Exhibit OpeningsExhibit: Pawcatuck Remembers - 80 Years of the Field Street School
Friday, November 8 from 5-7pm (remarks and short video at 5:45)
Saturday, November 9 from 2-4pm (remarks and short video at 3:45)
“Pawcatuck Remembers: 80 Years at the 40 Field Street School”
Pawcatuck Remembers is a student-developed art exhibition and book project capturing snapshots and stories of the school since 1939.
Remarks and short video viewing at 5:45 on Friday and 2:45 on Saturday.
Wine, soft drinks, nibbles, and cafeteria “Candy Cookies.”
Share your own memories and take home your own free copy of the student-developed book Pawcatuck Students Remember.
The exhibition may also be viewed through December 15 at times when La Grua Center is open; please call ahead for times at 860-535-2300. The video can be found on La Grua Center’s YouTube channel.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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Each photograph and story memorializes a student’s fond memories of what has previously been known as Stonington High School, Pawcatuck Junior High School, and Pawcatuck Middle School.
With a town-wide middle school consolidation occurring at the start of the current school year, the Field Street school no longer is used as a community school. To commemorate this momentous change, several teachers (including children’s book author Sheila Adams, language arts teacher Marika Heughins, and photographer Tim Flanagan) at the former Pawcatuck Middle School organized a summer school class in August of 2018 for current students to interview former students of the school and collect memories.
The students put out advertisements and were thrilled to have alumni from all eight decades—from the 1940s through the 2010s—answer their call (including now-retired actress Ruth Buzzi who came to prominence on the 1960’s hit TV series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In and received five Emmy Award nominations). These alumni joined the teachers and students to share their stories. They toured the building and compared their recollections with those of the current students, comparing locations of cafeterias, classrooms, offices, and auditoriums.
The book is an artistic collection of those memories—from cheerleading routines, to home economics classes, to favorite teachers—these are the stories that shaped the students, the school, and the entire community over the past 80 years.
This project was also assisted by David Erskine, former chief of police in Stonington and considered by many as the unofficial town historian, and videographer Dan Agins, who also teaches at Stonington Middle School.
