From the moment he set foot in the Kunkel Room at Buda Elementary Upper Campus Saturday, Billy Lancaster’s mind instantly traveled to days gone by.
Where today is a carpeted meeting area, back in the day it was once an auditorium that played host to a variety of old Buda High traditions and assemblies. It was, in fact, the place where Lancaster received his letterman’s jacket for exploits on the football field.
Nearly six decades later, Lancaster, a 1960 Buda High graduate, proudly wore that maroon jacket symbolizing
small-town life in rural Texas.
“This was a fun place to be. I wouldn’t trade anything for the time I had here,” Lancaster said. “Growing up here was great.”
Similar memories, and much more, were shared during Legacy Day, an event celebrating the historic Buda High and Elementary building in its final year of operation. Next year, Hays CISD plans to move Buda Elementary to a new location on Old San Antonio Road.
The event drew in hundreds of alumni, including many who attended Buda schools prior to consolidation in 1967.
Onesimo “Tete” and Annette Rodriguez, who graduated from Buda High in 1952 and 1953 respectively, celebrated the countless memories they made at the old campus. Tete Rodriguez, a high school football star and the first Latino student to graduate at what had been the all-white Buda schools, said it was “amazing” to see the turnout at the event. It also brought back memories of how small the school system was at the time.
From 1951-52 to 1952-53, Buda High graduated 26 total students; what is today Buda Elementary Upper Campus housed all 12 Buda ISD grade levels. Annette Rodriguez said for many alumni who have lived in the area for years, Legacy Day wasn’t a “comeback, just a come over.”
“We’ve seen quite a few old friends we haven’t seen in years and years and we talk about old memories and the things we won’t let anyone know about,” Annette Rodriguez said.
A tour of the historic campus stirred memories for Mike Brewington, who attended Buda schools until consolidation happened right as he was about to enter high school. Brewington remembered many of the physical landmarks and how it related to his time there.
That included running, then hopping, the 99 steps leading to the old football field below the upper campus in full uniform during his junior high football playing days.
Brewington recalled the controversy surrounding consolidation, but felt it was an issue that the “old timers” in Buda and Kyle had, as opposed to students.
“It wasn’t that they hated each other, but they dang sure didn’t like each other,” Brewington said.
A key change was Buda, which back then closely mirrored Mayberry from the “Andy Griffith Show.” It was a time when Brewington and his friends regularly biked to Onion Creek to hunt frogs without worry.
“If someone in Buda today saw six or eight boys with rifles across their handlebars, every law officer in the county would have been called,” Brewington said.
Legacy Day also was a chance for alumni and educators who attended Buda Elementary well after consolidation to reconnect, too.
Longtime Buda resident Heather Goll, a 2007 Hays High graduate, got the chance to meet with Peggy Ferguson, her 3rd grade teacher and a 25-year educator at Hays CISD schools. It was a special moment for Ferguson, who left the Buda area roughly four years ago.
“I don’t get to see these people too often. That’s why today was really important to me,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson, who taught at the lower campus for roughly a decade, said many alumni, especially those whose families have gone to the campus for generations, used Legacy Day as a way to show the younger generation what their grandparents or great-grandparents did in their youth.
Nolan Kunkel, who served as Buda Elementary principal for more than 20 years, called Legacy Day “something like an old homecoming.” It also brought back memories of an environment that was much simpler and without the worries of issues at larger districts.
As Hays CISD transitions to a new Buda Elementary campus, most alumni welcomed the new facility, citing a need to match the area’s growth. Some have some reservations about it.
All had a bittersweet feeling as Buda turned a page on a piece of its history.
“For someone that worked here as long as I did, you have a lot of memories, but you hate to see it happen,” Kunkel said. “You’d like to think this old school will always be here and part of it will be.”
