Sunset Stories

My mother Mary Jane Dawson Aldrich, my aunt Dorothea Dawson Roberts, my aunt Charlotte Dawson Elliott, my uncle Donald Dawson, my younger brother Daniel Aldrich and I all attended Sunset School. All of us except my brother graduated from Sunset School because he and the rest of my siblings attended Woods School when it opened.

The Dawson children all attended Sunset from mid 1920s through mid 1940s. They started out when there were just the 2 little buildings. My brother Daniel and I started kindergarten in the single small building, and then he continued at Woods School. My aunt Charlotte Dawson was in the first class to attend Carmel High School; the other three graduated from Monterey Joint Union High School, where their father taught. My 5 siblings and I and our many cousins graduated from Sunset when it had all its current buildings.

We have very fond memories of our time at Sunset. Our fondest and perhaps clearest memory of Sunset School was starting kindergarten in the warm and cozy and welcoming kindergarten building. The separate cloak room had a bench to sit on so you could remove your shoes and there were pegs to hang your coats on. There were 2 walls of windows, a big blackboard and a number of easels for painting and a third wall separating the big room from the cloak room. We sat on the floor in a big circle to start our day with Mrs. DeVoe. She was a wonderful, loving small person not much bigger than we were. We were her first class and adored her. She attended our Carmel High School graduation in June 1960.

There were so many special times during our eight years at Sunset. There was Mr. Calley's basement classroom where we learned to use tools to make things with wood, and there was clay to mold; it was a dark but mysterious and interesting place under the second grade room. As we got older we had art classes in a room with many windows that looked out on the lower grades' playground. It was a busy sunny room even on cloudy days; so many possible art projects. There was also a special music room where we sang together and Mrs. Macmillan played the piano. Mr. Holman had a collection of band instruments; I learned to play the flute and was part of our band. We participated in concerts and plays in the big auditorium. We celebrated May Day at the beginning of the month each year with folk dances and a May Pole where the older students danced and wove long ribbons around the pole.

We moved north in the buildings as we got older. The rooms that looked out on the small patio were very bright and nice. The patio led to the stairs where we had class pictures taken. The stairs led to the big playground where we played kickball, softball, tetherball, etc. There was a sandy place above with gym bars to climb and hang on. Baseball was played on the hard packed sand field on the north side of the school. Mr. Holman was in charge there, too. We went to a spacious lunch room where the kitchen staff turned out hot meals.

We were very fortunate to have had eight important years of education there with excellent, caring teachers. We made lifelong friends during those years. In retrospect it was a rather special era of grade school all on one campus that offered so much for so many children after WWII.

Submitted with love for the Sunset Centennial,
Kathleen Aldrich Tanaka