 other grades in there. The teacher knew which kids were in what grade. There were about 20 kids in each room. The upstairs teacher also served as principal. On the west side of the building upstairs was a playroom which was used on rainy days. The room downstairs on the west side was used as the lunch room.
The hot lunch program consisted of hot cocoa or corn chowder. I remember that corn chowder tasted good! Dorothy Clark, who cooked the chowder, lived upstairs in the white house on the corner of Main and Pleasant Sts. (Harold Goldthwaite’s) with her husband Chet. She cooked the lunch on an oil stove which was in what later became a cloak room. Speaking of lunches, James Kendall who went to one of the district schools before the Union School was built, complained that he never got a recess because he ate at home. Once he got home he always had plenty of chores awaiting him.
There were no electric lights in the building and my 8th grade teacher Harold C. Lincoln got a project moving to pay for the installation of the electric lights. The device to pay for this was a concert at Town Hall by a group of Student Ministers. They were called the “Ecclesiastical Quartet” and had darn good voices. The kids ran around Town selling tickets, and the prize for the one who sold the most tickets was a “Patriot” half dollar in a wooden case.
I remember my father went down to the concert and he loved the recital of a poem by Edgar A. Guest, “It Takes a Heap of Living To Make A House A Home.” My father loved it. The group was well received and the concert was a success. I sold the most tickets for the affair that helped finance the first electric lights. The next move was to contact an electrician in Tyngsborough, Harold Hunter. So after that we didn’t have to shut down school activities when a thunderstorm darkened the sky. There was no lighting until this time when I was in 8th grade in 1925. There was only daylight from the large windows. Up until this time the teacher in the upstairs classroom would lean out the window and shake the bell. After that he just had to press a button to ring the bell and recess was over.
At about the same time, 1925, they installed town water to the school. Before that when you wanted a drink you took a little paper envelope and got a drink, which more often than not was luke warm. The water was in a 5 gallon copper container. The janitor would get the water from an old well down of the North side of Main St. where there use to be a house. This was strictly hygienic. I don’t remember any big epidemic, except the influenza epidemic in 1918.
Until the water was installed, extending out from the basement was a wooden walk way that led to a privy.
Out at recess the boys only had one place to play baseball between the school and Nelson Hall’s fence (the Crandall Home) to the east of the school and the girls, I don’t know what they did. They’d jump rope or something on their side. And God help you if you got caught on the girls’ side. I’ve stood in the corner more times!
As the end of school approached a holiday spirit pervaded and we’d have a school picnic. The parents would come down and join in and bring a picnic box. That was a big deal!
My 8th grade teacher, Harold C. Lincoln, also organized a Boy Scout Troop. I remember I was patrol leader.
School ended around the 18th or 20th of June. Every graduate would give a talk. I gave my talk on the history of the founding of the Boy Scouts. My brother chose the history of Dunstable. He messed up and he said “instead of the automobile horn you now hear the Indian War Hoo!”