 Hi, my name is Amy Duke. I'm a teacher at the Ottison Middle School. And I'm also heading up a committee which is celebrating Ottison's 100th birthday, a century of learning, along with other former teachers, such as Ms. Anna Colazzo and several other teachers in the building. We're really happy today that Dr. Kevin Fallon, who is a veterinarian in town, has agreed to come and be interviewed and share his stories of being a student at the junior high west. Dr. Fallon, I would like you to start off with a little bit of background. When did you move to Arlington? Or were your parents Arlington natives? No, my parents. My dad was from Fitchburg, and my mom was from Detroit. They met in the Army, both World War II veterans, and got married when they were in the Army. And then they were stationed in Nebraska where my oldest sister was born, and moved back to Massachusetts when they finished service to my dad wanting to go to university. And my mom was a registered nurse already. And so he went to undergraduate school at St. Michael's up in Vermont on the GI Bill. And they had married student housing, which was pretty rare for a lot of universities at the time. And I was born up in Burlington, Vermont. And we moved down to Arlington in 1950. And so how old were you when you? Two. OK, so you were really little. I'm assuming you attended an Arlington elementary school? Yes, I went to Locke School, which is right across the street from where we are today. For kindergarten through sixth grade. And then do you remember what year you entered the junior high west, or you graduated either one? We graduated in 62. So I guess it was 1959. I remember we had a mock election for the president in Kennedy 1. That's awesome. So you entered as a seventh grader and left as a ninth grader? Eighth grade, so it was just seventh and eighth. That's right. Good. How did you get to junior high west? Oh, I would walk. I live pretty close. I live on Florence Ave, which is very close to where we are now, on the lower side of Park Ave. So all I needed to do if we went through the streets, I would go up close street, down close street, to Gray Street, and cut through the woods to the school. OK, wonderful. So we were talking a little bit about before we started actually filming the size of the building compared to now. Can you give a little description of what the building looked like when you were there? Yeah, it was pretty much an L shape. And we actually entered school in the morning on the parking lot side facing the woods of that L shape, the toe of the L. And everyone entered through that one door. There was only one entrance in the morning. And I don't know why that was, because there were many doors, but I think they wanted to control it. So I think it's almost doubled in size from what I can see. That sounds right. Yeah. OK. How long was the school day? Sort of a typical? Probably 8.30 to 2.30, I would say, right around that. Maybe 8. Yeah, pretty much the same. Was there a dress code? There was. I think women had to wear skirts or dresses. We had to wear collared shirts with ties. And we weren't allowed to wear patch pocket pants. So even if you had a nice pair of corduroys, if it had the patch pocket like you see on jeans, those weren't allowed. Did you stay for lunch? Did you go home for lunch? We stayed for lunch. And it was downstairs in the larger section of the building. Lunch was 25 cents. And it was a decent meal. It was a decent meal. Milk was 3 cents. I remember milk being 3 cents. That was extra. Did you go outside? Was there a recess at all? Was there any break where you went outside? No recess. No. You stayed in school. All right. So the principal when you were there was Mr. Henry Ottison. And you have some memories of him. Yeah, he was quite a guy. He was about six foot five. And every morning he would get on the intercom that was connected to all the rooms. We were still doing the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. And so after that was done. There was a routine. The homeroom teacher would take attendance. We'd do the Pledge of Allegiance. And then Mr. Ottison would come on with announcements. And then he had a deep, deep voice. And he would go, good morning, boys. And it was, you know it was him. Everyone called him Hank. That was his nickname, Hank. And you said you used to walk to school with him sometimes? Sometimes when often where I lived, I lived on the corner of Ashland in Florence Ave. And it was easy to cut through some people's yards to get to school rather than go up cliff and down cliff. But sometimes we did go that way at the intersection of Oakland and Gray Street. And every once in a while, Mr. Ottison would be walking through and he was fun to talk to, so we walked with him. You know, if I was by myself, I wouldn't hesitate. I would walk with him, you know. And at the time, and they're gone, but at the end of the woods, there is this like cement tray, I think it's erosion control. And it goes down to the horseshoe, you know the horseshoe, and there's a sewer there. And so I think that was just to bring an erosion down the hill towards the school. And there was a staircase in the middle of that right behind the school. So there was a cement staircase that went all the way up to the, went past that little culvert right there. That's what you remember. Did you ever have to see Mr. Ottison because you got in trouble for something? No, not for trouble. I had a paper route, and so I was often late to school. Just by a couple of minutes or so, but he's, that's the only thing that he ever talked to me about was my timing schedule. And was he sort of an understanding? Oh yeah, he just, he was really, really good. He was easy to deal with. There was another, the vice principal was the tough guy, I think, Mr. Duggan, I think his name was. And he was the one who would do discipline, give out, detention or whatever needed for kids who got in trouble. And do you remember what kids would get in trouble for? A lot of our students are very interested in that question. Yeah, getting caught smoking. They would sneak outside and get caught smoking. