Young Biff Temple, son of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Temple, 509 Dakota St., was in his first grade seat bright and early this morning as 4,216 Lawrence school children headed back to the classroom. But Biff was interested in anything but what Mrs. Lowell Bailey, the teacher, had to say. He was still reliving the summer vacation -- with schoolwork taking a back seat to thoughts of ball games, ice cream and bare feet.

In 1957, two years after Centennial School opened its doors for the first time, Louise and Clyde Woods planted an infant Scotch pine in the northeast corner of the school’s lawn.

The couple lived on Greever Terrace, just across the street from the school, where their only daughter, Nancy, walked to class each morning.

Much attention had been paid to constructing the elementary school building, but the landscaping left little to be desired. So, Louise Woods, then-chairwoman of the PTA’s hospitality committee bought the sapling and, after the school used it for a Christmas tree that December, placed it strategically.

“We planted it on the corner because that’s where we lived, and we drove by it every day for the next 15 years,” Woods said. “As it grew, Nancy grew, of course.”

Nancy Woods is now Nancy Rake, 51, with two college-aged daughters. She’s one of thousands who spent their formative years at Centennial, learning to read, write, draw, add, subtract. What all the Cardinal alumni seem to have in common — whether they’re graduating Thursday evening or they finished sixth grade back when a gunman assassinated John F. Kennedy and girls only wore dresses to school — is a profound sense of loss because their beloved school is closing.

“I’m kind of sad because I came here for seven years, and the year I get out, it’s over,” said Jeff Miller, a Centennial sixth-grader. “All the little kids will have to go to new schools. So, basically, it’s just kind of thinking back and knowing that this place isn’t going to be here any longer. I won’t be able to visit it again or anything.”

Ginger Hamm, who taught kindergarten at Centennial for 37 years, shares similar sentiments.

“It makes me sad because I spent most of my adult life there, and when I go in, it feels like home, it smells like home,” she said. “They dedicated the library to George Loyd, who was there (as principal) 15 years. I feel bad. That’s just not going to exist any longer.”

Times have changed

Centennial welcomed its first students and teachers in 1955. Enrollment that first semester was 195, according to a Sept. 1955 Lawrence Daily Journal World story. Enrollment district-wide was 4,216.

The December 1955 Centennial School Bulletin detailed plans for a Christmas celebration, which would include a festive assembly and the decoration of Christmas trees in each classroom and one in the main hallway.

A lot has changed since then. Just ask Hamm and colleague Marlene Ebeling, a longtime first-grade teacher at Centennial, 2145 La. They both started teaching in 1960.

Back then, they recently recalled, busing was a foreign concept; all their students lived in the neighborhood. Holidays were celebrated in schools. Cork fortified floors that are now covered in carpet. Teachers and parents loaded children into personal vehicles rather than buses to take field trips. And the school wasn’t air-conditioned.

“I taught over 30 years in that room with no air, and I was next to the blacktop,” Hamm said. “I swear to you, I put a thermometer on my desk one day, and it was 110 in my room.”

Even so, problems seemed to melt away when they entered Centennial in the morning, both women said.

“It was so much like a family,” Ebeling said. “When you teach someplace that long, what’s interesting is we lived through our children being small and then our children getting married or going to high school, graduating, getting married.

“The night before last we just went to the wedding of one of our children that she (Hamm) had in kindergarten and I had in first grade. And he’s probably 21.”

Coleen Martin remembers Hamm as a friendly kindergarten teacher who liked to sing, play the piano and pass out hugs. Martin, 30, now teaches kindergarten at Centennial — in the same room where Mrs. Hamm taught her. Martin still has the same stoplight hanging by the restroom door that her predecessor used to keep children from walking in on one another in the unlockable bathroom.

“You flick it up to red if you’re in the bathroom. When you come out, you flip it down to green,” Martin said. “I can remember flipping the switch when I was five, and it’s still in my classroom. I don’t know what I’ll be teaching for sure next year, but wherever I go, my stoplight will go with me.”

Memorable beginnings

Similarly warm memories have followed other Centennial grads.

Paige (Cowden) Marett, 34, remembers an adventurous third-grade teacher, Mrs. Van Reekum, who each year took her class on an overnight camping trip.

“We’d stay in cabins, and we’d have the bonfire, and we’d do art projects with stuff we found,” Marett recalled. “And when we came back, we’d write about our experiences.”

Kim Lee Zimmerman, 49, Lenexa, attended Centennial in the late ’50s and early ’60s and remembers a crossing guard who every Halloween made popcorn balls to pass out to the Centennial kids who crossed at her post. Although he can’t recall her real name, he also remembers a Mrs. “Kadiddlehopper,” who dropped by periodically to teach music at the school. And, perhaps uncharacteristically, he maintains a soft spot for the school cafeteria.

“As we get older, we tend to rank school cafeteria food below fast food. However, the cooks at Centennial School made the best sweet rolls I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming,” he said.

Nancy Rake, who finished sixth grade in 1964 and now works at Kansas University’s Watson Library, most remembers her first-grade teacher Elfie Bailey, whom she credits with igniting her lifelong love of reading.

“I think she was probably one of the bigger influences on my life because ever since high school, I think, there’s never been a time when I haven’t been reading a book,” she said.

Then there’s that old Scotch pine. It long ago outgrew Rake; it’s taller than the building now. And it seems it will outlive the school.

“I think it’s become a source of pride as I’ve gotten older. It’s kind of nice we’re both still around I guess,” Rake said.

Even when children are no longer learning and teachers are no longer educating within Centennial’s walls, the stately pine will continue to remind Rake of her days there.

“I don’t live that far from the school,” she said, “so whenever I go by it, I go, ‘Oh, there’s my tree.'”