Community Corner

PHOTOS: Unveiling the Honey Hollow Time Capsule

Board of Education President Geri Richter surprises former Honey Hollow students, staff with time capsule retrieved from school's cornerstone.

Former Honey Hollow students and staff members were in for a surprise from their past at their reunion on Saturday.

Board of Education President Geri Richter brought a time capsule, once placed inside Honey Hollow Elementary School's cornerstone, to the Honey Hollow 50th anniversary reunion. The reunion committee decided to open the time capsule while every one was gathered together.

The time capsule was a small metal box, long and thin, smaller than most students' gym lockers. Richter was able to slide the front of the capsule off rather easily, revealing small aluminum foil packages that had never been opened.

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Inside were different teacher's handbooks, class rosters, student's writing as a Times of Smithtown newspaper that dated to May 3, 1962.

"Books are fun/ I like to read/ Some books are funny like The Cat in the Hat," read Paul Borowski, on of the event's co-organizers, as he read student writing samples.

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Borowski, Richter, and several teachers who were at Honey Hollow from the beginning helped careful unwrapped packages, discovering a handbook for teaching kindergarten, an SAT prep book and even a Forest Brook Elementary school year book.

Many laughed as a poem written by a 22-year-old kindergarten teacher was read:

A New Teacher

I arrived at Honey Hollow fresh out of school
Determined to teach kindergarten strictly by rule
Somehow teaching doesn't quite work that way
The books didn't cover my happenings one day

Trouble began as I walked in the door
I was late and the principal tried not to be sore
As i neared the door the noise couldn't be ignored
Phillip lost his hamster, Walter objected to a kiss.

Debra's cat had kittens, which she had to tell
During all of this I was trying to track down a smell
The day progressed in the usual way -
At 2:00 [p.m.] I started to pray.

Chris was missing - where could he be?
I searched everywhere, as a thought occurred to me.

He was found in a closet without much alarm
Just then Bobby got punched in the arm
This was finished when it was said "You're pretty old,"
At 22, could I really be ready to fold?

I just told them - "Go Play"

I zipped, pulled, buttoned and snapped
and got them sealed, not a mishap.
My day was finished and I have to agree.
Each little cherub is a big part of me.

The poem was left unsigned. Based on a quick, writing comparison, Richter guessed the poem may have been written by a Lillian Bainer.

Borowski said the items in the time capsule, along with other Honey Hollow memorabilia, will be put on display at the Hauppauge school district's administrative offices on Hoffman Lane.

Honey Hollow alumni and former staff members are being asked to contribute old yearbooks, photographs and other items to help add to the display.

Click through the gallery above for photos of the Borowski, Richter and staff members opening up the Honey Hollow time capsule. 


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