Event: Telling Tales Out of School #2
Oral History Project Interviews
Location: Old Lyme Town Senior Center
Date: March 6, 2010
Interviewee: Gail Bogucki
Interviewer: Alison Mitchell
When did you first come to Old Lyme?
Well, we moved in in August in 1965 into the Chadwick subdivision off of Mile Creek Road and we’ve been there ever since. On our street, we all moved in at the same time, there were 11 houses, it was all within 2 weeks of each other, so we met each other very quickly. And then our builders went bankrupt and so we met each other even more quickly because we had to join as a group to solve this problem of the bankruptcy when the first mortgage holder went to court about it.
When you say we moved in, who are you referring to?
My husband and I and our daughter moved into our house. . . Justin and Joan.
What brought you to Old Lyme?
Well, we had been married for two years and living in New London in a small apartment, one bedroom apartment with a little baby and I took a ride out here one day and drove in and the dogwood trees are so beautiful, I had to bring my husband back. We settled on a house out here, our first home.
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Were you working in New London at the time?
Yes, I worked at L&M Hospital at the school of nursing. I was teaching. I was pregnant when I started, I stayed to finish out a course I was finishing after Joan was born. My husband was a chemistry supervisor, well he became a supervisor, he started out at EB in water chemistry.
And where did you come from?
My father was in the Coast Guard, so that I’ve had a lot of home towns, I was born in Pensacola, Florida and I only spent 3 weeks there. I’ve been all over, really, with my father until I got married and then I took 15 years off after Joan was born to raise 3 children and then I came back to – I decided I really needed to go to work once the college fees were staring me in the face. So I applied a few places and I started part-time as the school nurse here in Old Lyme at Center School. And then two years following that they hired me as the full time nurse to go between Center and Middle School, half and half, so I spent 18 years doing that.
So you have generations of children that have come through?
Yes, although now I don’t know any of them.
Are you still working?
No.
When did you retire?
I was 62, I’m 74 now. So that was 12 years ago.
Tell me about the life of the school since you were here. You started at Center School about 1975, something like that. Were the children in the same school as you were the nurse?
My son was going into 6th grade and it was when they were building the high school, so that was the year that I first started full time, but when he was in 3rd grade I started part time. It was nice to have school hours; I was hired by the Board of Education. I wasn’t a visiting nurse or anything. But my life at the schools was very quiet. I had 4 hours from 10 to 2 at Center and there weren’t at that time too many medications. A lot of band aids and things like that. I felt like I was sort of the safety officer because I could see things that were happening and I would have to bring it up to the principal. I don’t remember what the principal’s name was. Dangerous things that might happen to a child, such as they were playing hockey without any eye glasses on – I mean inside the gym I’m talking about, things like that. Walking back and forth, the kids would walk back and forth between the two schools and it always bothered me because they needed to be escorted by an adult. But they never took my suggestion on that one. A year after I retired they hired 2 nurses, one for each school.
Oh I see, you mean the children at the other school would come over to see you as the nurse. I understand.
As the years went by the number of medications went up, diabetics, Ritalin was starting to be used a lot.
So there had to be close monitoring of that.
I enjoyed my work as a school nurse, I really enjoyed the kids. My principal at the Middle School always wanted me to be with him on his DC trips. He took the 8th graders to DC for 3 nights and 2 days and the teachers were usually the volunteer chaperones and he always wanted his nurse to go with him. We had some interesting times.
Because of health things that might arise?
No just the kids themselves, just what teenagers do. Nothing real serious, but I come back and look at it now, it was interesting.
What do you see teenagers do?
You don’t know what teenagers do, have you never had a teenager?
Yes I have, but I mean, it seems so long ago and far away. It was so benign when my kids were teenagers, very different from now.
They weren’t mischievous, I never found any alcohol or liquor or drugs because I went through each of the girl’s rooms, I was on the girl’s floor and that was good. I had a good time, in fact, after 8 years of doing this I started being the volunteer driver, not doing the actual driving but direct people because I knew my way around Washington. Even though things have changed.
You said you lived in DC?
Well, I spent a year in Bell Haven, Virginia, I spent a year in Arlington, I spent a year in Terrydale, 2 years in West Hyattsville, went away and came back. These are all in-between coming and going.
