Bugbee Elementary School held an assembly celebrating its 75th birthday and will continue the celebration throughout the school year.

By Ronni Newton

There have been many changes that have taken place in West Hartford in the three quarters of a century since Bugbee School opened its doors, and on Dec. 18 the entire school community took a trip back in time during a 75th birthday celebration.

According to Superintendent Paul Vicinus, Bugbee – named for former Hall High School Principal Lloyd Bugbee – was one of nine schools to open in West Hartford during an enormous post-World War II expansion that took place between 1949 and 1959, and of those schools there are eight still open today, with Bridle Path Elementary (now Solomon Schechter Day School) the only one no longer part of the district.

Bugbee fifth graders Spencer Baumgart, Lizzie Johnson, and Finley Timme presided over the birthday celebration as emcees, with representatives from each grade level highlighting what the world, the town, and the school was like in each of the previous decades.

Bugbee opened before the first McDonald’s and before markers were invented, a group of fifth graders said. When a popular song from the 1950s – “Banana Boat (Day-O)” – was played for the crowd in the auditorium, the students burst into giggles.

In the 1960s girls had to wear dresses or skirts to school, the fourth grade representatives shared. Several students wrote to the principal at the time asking for a change in the dress code to allow the girls to wear pants, but were denied.

School lunches, which cost 25 cents, often featured meatloaf with mashed potatoes in the 1950s, and third graders shared that in the 1970s, the popular lunch was fish sticks with tater tots. “The kitchen where we line up and get our food looks exactly the same,” they said.

Second graders shared some history of the 1980s, when the movie “ET” debuted on the big screen and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was one of the popular songs.

It was during the 1980s that Bugbee Principal Susan Horvath was herself a “Bugbee Bee,” and students shared that she performed the role of a barnyard animal in the school play “Growing Friendships.”

Even the youngest students (with a bit of assistance) shared the history that covered years before they were born. First graders reviewed the 1990s – the years of NSync, “Toy Story,” and Harry Potter.

Kindergartners shared some popular themes of the early 2000s, like Sponge Bob and Katy Perry’s song “Firework.”

Highlighting the assembly was a visit from retired teacher Gail Stafford who shared some reflections – and some memories of when Principal Horvath was in her second grade classroom in the late 1980s.

Stafford originally joined the Bugbee staff in 1983 as a special education teacher, and in those days there was no elevator, and no lockers – just hooks – for students’ coats and other items.

“The hill was always there,” Stafford said, recalling that she enjoyed sledding down the hill.

The entire school shared a 75th birthday wish, but the celebration is not over. On Friday, April 24, from 6 to 9 p.m., Bugbee alumni, former staff, and Bugbee families – past and present – will gather for an 75th anniversary celebration and fundraiser in the West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium.

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