As the school year winds down, and Staples students complain about poor air conditioning or not being allowed to leave campus, it’s a good time to look at some memorabilia Marty Sagendorf recently found — and forwarded to “06880.”
Here’s a trip down memory lane, thanks to the Bedford Junior High (Class of 1957) and Staples (’60) grad.
On the left is Staples’ bell schedule from Marty’s sophomore year. School started at 8:30 a.m., with a 10-minute homeroom. In the last year that Staples was on Riverside Avenue — now Saugatuck Elementary School — students had 4 minutes between classes. Today, in the mammoth 3-story North Avenue building, they get 5.
In 1957-58, the school day ended at 2:33. Today it’s 7:30 a.m. to 2:15 — 42 minutes longer.
The daily schedule (right side) was virtually the same each day. Interestingly, despite a much smaller school population, there were 6 lunch periods of 25 minutes each (today it’s 3 periods, 30 minutes each). Of course, the cafeteria was a lot smaller then too.
If you ever wondered what the inside of the original Staples — built in 1884, and still used in the 1950s as an “annex” to the 1936 building — looked like, here it is.
Moving clockwise from the upper left, we see the 3rd, 2nd, 1st floors and basement, respectively. Yes, it was tiny.
Located approximately where the Saugatuck Elementary School auditorium is now, it was torn down in 1967.
The lower left and center left plans show the “new building” (now the central part of Saugatuck El).
Before the days of bumper stickers and decals, Staples students showed pride in their high school by affixing these signs to their license plates.
Ah, the Hall Patrol. Ninth graders at Bedford Junior High School (now Kings Highway Elementary) took regular tours of duty, making sure the hallways stayed safe. Marty stands proudly in the back row, 3rd from left.
The official Hall Patrol armband. Now you know why you didn’t mess with the Hall Patrol.