HVRHS 75 Years Young in 2014!

A quintessial rural high school, the first Regional High School in the state of CT, celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2014, with a special open house on September 20th, 2014 from 10 to 4pm for those not heading to NYC for the Sept 21st  #PeoplesClimateMarch.

The graduating class of '14 included two honorary women graduates from the some of the earliest classes after the school opened in 1939. Our family connections run long and many maiinly since the 60s when I was just arriving on the planet (over 50 years ago).

Housatonic Valley Regional High School has stood the test of time yet the economics of maintaining a lovely huge building and grounds to serve such a widespread area has proven challenging, with the population of the school hovering around 400 students from the six towns of Falls Village, North Canaan and Cornwall, Salisbury, Sharon and Kent.

The elementary schools in each town also have seen a decline in numbers yet they hold steady in the more affordable land of  Canaan (that's N Canaan technically and FV is legally the Town of Canaan, lest we be too easy to figure out here in the country setting.) Feel free to add some throughts about your own school experience, and I'll do the same in the coming months, maybe one grade per month such as high school in the fall months, and reflecting back to the earlier grades such as 1st in Jan, 2nd in Feb, 3rd in March and so forth.

Then that would get us to 9th in September and that was the only year I attended Housy as a student which was a huge step up from the small (though at 165 students K-8 is twide what it is now, so please move to town if you have kids or plan to adopt.) My freshman year was one I took on with great gusto, falling in love with a future Yale Whiffenpoof (and I feel the treehouse master on TV named Peter resembles him along with a nice speaking voice).

Playing soccer and battling huge textbooks in the humanities--learning the roots of our civiization from Way Back When (Egypt, Mesopotamia and so on) and pondering The Odyssey, well those come to mind along with not making basketball which opened up a block of time to be in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, with my first crush playing the lead, but by then I was recovering from our month or so whirlwind practically Platonic relationship at a cool Halloween party we got to hold at a Congregational Church Hall.

While being on the student council I advocated for a place for people to sit down who may do so and launched The Bench Committee. Back in 8th grade, I lost the Class Presidency(CP, which I realize happen to be my initials and really, being in charge of oneself is a taller order than I ever realized back in the day. Sadly, when realizing how too many students have struggled with additions, danger leading to injury or lives lost or have taken their own lives, I realize that is no small matter).

 That year in 1976-7 (when my future husband had graduated from high school) I began to realize how much work was involved with fundraising so was happy to defer to Christine Kelsey whose awesome parents oversaw many of our 8th grade events. She went on to be a CP in High School too with lots of success in that role as I recall.

I still don't think there's a bench there. Maybe we can manage one over by our teen son's memorial tree which is right outside the science wing on the left side of the main buidling when looking at if from the road. That road along with the loop of the parking lot formed a track alternative. I never worked so hard at running as I did that spring running once around the track.

In the Invitational I did that race three times and then had to perform as part of the chorus with a not so happy male directory chewing me out in front of everyone after I had my make-up on. Well, I'm almost over that even though I cried and needed my friend, now renowned artiste Kate Spohn to reapply my make-up. He helped many  polish their musical and thespian talents, so that's show-biz. Now the lovely Lori Belter leads the Theatre Society with a lot of support and the great talents of Michael Berkeley who made a great contribution to Tri-Arts for many years in Sharon.

I hope everyone can find time to appreciate the memories and teachers of their educational careers and find ways to give others a pat on the back and even some support when needed to help them pursue their dreams and studies. I'll post a song soon I wrote about the Housatonic and encourage others to do so here as well for this fine school that's open to improvements and boasts many stellar teams and students as well as many who are works in progress and giving good effort to finding their way in these challenging days.

See the world with new eyes as we face this new area of shared response-abilities whether considering great opportunities or challenges like climate change with the big NYC March such as on www.350NYC.org or Ebola which needs our immediate care on all levels from all nations in these global times. May safety and healing be everyone's intention and a widespread gift for humanity with each doing their best for care for self and others in balanced, a ccountable ways with teams of support and encouragement.