SWAMPSCOTT — For Robert Walsh, who attended Hadley Elementary School in the 1940s, visiting his old stomping grounds on Tuesday was like coming home.
Walsh, 85, started attending Hadley in 1940, and stayed from third to eighth grade. At the time, Hadley Elementary was only in the annex of the building and when students moved on, they simply crossed what he called a breezeway into the middle school in the main building.
The Vietnam War veteran and retired teacher was taken on a tour of his former school by Principal Ilana Bebchick, the first time he returned to Hadley since he was a student there.
He had reached out to Superintendent Pamela Angelakis requesting a visit after reading there was a possibility the 107-year-old school could be torn down if the district’s plans for a new consolidated elementary school are approved.
“I thought it would be nice to get down here before I croaked,” Walsh said. “When I walked in the entrance and up the stairwell, I was home. I felt very warm and fuzzy and I felt good. I knew there would be changes to the building, but it looked the same.”
Walsh classifies his time at Hadley as happy years. He loved his childhood in town, with some of his hangouts including Fisherman’s Beach and Lincoln House Point, recalling that the latter, where he would spend his time fishing on the rocks, wasn’t a residential neighborhood at the time. He was a volunteer at Fisherman’s, renting out fishing dories for people from Boston.
Although his family moved to Winchester before he started the ninth grade and after his father returned from World War II, he considers Swampscott home. He visits the seaside town at least twice a year with his wife, Sandy. The couple, who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on Monday, lives in South Burlington, Vt.
Walsh said his elementary school years were very much influenced by World War II. Each Monday, the students had to produce their stamp books and report on how many victory stamps they had bought.
As a Daily Evening Item paperboy, he said his route was a real advantage as he could buy stamps each week. The goal was to buy enough stamps to get a $25 war bond, which became a competition in class.
Students also knitted wool squares to put together afghans to send to the troops. The war also impacted curriculum, as the Item would publish maps with arrows showing the progress of the fighting in Europe and the Pacific, and math problems became more realistic as students were familiar with food and gas rationing, according to Walsh.
He recalled some of his former teachers with fondness, including his third grade teacher Miss Thatcher, a young and short woman with sparkling brown eyes whom he took an instant liking to, and his “strict, no nonsense” fifth grade teacher, Miss Fenwick. He doesn’t remember the name of his eighth grade teacher, but said she sparked his interest in history.
“Hadley School holds a special place in my heart,” Walsh said.
Walsh spent 21 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including serving a year in Vietnam. After retiring from the armed service as a lieutenant colonel, he taught African-American history at South Burlington High School for 15 years and was an adjunct professor of race and culture at the University of Vermont for five years. He was a state representative in Vermont for six years and has written three books.
Bebchick said she thought it was a great idea for Walsh to visit.
“I think it was exciting for our students to meet somebody who was here so many years ago and learn about the history of the school,” Bebchick said