Alternating between Virginia and Maryland.
Well, my father would be transferred out and then back to Washington again. So we’d go back and forth. The only time it bothered me to move was when I had to move in my senior year. I had to go back, we had to move from Portland Maine back to DC. It was hard and I had to go from a public school to a parochial school, and that was hard. Very tough. Then we went to England for a year. So I went to school in Munich, the University of Maryland had a school for dependents and then I came back when my father came back and ended up at UCONN. I applied to UCONN and switched to nursing. I’m a three generation UCONN graduate. My mother went there, I went there and my son went there.
I bet your experience living in different cultures and different towns and cities really could be very useful as a school nurse. There was probably nothing you hadn’t endured somewhere.
Either that or experience with my own teenagers. A lot of it got to be psychological. A lot of these kids just needed to walk down the hall and talk to someone. So they’d come in quite often to do that.
So many schools I hear saying, what do we need a school nurse for? I mean I think it’s critical to keep them.
Well the number of medications are up at least 1000% from the time I started to the time I ended. Its usually kids that are not dummy’s. Its not necessarily genetic, I don’t believe, the ADD or HD and most of these kids are bright.
Well, tell me a little bit more about your life here in Old Lyme.
Well, we got to know everybody very fast because of this association, our builder . . .
Did you have to get another mortgage holder, did you become a coop?
No we just went to court and settled with all the lien holders because the first mortgage holder finally sued the builder. He had three Tumblebrooks, Tumblebrook One, Two and Three and since they were separated you couldn’t attach the money from one to the other. So luckily we had moved in and a lot of these people in Chadwick did not have. . their homes weren’t finished. We had about $200 worth of work to do but some had homes that weren’t finished. Connie Anderson, I think her house was only half finished when they moved in, but if you didn’t move in then you lost all your down payment. It was settled after a year and it was quite beneficial, we were happy with it. But our road for instance wasn’t paved for a year and half so we had to take all the garbage up to the end of the street until the town of Old Lyme luckily had a bond to force the owner and if they didn’t do it, they had insurance to have somebody make the road for us. I think Macknik did it.
And tell me about your neighbors. You must have become sort of buddies through this whole deal.
There were 22 of us that were in the original group. Its part of Captain Chadwick’s farm and you can tell by the stonewalls that it probably was a farm at one time.
What was his first name? Was it Daniel?
Well his house is right in back of me, it’s on Mile Creek Road and it’s got a historical market on it.
And it’s now owned by the Igelbrinks. Is that the house? I think, if I’m not mistaken.They’ve been lovingly restoring the gardens. It is on Mile Creek Road.
Yea, not to far, a couple houses down.
So your development sounds funny to think of Old Lyme and housing developments, doesn’t it?
I think we were probably one of the first. Because they allowed one acre per house and then the subsequent developments that were put in, they raised it to two acres, as far as I know.
But still an acre is not very nice is it?
No, no, well we miss our Chadwick tree. That was part of in the deed, when the land was sold to the developer that that tree, going down Chadwick Drive, was to stay there and they kept it there and had the street going around it.
How old was the tree?
I have no idea, but it was a wonderful tree at Halloween. The kids loved to dress it up. It was an oak. And when Selectman Rice was here, gotta be 10-12 years ago, just before Tim Griswold, he had it cut down without telling us. One day it was just gone. I don’t think that the town, the people that took care of the road, I don’t think they liked the clean up after the toilet paper, but it kept the kids out of harms way.
Oh, you mean because of the decorating.
Yes. It was beautiful; they did a better job every year.
And what a mild thing to do, not breaking windows or smoking pot. Was there a big human cry?
Oh, absolutely, they did plant another three and it sort of became Scott, he died in Pan Am 101, Corey, Scott Corey, he was coming back from his junior year abroad. He was in my son’s class and they played soccer together, so it sort of has become a memorial to him and now especially in the winter red bows are tied on there in this memory. Not a formal thing, it just evolved.
Of the original group, how many families are still her?. When you moved in the year was ’64.
I’m trying to think, many of them have died unfortunately, because everybody has had some form of cancer and its not just our street, its just pocketed there for some reason, we all had homes that were built by the same builder using the same material. We have a community well so everybody gets the same water. There is no reason for it, but it just happens that way.
