The 1960's addition to the 1937 campus. The tables were added recently.

Obviously the last few entries have been on the negative side, so I decided that I would post a photo-heavy entry taking you on a tour of the elementary school I attended back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  This is the second school I attended, the first being in the town I was born in.  I left the previous school when my parents divorced in 1978.

I had not been on the campus of this school in about 20-years.  When I rode my bike around town, I would wander down there, do a few laps around the playground, and then get back on the road for the two mile ride home.  It’s amazing what 20-years will do to your perception of a place.  The original portion of the campus seems smaller than I remember and it was very difficult to find anything original to the schoolyard other than some of the things on the outlying edges of the grounds.  They seem to have re-built this school after I departed in the spring of 1984.  Some buildings are gone (I’m speculating not earthquake code compliant) and the campus has more than doubled in size from 14 classrooms to 30.  This school has been built in three phases, the first building built in 1937 (building A), and then two more buildings built in the late 1960’s (buildings B & C), with the latest addition completed, I think, in 2006 (buildings D, E, & F?).  There is still a large assortment of portable classrooms that were added over the years that have not been removed from the campus.  The 2006 addition was SORELY needed.

Bronze plaque commemorating the opening of the new campus in 1937. An image of the original 2-story school house from 1862 is at the top. The 1862 school still stands today and is part of a state park.

This campus was built to replace the original two-story, two-room schoolhouse built in 1862.  My grandfather attended school at the old campus on the hill, and my brothers and I attended the new one.  My mother went to school in the city where we lived before we moved out to the gold-country of California.  The new campus is now as old as the 1862 campus was when it was replaced in the 1930’s.

I can remember each teacher I had, what classroom I was assigned to, and where all the campus facilities were located.  I remember that one winter we had snow (a rare event in the town) and I was assigned with a few other students for sidewalk clearing duty as the busses came in that morning.  We were allowed to sit in the boiler room, unsupervised, while the boiler was running.  Hot to the touch and everything.  Today, I’m sure the administrators would be hauled away for child endangerment  for doing such things.

Overall, I have mixed memories of going to school here.  I wasn’t the popular kid, and when I departed from this place to go to high school (we had no middle school in our town), I became the kid they stuffed in the lockers.   I think at the end, I came out on top though.  I ran into the elementary/high school debutante working for about $8.00 per hour in the local hardware store a couple years back.  I guess she didn’t learn that when all you are is stunningly beautiful, you have to keep sucking off the captain of the old football team to get ahead in life.  *shrugs*

The original campus playground. The trees were not there when I attended the school. The metal railing adjacent to the asphalt is one of the only original things left on the campus.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed the photos.  I’m sure I could have written a better entry, but I thought I’d simply give you all a glimpse into a place I spent a significant amount of time during my formative years.

OK, it’s only three photos, but heck, I ran out of things to say.  If you want to know more, ask in the comments.