`It feels like home’ for Abby Hutchinson’s family

Although there have been many changes in Baldwin High School, three generations of Baldwin alumni prove that the simplicity of the teenage years is universal. 

In high school, Barbara Michalowicz and her group of 12 girlfriends would sit together at lunch, watch dance shows together, and hangout at Sully’s in Brentwood every Tuesday and Saturday. 

She graduated in 1961, and has seen many changes at Baldwin over the years.

“The school really has expanded. They offer many more things you can do now – and there’s a pool,” Michalowicz said. 

Her daughter, Baldwin secretary Tara Hutchinson, recalls crowding around her locker to do her girlfriends’ hair back in the ’80s. 

“I don’t even know what we did. We just walked around and talked to each other,” Tara Hutchinson said. 

Senior Abigail Hutchinson continues the family’s legacy at Baldwin. 

Although she is attending Baldwin more than six decades after her grandmother – and though Morgan Wallen and Taylor Swift are more her speed than the Motown jams of the ’60s – some of Hutchinson’s favorite activities also are school dances and hanging out with her friends.

“I love school dances. I’m so sad that prom is my last one. I love being with everyone and letting loose for a couple hours,” Abby said. 

In the ’60s, there weren’t as many activities at Baldwin, so her daughter and granddaughter have been able to be much more involved at school, Michalowicz said. 

Tara Hutchinson took part in The Heatherettes, an extension of Baldwin’s marching band that focused primarily on dance. As for Abby Hutchinson, athletics have played a crucial role in her high school experience, especially basketball, lacrosse, and track. 

After her graduation, Michalowicz worked in an office for Westinghouse until she started her family six years later. At the time, the majority of girls went into either office jobs or cosmetology, Michalowicz said. 

Tara Hutchinson went to Fordham University in New York for journalism, traveled with a theatrical merch company as a merchandising manager, and was a TV reporter for five different news stations throughout the country.

Now, Tara Hutchinson works full-time as a Baldwin secretary. 

“I never would have thought I’d be working here,” she said. “I think about my mom walking around this building and being a teenager … and now to see Abby here in 2023 as a graduating senior, it’s strange.”

Abby Hutchinson will attend West Virginia University for nursing, and hopes to one day move south to Tennessee or one of the Carolinas. 

Michalowicz still attends school events and has enjoyed seeing her children and grandchildren growing up in the same high school as her. 

“Walking down to the field, it feels like home,” Michalowicz said. “There are acquaintances, and friends, and good friends, and there is that lunch table. We’re 80 years old and still talking. We were in the right place at the right time.”