People had the same kind of cancer?
No, all types, but that’s the kind of neighborhood it was when we first moved in because the older people had moved into the assisted living or a smaller apartment and now the younger families with children are there, like Sosten? and her family.
So it’s kind of a reverse, which is very healthy.. It’s called the Chadwick development? Is that the formal name or is that the name you all give it?
Well, I think the Chadwick Acreage, Chadwick Home Division, subdivision they call it.
So of the original families are you among the few that are still there?
Yea, I think about a third or a half are still there.
Do you get together?
No we don’t do anything as a group except get together for the water. We own the Water Association; there are about 76 homes on it.
So you have an annual meeting of the water commission?
Yea, right. And I’ve made such good friends there, I don’t want to move. We have bridge groups and we see each other to do other things. My children don’t live here anymore. 2 live in California and the other in Pittsburg, so I don’t want to move there, my life is here, it’s a wonderful life in Old Lyme.
What makes it wonderful?
I think the people and the way, I like the character of the town, the flavor, I don’t know how to explain it, but I like the way the houses are built and everything is neat and I think churches are wonderful. All are very active.
Are you active in one?
No not now.
But you feel they provide the continuity of the life here. What are you involved with since you retired?
Well, family. Seriously. One of my daughters has problems and so I help her out. She lives in Pittsburg and then they come to visit us. And then we have to get to the grandchildren that are all out in California. And I have an aunt here who is 97 that I drive on Fridays; I drive Miss Daisy on Fridays. I just don’t want to get tied down into anything every single day on a volunteer basis; I enjoy my life as it is.
Someone who worked at such an important job in the life of the school, its probably a nice feeling to know that you can concentrate on your own family.
I go kayaking. I have a kayakers group. We go all over Connecticut. The River, many of the lakes, beautiful places and I never would have gone had I not had a kayak and friends to go with. There’s just 3 of us mostly, 2 from Colchester. All women.
So you say, ok, it’s a beautiful day, let’s go kayaking?
Yea, we go at least twice a week in the nice weather. I play bridge in the winter.
Since the 1960s, do you think the weather has changed?
I think so, but this past winter is the one I think we had way back when I first moved here. Rogers Lake used to freeze and we could go ice skating over there with the kids and then there was period of warmth when it didn’t freeze at all, and now these past four or five years, it seems colder again. But that doesn’t stop me because I’m a skier. I used to do downhill, but then I had an accident out at Sun Valley so I’ve done cross-country, I don’t do that much.
So, how do you feel about the schools, you must have a bird’s eye view of the school system in Old Lyme and I’ve heard that people come to Old Lyme because of the school. Do you think that’s justified?
Oh yes, absolutely.
Do you think they’ve improved since you’ve been here? I know you talked a little about the safety issues?
Our quality of education is excellent. I’ve had people come in and tell me they’d moved out of New London because if they lived in New London they would have to pay for their children to go to a private school, that’s what they felt. I think their quality is excellent. Our kids have done very well having gone to school here.
All three of your children went to school here. What were they involved with?
A lot of athletics. Soccer mom. Girls were involved with crew, they were involved in fencing. Volleyball, basketball and soccer. Those were the main things. They enjoyed the crew very much. Whereas my son did other things. Oh, tennis, that was another thing they did. I’m very proud that they do athletic things rather than concentrate on cheerleading. It’s a healthy thing to do.
I was interested to read about the new track that they put in.
Yea, Mr. & Mrs. Black, that was a tragedy.
Do you see the population changing?
Well, I think the more space we secure, the more rural town atmosphere will stay the way most people like it. Old Lyme tends to be very conservative. When we first came here that was a government grant that was granted to redo Soundview. And the townspeople turned it down because they didn’t want the government interfering with their beaches. And that also is the area where I lived on cross lane where the fire department is with the ambulance and that area was owned by Ella Grasso who is the former governor and she did, as I read, she indicated, after she died, they sold it and it was indicated they wanted to use it for recreation purposes. So surprisingly they did take government money in order to pay for that. The little league field, tennis courts, basketball courts, there’s a pond to skate on in the winter, very nice. We need down in our end of town. And many people didn’t even want to have public money for that because they used to park there and walk to the beach which is a mile and a quarter away.