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And you know, let's see, I can't even really think what. Yeah. Sometimes I know some friends of mine, their skirts were too short and they got sent home and had to change to get longer skirts. Yeah. I can't remember anything particular about that. Yeah, okay, well, that's great. Yeah. That's great, okay. In terms of the schoolwork, was it hard to earn high grades? Like, do you remember it being a very difficult, tough school or was it, you know, you could kind of, as long as you got your homework done, it was okay? Homework was new for us. At lock school, we never had any homework. And so the idea of having to do homework was novel. And most of the time I got it done. Sometimes I would get assignments and not write them down because I don't know why. But I remember when my mother would go to the PTA meeting, teacher conference, and she would say, well, why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do this? And I just didn't remember ever being assigned that assignment. Well, that hasn't changed much. I can tell you that. Good, good. Wasn't just me. Do you have any memories of particular teachers? Yeah, I had my homeroom teacher, not my homeroom teacher, but my unit teacher. We call it unit. It was the teacher who taught you English and social studies, which there was a lot of geography in there too, I remember. And that was Ms. Nolan. And she got married and her name was Mrs. Clancy. And I remember Mr. Mahoney, who was the math teacher who eventually became principal. I remember Mr. Porter was my science teacher. I'm trying to think. I had Mr. Lauder. There was quite a few Lauder brothers. One was the athletic director at the high school. Mr. Lauder was a social studies teacher also. But he was always, everyone liked him. I'm going up and down the corridor. We had an art teacher. Everyone had to take art classes, seventh and eighth grade. And we had Mrs. Murray. And so when you went up to get the paint, you were getting, she would say, only take a nickel's worth, which she meant the size of a nickel, because some kids would take too much. So she was just trying to conserve. I always thought that was funny, a nickel's worth. Trying to think of some of the other teachers. My guidance counter was Mr. Gordon. And everyone called him Flash because of the comic books. He was a good guy. He was a good guy too. Did you take a foreign language? Yeah, I did. I took Latin, and I can see the teacher. I can't remember her name. I think you've done really well. I can't remember her name. Mrs. Briggs, I think. I think it was Mrs. Briggs. And then that just made me think of someone else there. I can't remember. Do you know if there were other languages offered besides Latin? Yeah, French was the other one. Okay, you could do Latin or French. And did you pick? Yeah, you got to choose. Okay. Any of the teachers, do you remember any particularly quirks or were they just kind of regular teachers? Well, everyone had to take Sharp one year for the boys. We had to take a Sharp class. And that teacher, they called him Salminio. He looked like that actor, Salminio. And he was a nut job. I think he got in trouble a few years later. I forget what it was, but everyone just called him Sal. Behind his back made fun of him, of course. And that Sharp class was quite large. There was about 25 kids in the class at a time. And then we also took printing one year. And that teacher always wore a gray lab coat. And I forget his name, but he was a different kind of guy, too. I'm not sure how to describe him. But did you have a favorite teacher? I had Mr. McNulty was my math teacher in seventh grade. And we always got along really, really well. I had Ms. Nolan, like I said, for unit. And she and I got along well. And actually, when I was back in high school, I went back to see her a couple of times and say hello. And I had Mr. Tobin, who was, I think a social studies teacher, but he also started a fitness program after school. And he also started a basketball team for the junior high. And I was on that team and he was an ex-marine and quite disciplined and it was easy to get in trouble. I'm gonna come across the wrong way to him. And so, you know, ended up doing a lot of laps. That's great. So there was a gymnasium in the school? Yeah, the big gymnasium that still exists. Yes. That was there. It must have been pretty new then at the time. Yeah, it seemed pretty new. And that's where we had assemblies. Okay. And that was quite a popular venue, too, for the Allenton Parks Department. Winter basketball, there was all sorts of teams. Adult teams, high school teams, in the evenings there. Do you remember any assemblies that you would have? Yeah, they would be in that, they would set up chairs in that gym and they would be there. And most