Last modified: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 12:13 AM EST Putting teens in touch with city's past BY RICK FOSTER/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO-- Ask a high school student if they can find Tallequega Park, or how Attleboro came by its nickname of the `` Jew elry City,'' and you might get a shrug. That is, unless that student is enrolled in Dyanne Spatcher's class on the history of Attleboro, where members are apt to hear about such subjects as trolley cars and how gas rationing during World War II affected high school sports. Although many teenagers show a healthy interest in local history, Spatcher, who retires in June after 43 years in teaching, says most high school students are more attuned to sports and video games. `` A lot don't have a clue about our history,'' said Spatcher, who started the semester course in 1997. It does n't help that many icons of Attle boro's past, like the manufacturing plants that made the city the hub of the jewelry industry, have long since disappeared. But for those who attend Spatch er's class, a chance remark or a stu dent's curiosity about the name of the elementary school they attended can spark a journey into the deep recesses of the city's past. `` When something comes up that hits home to them,'' said Spatcher, `` that's when we get them.'' Students are encouraged to dis cover history for themselves by taking on semester projects that have covered everything from local industry to poverty. One teen film crew even took a portable video camera to interview homeless peo ple for a documentary film presen tation on the subject. The idea for a local history class began to take shape in the 1970s when Spatcher taught an elective course and led students in contributing essays to a book about the history of Attleboro. But Proposition 2 1/2 put an end to many high school electives, including Spatcher's. The class was revived in 1997, initially as a one-quarter course and later revised to a semester to fit block scheduling requirements. Since then, Spatcher has worked to ignite students' interest in hometown lore by stressing that history has a lot to do with what students are experiencing today. `` I like to say that if you want to understand why we are the way we are, you need to understand the history,'' she said. For Spatcher, the magnetism of local history has always been strong. Her late father, a former streetcar conductor and high school athletic manager, never tired of telling of the old days. Her mother Hope, 99, spent many years teaching in the Attleboro public schools, beginning with the Sanford Street School. Spatcher's own memory spans Bill Perry leading a team of horses to cut the hay in her father's pasture on Pleasant Street. The sight of horses working the family fields as a girl sparked Spatcher's lifelong interest in horses. She still owns five equines and cares for them personally. `` I'm up at 4 every morning before school,'' says Spatcher, who still rides regularly. Spatcher is also considered one of Attleboro High's most loyal basketball fans, attending nearly every game. Spatcher's local history course will end with her retirement, but the veteran teacher's contribution to preserving local history will have a continuing place in the Attleboro School Department. Many years ago Harold Berberian, the late city history buff, collected hundreds of antique Attleboro school documents and keepsakes, including original 1840s attendance registers from some of the city's earliest one-room school houses. Spatcher organized them and keeps them in a cabinet at the high school where she sometimes uses them in her class.