My Old School

Recently, I did go back to my old school. If Liz and David, Jon, Rona and the others weren't there with me and if I didn't know full well it WAS my old school, I would not have recognized it.

We had our 39th gradeschool reunion (Class of '71, if you're keeping score at home) the night before. David- "Buns" as we lovingly called him, not only put that together but he arranged for a tour of the school. It was homecoming/reunion weekend for the Class of '75 as well but, I placed my money on the Class of '71. Nothing personal against highschool. It was just that our baby-boomer class had 1313 kids in it and the odds were that at a 35th reunion I might really have known a score of the percentage that might show at such an event.

And most of them.... would have gone to gradeschool with me.....

So, I'm a practical Ferrerman.

At the end of the film "Stand By Me", the writer types something about the friends one has at 12 being the best one would ever have. I think a lot of people feel this way. I'm just guessing but I bet half of the gradeschool attendee's preferred- and made a point of- making the elementary over the highschool affair. It's just that, at that age, we were just kids, knew everybodies name and pretty much all got along until we went off to the vast chaos that was our huge highschool. Simpler, golden times.

The exterior of the school had changed little, still all brick and mortar and somewhat castle-like. The interior was completely different. I found it very hard to orientate myself to back in the day. Again, thanks to my classmates for filling in the memories. Randy was a font of information as to what teacher had which classroom back then. What he didn't know or wasn't sure about, the others knew and filled in the blanks. Everyone wanted to see the notorious swimming pool. The pool was closed over during the depression. The exact reason why was legendary in town. The popular myth was that when the school was integrated, the pool was shut down so that white children wouldn't have to swim with black children. Jon's dad, who had grown up in our town and attended our schools, knew that a kid had drowned back in his time and so likely, it was that plus insurance liabilty plus that caused it's demise. And certainly the depression itself caused a lot of cutting back. I'm not sure when the school was integrated but it was long after the pool had already closed.

So, everybody wanted to see the pool and know that it really had existed. I was curious myself but, my back watched a few people struggle to get into the tight, trap door in the floor and I thought better of it. And nevermind that I'm tall and there looked to be about four and a half feet of head room. I believe there was a pool.

The classrooms themselves were, of course, completely different. That was to be expected. The library was in a different location as well. The only thing that hadn't really changed was the gym. It just shrunk a little as we all got older. Illinois is the only state that still requires PE (though our principal/guide told me it's only four days a week). Gym class had been a favorite for most of us. We had the most enjoyable bombardment (dodge-ball) games EVER! We even played it on "scooters"- one foot square chunks of wood with wheels attached. We also played floor hockey and of course, basketball. But, no swimming....

It was a great tour of a wonderful school, filled with wonderful memories despite the inevitable changes that time brings. I went with good people, then and now.