of the presenters would be on the stage. And that's where the drama club practiced, too. And right behind it, if you go behind that stage, not sure if it's still there, but that's where the music rooms were. I'm not sure. And that was a new section, too. That was all added when they added the gym. Just in terms of at the time, did you have, you were, I know, it's going way back, but did you have favorite music that you like to listen to? You know what, either in seventh or eighth grade, I think it was seventh grade, the movie West Side Story came out. Oh, wow. And that was really, really magic. Everyone was into it. And I went with a few of my friends, the only place you could go see the movie was in Boston. And so, you know, we would take the train and the subway in and go see it. Sorry to cut all the times, it was fun, it was cool. It was very, very popular, very popular. How about books? Do you remember any particular book at the time that was sort of popular or meaningful? I guess just two years? Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think. Not off the top of my head, yeah. Did you know just when you were in junior high that you wanted to be a vet? Like, did you have a particular interest in animals? I did, my uncle was a veterinarian in the middle of Massachusetts and on my school vacation, starting right about junior high, I would go up and ride with him for a week and he did a lot of dairy cows. There was a lot of small dairy farms in New England at the time. And so, you know, we would go out and just do routine calls for sick cows if there was a dystocia, which was a difficult birth. We would go in and assist with that. And that was pretty cool to go in, watch my uncle go in and actually pull out the calf and have it stand up and start nursing within 20 minutes. You know, it was just amazing. And the farmers were all really, really cool. They were sweet people. Sometimes they paid him, I had one farmer, Mrs. Kimball, she would give him like 10 loaves of homemade bread. They would barter, you know. And I remember being in the car and the bread was still warm and eating it while we're going on to the next farm call. And then I went up there quite often and still when I was, before high school, he started his own small animal practice and it was in his, my parents, my father's and his parents' house and they had a barn in the back. And it was just a small two cow barn that they had two cows when they were growing up for milk and stuff. And he just got it and put in a small animal clinic there. So I would go up quite a bit during school vacations. It was fun. Do you remember anything painful happening during your junior high years? Anything particular? No, I'm trying to think. That's good then. Nothing crazy. The kids all want to know how you communicated with your friends since they all do things, they text or whatever. If you wanted to meet your friends somewhere, like how would you? It would have to be prearranged. And we did have phones. I didn't know anyone when I was in junior high school who had an answer machine. So if you weren't home or no one could answer the phone, you didn't connect. Yeah. It was mostly prearranged and there was a skating rink on route two. It was an MDC skating rink. It's before where they put all those new apartments and now just at the end of Lake Street. And sometimes we would arrange to meet there. Right. Other place we would arrange to meet in the winter would be at Hills Pond at Monotomy because that was lit up. Oh. And the town actually used to go in on with little plows and clear the ice. And you could call up the police and say, is this ice safe? And they would say yes or no. Wow. Do you have any, as you look back in your junior high west years, is there anything that made it particularly special, sort of stand out in your mind? Yeah, going from lock school where you stayed in the same room all day and had one teacher all day, being able to do a class and then walking to the next class that sort of was scary initially because we thought we would get lost and all that. But that was fun. I liked the change, having the different specialty teachers like my science teacher and math and the art class. We also each had to take music classes and in the seventh grade we had a Mr. Edmonds. And he was from Texas and he was pretty tough as far as discipline and grading went. Trying to think, it was almost like an adventure going up to the west. Just that extra freedom that you had between classes and having the lunch room. I mean, we never had anything like that in lock school. Everyone brought their own lunches and so being able to buy the lunch, that was fun too. So you were starting on your growing up years when it was a transition. Well, thank you. Are there any other memories that you have that haven't touched on? Well, one thing right beside the gym if you could see the old, the way the land was in front of the junior high west from the Mass Ave view, there was all big hills and we used to go sledding there a lot. And that was a good place to go sledding. And we would either go there or Robbins Farm, but that was a good place to go. It was close and it was a good time. I remember almost, most of my time seemed to be I was playing basketball there. It was, in any way we could get into the gym we would. So it was fun, it was good. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate you sharing your memories. You're welcome, it's a pleasure to be here.