By Laura Lane Mervosh
The entire school participated in the festivities, with many invited guests, including included Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Dillon, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Gooding, Hempstead Town Councilman Gary Hudes, school-board members, past PTA presidents, former Assistant Principal Louis Panzica (now the principal of Parkway Elementary), alumni, retired former Bowling Green teachers and others. Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg also attended. He had been an assistant principal at the school during the 1980s, an experience that he said he relished.
"When I speak to the Assembly, I talk about Bowling Green," Weisenberg said. "When I talk about education, I talk about [my] life experience. Bowling Green was a place where faculty and staff were special and some teachers hadn't taken a sick day in 40 years."
Weisenberg recalled that people banded together to ensure that the children of Bowling Green received the best education possible. He said that when he worked at the East Meadow school, he was the happiest person
in the world.
The gym was filled to capacity for the celebration. Many little girls wore poodle skirts, colorful scarves and Capri pants, and little boys dressed in
white T-shirts and cuffed jeans. Colorful posters made by the children lined the gym walls, and everyone received a birthday T-shirt. Entertainment was provided by the children themselves, as they created the atmosphere of the '50s, an era that most of the children knew nothing about until preparing for the birthday party.
Fifth-grader Ryan Schreiber rocked and rolled as Elvis, followed by a group of children clad in black pants and T-shirts, singing "We Go Together," from the musical "Grease."
After the ceremony, people were invited to a teacher's show in the all-purpose room. Not only did the Bowling Green staff perform the popular songs of the '50s, but also recreated the many commercials of the day, like those for Good And Plenty, Doublemint Gum and Chevrolet. Children delighted in seeing their teachers perform, and adult audience members were often heard singing along.
Bowling Green Elementary School is one of the oldest schools in the East Meadow School District. The 50th birthday was heavily attended, even though it rained nearly the entire day. The spirits of the well-wishers could not be dampened, many saying they have some of their most cherished memories at the elementary school.
"No school was like Bowling Green," 1978 graduate Jayme Rones said. "There were so many good teachers and they were more caring. My father passed away when
I was 8, and the teachers from Bowling Green kept an eye on me."
After graduating from Bowling Green, Rones moved to California, and said that she didn't find the same quality of teachers in her new school.
1959 graduate Laura Messina Rizzo agreed, saying that she too found the teachers superior to any others she'd found. Rizzo has many fond memories of Bowling Green; she's even able to remember putting together a cookbook in fifth grade. She brought the book to the birthday party to share with others as she toured the school, which she hadn't seen in 15 years.
At one time, the land that lies directly beneath Bowling Green was a potato farm that also produced beets and cabbage. East Meadow resident Paul Rolla, who lived only blocks away from the school, remembered playing there. He attended Bowling Green when it was first built in 1951, and has many fond memories. His daughter went to Bowling Green too, and now his grandchildren attend.
"I recently attended Grandparents Day, and it brought back so many memories," Rolla said. "It really didn't change that much, and I could picture myself walking through there as a kid."
W. Tresper Clarke, the 1951 president of the Board of Education, is responsible for finding an appropriate name for the East Meadow school. Not wanting to name it "Potato Field School," as had been suggested, he did a little research. Clarke learned that during colonial times, the center of the community was the bowling green. He choose the name Bowling Green, confident that the elementary school would be the center of the community, which it became for thousands of East Meadow students.
When Bowling Green first opened, it was very crowded. Retired first-grade teacher Dorothy Carson remembers triple sessions, in which three teachers shared the same room, teaching three different classes. In 1954, when Betty Dalton began teaching, she too recalled overcrowding.
"It was a challenge for a college graduate beginning a teaching career," Dalton recalled. "We had two teachers in one kindergarten room with 50 kids in the am and 50 in the afternoon. It was challenging to find space and chairs to sit on."
Fortunately, that year Bowling Green II was completed, and it became easier to accommodate enrollment. But Dalton still remembers that there was not room for the teachers to have a faculty room. She recalls eating her lunch in the all-purpose room on the stage. However, Dalton loved teaching at Bowling Green, saying that it was a wonderful place to work.
"I feel sorry for anyone who has to work for 35 years as I did and doesn't enjoy it," Dalton said. "I loved every minute of working at Bowling Green."
At one time, there was an open breezeway between buildings. If a child had to go to the nurse, they had to put on a coat.
PTA President Pat Brace attended Bowling Green in the '60s and still remembered the breezeway.
"There were poles that held up the overhang, and I was spinning around one of them with another boy," Brace said. "We were laughing, and his buck teeth got stuck in my head. I had to get six stitches."
Rones did more than swing around the poles. After entering the breezeway, she left the school grounds. "My mother, Eleanor Rones was instrumental in closing the breezeway," Rones said. "I used to like to walk around the neighborhood."
1969 graduate John Ferri remembered the art shows and how important he felt when some of his work was exhibited. 1986 graduate Jennifer Cavallaro remembered having her Brownie meetings in the boiler room and first being introduced to the magic of poetry.
People seemed to be having a good time reminiscing at the party, but the best part of the day was witnessing the joy that the children experienced. After singing happy birthday, they received what they'd waited for all day, a piece of birthday cake.
"Bowling Green is a lovely, lovely school," former Bowling Green special-education teacher Patricia Mittler said.
