It's graduation time at Arlington High School, a time for seniors to look forward. It can also be a time to look back, as Bethany Stobbe does.

The senior honors journalism student at AHS and co-editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper, The Ponder Report, interviews her grandmother, who remembers AHS during and after World War II.

T he 1940s were action-packed years filled with the changes, sacrifices, and victories that accompanied World War II. The combat tearing apart Europe and the Pacific affected every home and school in the United States, even if only to a small degree. Doris Johnson Tingley, who attended AHS from 1945 to '48, was one of the people whom the war reached in less-violent ways, such as air raid practices and heat reductions in school. But her story of her high school experience shows how much AHS has changed in 61 years.

In 1945, AHS served only 10th- through 12th-graders. The three junior highs East, West (now Ottoson), and Center" were for the seventh to ninth grades. The high school had a closed campus back then, and even though Tingley did not leave campus, other students probably left to buy ice cream from Buttrick's, where Brigham’s is now.

Herman Gammons was the principal, and a Mr. Morrill was the vice principal (she could not recall his first name). The buildings now called Fusco and Collomb existed, but the men after whom they are now named had not yet made their impression on the school.

Born in 1930, Tingley grew up on Claremont Avenue in Arlington Heights with her parents and younger brother. “We were on top," she said. "If anybody had a nickel for an ice cream cone, I did, and one for a friend.” She walked to school with her cousin, Marilyn Johnson, who lived several blocks away. Most students walked to school, though some kids took the Hudson bus line, which ran along Mass. Ave. and Gray Street, for 10 cents.

Because Downs House had not yet been built, teachers and students with cars could park behind the school, on the ground where current AHS students sit to learn about math and history.

Many groups of students dotted the school, but Tingley was part of "our gang," a small group of kids from Arlington's First Baptist Church.

Out of the 442 students in the class of 1948, Tingley was in the top 10 percent academically. Although she enjoyed most of her teachers, she said, “I always thought I was stupid. No one ever told me I wasn't." Her guidance counselor, Edith Fitzpatrick, realized Tingley's potential and was determined that she would take Latin. Tingley took the class and did well in it.

Many Saturdays, Tingley would go with Della Wallace, a friend, to watch the hockey games. They were continually amazed by Billy O'Leary, a star player. Charlie Downs, for whom the Downs building is named, was an American history teacher who coached hockey.

There were other major differences between AHS in Tingley's era and the modern version. Girls always wore skirts or dresses to school before the war. They did not start wearing pants until World War II when the school turned the heat down and allowed girls to wear slacks, but not jeans, in order to stay warmer.

A sandwich at school cost only 18 cents, and food from the cafeteria was served on real dishes, as it was in college. Tingley remembers buying a sandwich every day and then trading it with her friend Janet, whose mother always packed a cheese sandwich for her.

No computers were available to aid in essay composition. Although Tingley had a typewriter, she did not use it. Students wrote all their essays by hand, in cursive. She does not remember being assigned summer work. "If I did have it, I didn't do it." Summers were a time for fun with friends and earning money with a job.

Every Friday night Tingley would go to what was called "the Rec," at Town Hall, where she danced jitterbugs, waltzes, polkas, and foxtrots with her boyfriend, Charlie. Dancing and going to sports events took the place now occupied by computers and television. All the proms were also at Town Hall.

Asked about how high school has changed since she was a student, Tingley responded, "The language is terrible. When I was in high school, people couldn't say anything off-color. People wore clothes that covered them. Also, you didn't need to be weird to have fun."

But she did not see the teachers caring about her as a person and student. She acknowledged that perhaps as a high school student she just didn’t notice, but she appreciates the time and energy that teachers take today to invest in their students and make them feel significant.

Overall, Tingley has good memories of high school.

"We just did funny things," she said. One day she wore to school a chameleon, which she had bought for 50 cents at the circus. It had a gold collar attached to a chain, which she pinned onto the shoulder of her dress. Although the teachers did not appreciate this pet, her peers were excited to see the chameleon.

Apart from that, she remembers AHS being a clean, safe place where thefts were rare.

Today, Tingley lives with her husband of 54 years, Calvin Tingley, a native of Pennsylvania. They spend their winters in Dowling Park, Fla., and summer in North Waterboro, Maine. Her daughter, who also attended AHS, lives in Arlington, and two of her granddaughters currently attend AHS.