Carol and Buzz Bostock while dating

Retired Northborough teachers Carol and Buzz (Eugene) Bostock have photographed life in Northborough for over fifty years, celebrating family and school through pictures.

Carol grew up on Summer Street in a neighborhood filled with kids. Winters were spent building snow igloos, and summers meant swimming lessons at Solomon Pond. Kids even took ballroom dancing lessons at the Grange Hall.

"We were the first people on Summer Street with a television," Carol said, remembering friends coming over to watch "The Howdy Doody Show." It was about that time Carol got her first camera.

Carol and Buzz Bostock at the beach

The year was 1948 and Buzz and his family had just moved from Worcester to Northborough. Juniper Hill golf course had nine holes, and the Northgate area along Route 135 was a potato field, Buzz said.

By the early '50s, Buzz was delivering newspapers on his bike. His route was long, and he occasionally stopped to do chores for his older customers. "Sometimes I wouldn't get home until seven o'clock at night," he said.

Christmastime was great for paperboys, Buzz recalled. He still owns the science book given to him by the late Miss Helen Corey (another Northborough teacher).

Carol and Buzz Bostock on their wedding day

Buzz also delivered newspapers to Carol's house. That's when she first noticed him. "I just remember saying to my mother, 'It's my turn to pay the paperboy.'" They lost touch for a time when Buzz gave up his paper route.

All through their childhoods, school was a focal point. Carol's mother taught school, and Buzz's mother was the school nurse.

"I loved school," Carol said, giving credit to her teachers.

Carol attended Hudson Street School (now the Northborough Senior Center), where her earliest memories are of writing using an inkwell.

In 1955, Buzz graduated from Northborough High (now the Town Offices), one of 29 seniors. In 1958, Carol's class graduated 40 students.

Photography reunited the couple a few years later when Buzz showed slides of his Navy travels to a local youth group. Carol said she remembered him as the paperboy she'd liked all those years ago, and they began dating.

Carol earned her teaching degree in 1962 and taught at Peaslee Elementary the year it opened. The couple married in June 1963, then Carol took time off to raise their two children, all the while chronicling life through photographs. Buzz earned his bachelors and masters degrees. His first teaching position was at the Hudson Street School.

"Buzz taught in the room I went to first grade in," Carol said.

Carol and Buzz Bostock today

Carol returned to teach at Lincoln Street Elementary, while Buzz taught at Peaslee and Lincoln Street Schools, and the Northborough (now Robert E. Melican) Middle School.

"I never had a day I didn't want to go to work," Carol said of her teaching years.

The Bostocks have passed along their love of learning to countless Northborough children over the years. Buzz said he still receives letters from former students.

The Hudson Street School, Grange Hall dances, and swimming lessons at Solomon Pond have all vanished. But for Carol and Buzz Bostock, Northborough's past is alive and well within the pages of a photo album-treasures to be shared and remembered.