Two women remember their days in the schoolyard

By MACKENZIE ISSLER
Recorder Staff

GREENFIELD — About 82 years ago, two young girls, a shy brunette with straight hair that fell just below her chin and a talkative red-head with bouncy curls, met for the first time.

The two girls had attended public schools for their first three years of school, but when Holy Trinity School opened in 1929, their families decided to send them to the parochial school.

So, when the first day of fourth grade arrived, the two walked from their homes to their new school, which was located in the same brick building it is housed in today on Beacon Street.
Ninety-one-year-old Doris Powlovich, the once red-head, and 90-year-old Kay O’Hara, the once quiet brunette, now both live in Charlene Manor Extended Care Facility, and were in the first class of eighth graders to graduate from the Holy Trinity School.

The two, who both have gray hair now, sat in wheelchairs as they reminisced about their years at Holy Trinity School, after hearing the news that the school will close at the end of this year. “I think it is awful … it is too bad that it is closing,” said O-Hara. “Some children are missing a good opportunity.”

“There are a lot of good memories,” she said.

O’Hara started to chuckle when she started to share one of these memories. When she was in the eighth grade, she recalled, she was with a group of friends on the school’s second floor near the staircase. By accident, one of her friends knocked into a wooden door stop, which then went flying into the air down to the first floor.

“It landed in a nun’s habit and my friend was scared stiff,” she said with a laugh.

Now, there are 51 students in pre-kindergarten through six grade at Holy Trinity School, but when Powlovich and O’Hara were there, they had 50 students just in one grade. Then the school had grades 1 through 8.

Back then, each grade gathered in one large room and one nun taught them all of their lessons, which included math, writing, history, geography and Catechism. They also didn’t have to wear uniforms when they went to school, but the two said they always wore skirts and dresses to school. “Those times were rough,” said O’Hara. “We didn’t have a lot of clothing,” said Powlovich.

There was no such thing as snow days back then, they said. During the winter, they would bundle up and wear overshoes, which were boots that they would put over their shoes, and trudged through the snowy streets to school.

Each student sat at a wooden desk and would do their lessons using paper notebooks, pencils and pens that they had to dip in ink wells. School went from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with an hour break for lunch when the students would go home to eat. During recess, the students would play a variety of games, including hopscotch, jump rope and tag.

O’Hara guessed that her family sent her to the school because they were Catholic. Powlovich left the public schools to go because her father’s cousin was a firstgrade teacher there — Sister Agnes Angela.

“She was a doll,” said O’Hara.

After the two graduated from Holy Trinity, they went to Greenfield High School where they finished their last four years of school. Since graduation, they have stayed in touch, as they both worked in Greenfield.

“I think it is wonderful it stayed open as long as it did,” said Powlovich. “I think it goes along with progress.”

“Times are changing and all schools are having problems staying open.”

(Picture taken by Paul Franz)