Then and Now

Another Era at WHS

Recently, I was invited by Bob Kaprelian ’53 and Bob Norton ’61 to host a tour of the school for the class of 1961’s fiftieth reunion. So over coffee and doughnuts, along with a couple of student reporters from The Raider Times, I walked with a couple dozen members of Watertown High’s past and chatted about our present and future.

I couldn’t help but draw some contrasts between life at WHS then and now and thought I’d share them with you.

Then you turned right upon entering the building and walked into the gymnasium and basketball court. Now in that spot there’s a library.

Then computers were students in math class working on problems; now they’re spread throughout the building for use in student research, learning, and production.

Then they had a headmaster named John J. Kelly; now we have a John J. Kelly gymnasium.

Then the cafeteria opened up to a courtyard next to a track and open space in front of the cemetery. Now there’s still a courtyard, but that open space is covered by the athletics and physical education area and by art, photography, and design studios.

Then the academy award for best picture went to West Side Story. Now it’s one of the possible choices for a winter musical (Or at least it was a few years back; this year we’re running Seussical.)

Then the landmark novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. Now our ninth graders read it in English class.

Then the two genders had separate PE classes and only girls took home economics classes and only boys went to the wood shop. The Hoyt Thurber award for the best student athlete was given only to a graduating young man. We still have PE classes but they are mixed gender, and plenty of boys enroll in Foods and Nutrition, while plenty of girls work in the wood shop, often – Mr. Boudreau claims – with more patience and skill. And there are, and will be again this year, two Hoyt Thurber awards, for an outstanding male and female student athlete.

Then they held Armenian bake sales from time to time. We have one this week!

Then probably too many of the youth of Watertown smoked and/or drank, but not everyone thought it was a problem. Now too many of the youth of Watertown smoke or drink, and we see it as a problem for their health and safety.

Then kids picked on each other and did horrible things to someone from time to time but there wasn’t a specific word for it and it largely happened below the radar. Now we call it bullying and are trying to put a stop to it.

I’m suspicious of the belief in the inevitable progress of humankind and an ever-brighter future, and I have no time for the sentiment that today’s youth are somehow worse than those of the past or that society’s running itself into the toilet. Neither the past nor the present is a uniquely golden era. We’re neither better nor worse from one another, just different.

But I do think it’s nice to stop and take perspective once in a while and notice where we are and where we came from before going back and making the best we can of these times we live in, while still enjoying that coffee and doughnut, of course.