Field Day

By Leo Racicot

I remember with great clarity, even though it was over fifty years ago, Lowell High School’s Field Day, May, 1968. I don’t know if schools still schedule field days. These were planned festivities in celebration of the end of the school year, usually organized by the Phys. Ed. Department. At Lowell High, freshmen gym students and members of the Boy and Girl Officers classes participated.

We boys were led by coach George Bossi and his assistant, Bill Robinson. The day began with a parade (how come Lowell doesn’t stage parades anymore?? There used to be many, in honor of Christmas, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, etc. Sadly, they seem to have become a thing of the past).

Anyway, Field Day that year began with a parade down Merrimack Street over up to Central Street. I still have a photo my mother took of me in the parade. Donnie Gingras saw that she was about to click the shutter and adjusted my bowtie. My poor mother; I was forever thrusting a camera in her hands saying, “Here, take a picture of me as I walk by!”

At the end of the march, we boys, and others marching with us, were loaded onto buses that took us to Cawley Memorial Stadium off Rogers Street. Here, all manner of planned activities and exhibitions were planned. Freshmen gym class performed marching maneuvers, sit-ups, push-ups and jumping jacks, in unison. The boy officers showed themselves to be the smart marching machine they were, dazzling spectators with impressive sword drills and military maneuvers.

Not to be outdone by the boy officers, the girl officers performed eye popping displays with juggling pins. These pins looked like individual bowling pins, and the tricks they were able to do with such heavy objects flying to-and-fro, being tossed into the air and caught on the way down, truly amazed. There were plenty of colorful, competitive games: human pyramids, hula hoop, track, ring-toss. For refreshments, there was soda, sno-cones and soft-serve, hamburgers and hotdogs. A fun day for students, relatives and friends alike.

Fresh air and spectacle. Can’t beat ’em!

Freshmen gym class in our Field Day “whites”. Donnie Gingras is straightening out my tie. May, 1968

Girl Officers at Field Day – May 1968

Boy Officers at Field Day – May 1968

Coach George Bossi