By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Cody Reading’s first day of school at the Lawrenceville Elementary School last week was a momentous one for the 5-year-old boy and for his parents as well — but not for the usual reasons.
It was momentous because Cody is the fifth generation of the Buxton clan to attend the elementary school on Craven Lane, beginning with his great-great-great aunt, Betty Buxton, who attended the school from 1920 to 1925.
Betty Buxton, whose family owned Buxton’s Dairy, was the youngest of the four Buxton siblings and the only one to attend the school. The family settled in Lawrence Township in the 1890s.
Ms. Buxton never married, but her older brother, Thomas Buxton, married and raised a family. His sons, Thomas "Bud" Buxton and Gordon Buxton, were the second generation to attend the elementary school.
Bud Buxton’s daughter, Barbara Buxton Conover, went to that school, as did his granddaughter, Kristi Watson Reading — along with many of their cousins. Mr. Buxton, who is a retired Lawrence Township police officer, attended the school from 1941 to 1950, when it handled grades K-8.
"I think it’s wonderful that Cody is the next generation (to attend the school). We tell him that his grandparents and great-grandfather went to that school. It’s something special," said Ms. Conover, who is his grandmother.
Ms. Reading, who is Cody’s mother, said she is "proud" that her son is the fifth generation to go to the school. Many of her classmates have moved to neighboring townships, she said, so their children do not attend the Lawrence Township public schools.
"Getting to share the same school with Cody is exciting," Ms. Reading said.
Just as Lawrence Township has grown and changed, so has the Lawrenceville Elementary School. The original school building was built around 1900, but it was destroyed by fire in 1922. The present school building was built in 1924. Since that time, it has been remodeled several times. An addition was made to the school in 2004.
In the early days, the main office was located at ground level on the south side of the building, facing the lower parking lot. Today, the main office — and the entrance to the school — is located on the north side of the building, at the top of the hill.
When Ms. Conover attended the school from 1965 to 1970, kindergarten was a half-day session. One group of students attended kindergarten in the morning, and the other group went to school in the afternoon. She belonged to the afternoon class.
"I watched the ‘Andy Griffith Show’ (on television). As soon as it was over, I would go outside to wait for the school bus," said Ms. Conover, who grew up on Cold Soil Road. But by the time her daughter, Ms. Reading, enrolled in school in 1988, kindergarten was an all-day affair.
Although Cody is too new to the school experience to comment, Ms. Conover and Ms. Reading readily agreed that their favorite part of the day was recess — "anything to be outside," Ms. Conover said with a chuckle.
Ms. Conover and her classmates played hopscotch on the asphalt parking lot on the south side of the school. The children played field sports, such as baseball or softball, in the field downhill from the school. After school, she said, she took care of her chores and did some homework.
Lunch was another popular "class." Mr. Buxton readily admits that it was his favorite part of the day, because the children got together to play and have fun. At recess, they played softball, he said.
While Ms. Conover and Ms. Reading brought their lunches to school — a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was Ms. Conover’s favorite; Ms. Reading remembers bringing soup to school in a Thermos bottle — they almost always bought lunch on Friday.
That’s because lunch was pizza.
Besides sharing a love for recess and fond memories of pizza for lunch, Ms. Conover and Ms. Reading also shared a teacher. Mother and daughter both were taught by Ms. Adler, who taught Ms. Conover in third grade and Ms. Reading in kindergarten.
"I walked into the ‘back-to-school night’ for Kristi a little bit late, and Ms. Adler said to me, ‘You were late then and you are late now.’ She was teasing me," Ms. Conover recalled. That was the only elementary school teacher they shared.
Meanwhile, Ms. Reading said her favorite year at Lawrenceville Elementary School was first grade. The children played a little bit, but also learned, she said. She has good memories of her first-grade teacher, Rosemarie Monteleone, who retired several years ago.
The first-graders in Ms. Monteleone’s class learned about other countries. The children learned about food, clothing, songs and dances from those countries. The lesson plan ended with a virtual United Nations party, in which children got to taste recipes from those countries, she said.
Ms. Reading also remembers the time her mother brought her pony to school. The kindergarten students were learning about the letter "p," and the pony was an example of a word that began with that letter.
"You can’t do that now. It’s a lot different," Ms. Reading said.
But that’s not the only thing that has changed. Technology was virtually non-existent when Mr. Buxton and Ms. Conover went to elementary school. Teachers relied on blackboards, projectors with reels of film — "I was in charge of running them," Mr. Buxton said — and overhead projectors that would project plastic transparencies, or illustrations, onto a wall or screen.
There was no such thing as a PowerPoint presentation.
"An apple was what you brought to school for the teacher," Ms. Conover said. It was not a brand of computer. Children used pencils, paper and crayons. It was a "big thing" if a student was allowed to take the blackboard eraser and "clap" it out to get rid of the chalk dust, she added.
By the time Ms. Reading arrived at the Lawrenceville Elementary School, there was one computer in each classroom — but the students did not use it. Today, laptop computers are distributed to students in the district, beginning in the 6th grade.
While every one has a favorite memory of elementary school, Mr. Buxton’s is kissing the girls in the cloak room. Every classroom had a cloak room, or closet for coats.
"I don’t like being this old that I am the head of (the Buxton clan), but it is very honorable," said the 78-year-old Mr. Buxton. "It’s amazing that the Lawrenceville Elementary School is still standing after so many generations of Buxtons."

