Andrew Warde Product Shares Fond Memories of Growing Up in Stratfield Section of Town & Attending Kindergarten at Lincoln School

The following was written by Tony Procaccini, chairman of the Andrew Warde High School Class of 1976 30-year reunion committee, as a follow up to the previous entry about Lincoln School. The photo below shows Lincoln Park in October of 2008.

The Stratfield section of Fairfield was a great place in which to live one's early years when Lincoln School was still in existence. I recall an old-style squarish-shaped red brick structure on Jackman Avenue, located easy walking distance from my parents' house, which was (and still is) on the corner of Edgewood Place and Edgewood Road. The lot had the building and a concrete area for playing, running around, etc., of which a good portion remained many years after the demolition of the building. The foundation of the front steps was left in the ground, oddly enough, and could be seen for many years after the school's demise; this little "piece of the school" was on a centrally-located sloping area.

The specific memories I have of the school and my one year there are few, but clear. Two very tall trees - which remained after the demolition - were found on either side of the steps leading out to Fairmount Terrace, being the school's side entrance, I believe. Also, just inside that entrance was a box-shaped ice-cream vending machine. One opened the top, paid a nickel or so, and pulled out a frozen treat. Creamsicles were my favorite. One day's class consisted of playing musical instruments which were distributed to the kids. I took a percussion instrument, the cymbals, perhaps. (My piano-playing days were ahead of me at that point.)

After starting Grade 1 at nearby Our Lady of the Assumption School, I vividly remember Lincoln School still standing, but uninhabited. A few windows may have been shattered by kids' errant tosses of stones - I was not involved in that, rest assured - and the entire structure eventually went down. Some time after, the area was officially named Lincoln Park and the town developed it as a playground, too, for organized summer activities. All summer long, from 9 AM to 12 noon, then resuming after lunch from 1 to 4 PM, we played our hearts out there.

In late grammar school years and high school years, we, i.e., the many, many kids growing up in the area, transformed the park into a "sports complex." I am not kidding here. On the upper field (where the building was), we could play either football or baseball. On the lower field (where the school's playground surface had been), we could play baseball (with a fenced-in field, as opposed to the wide-open upper area) or basketball. The Parks Department supplied two metal basketball hoops and chain nets, and we improvised the rest.

Those of us who played baseball there remember "Mound rule on first, third and home," to accommodate small teams, and fall and winter meant full-court basketball games - even in very cold temperature - with many "visitors" coming from Bridgeport to join us. Many times, we had two half-court games running simultaneously, because, with a plethora of participants, it was unfair to keep so many players waiting for the next game. (Each half-court game could utilize a maximum of ten players, i.e., five-on-five.)

Lincoln School and the playground on the grounds provided many memories for me and my friends, over many years. I will never forget them. Now, if we only had some photos of the school....

Tony Procaccini
AWHS 1976 30-year Reunion Committee Chairman