Flashback Friday

Like many rural small towns, Seaton had its own school once.  Eventually Junior and Senior High grades were bused over to Aledo, and after a while, all grades.  That left the school empty and on the road to destruction. 

Nothing except a large vacant lot is what remains.  It and the ball diamond sat on a small bluff just south of town.  This is what I remember:

• Rolly Reed was school custodian and also drove one of the buses.
• Downstairs were restrooms and two other rooms of note.  One was a place that had a refrigerator and we received our milk for afternoon break.  Once in a while we'd get a double ration if we had the money or they had some left over.  The other room was a place that had a projector where we would see films and also the place we practiced our Kazoos.  Loved the days we'd go downstairs and watch those old boring school movies.  Milk cost a couple of cents, and if someone wasn't there or didn't want theirs, we could buy if we had the money. 
• Upstairs were the actual classrooms.  The lower classes were for the little kids and as you progressed you rose in the building, too. 
• In the rear were the gymnasium and cafeteria.  There was also a stage with a heavy purple and gold curtain.  When the school was abandoned and left to nature, it's a shame some of the stuff couldn't have been saved.  
• The picture above was taken before they added one of those red barrel type fire escapes.  Absolutely loved that thing and we all yearned for one of those mock escape dry-runs.  We had then periodically and always meant a fun slide down and a interruption of 15 minutes from schoolwork. 
• The small wooden door from the escape into the school was always kind of iffy as far as the lock went.  On weekends you could go up the escape and sometimes you could go in if you judged correctly the ratio of firmness,  pressure and luck needed to open it.  
• The yard area to the left had swings slides and an area where we played dodge-ball, the game of choice with us guys.
• There were steps on the side of the school and was a great spot for us guys to hang out and chat.
• I received the board of education here.  I was concerned about a grade (imagine that in grade school) and snuck into the school during recess to see if I could find the grade book.  I got it from Principal Mr. Clute, a nice guy and pretty darn good teacher.  
• Mr. C, teacher and principal, also did something in 6th grade that could have sent him to the Principal's office, too.  DK put tacks on TC's chair so Principal Mr. C put tacks on DK's seat and took his shoulders and pushed him into the tacks.  It was a different time, of course, but shocking all the same.  Today those actions would result in a firing and probably a nice lawsuit.  TC didn't make a big deal of it and was uninjured while DK never did it again, lesson learned.  
• The abandonment of the school resulted in a lot of damage through the years.  I was able to get some chalkboard before it was razed, but didn't get any gym flooring or any of a number of other really neat things that were probably laying around.  It is age that brings about the need to obtain mementos, not when you are 20.
• FH was allergic to peanuts so the kitchen staff always fixed him individual foods.  

• Lelia Olsen was the best teacher ever.
•  Second row far right is Dave Cooper.  Third row, fourth is Sally Keating.  They ended up married to each other.
• Third row fifth is Mike Sponsler.  Chief of Police in Aledo. 
• Wombie is second row third.   
• The ball diamond was to the right and this is where we would end up playing a church league games in high school and a bit while in college.  There is no more church league and the after the community put new lights and fencing up, there are no organized games there that I know of.
• The ball diamond is where the Wombie around age 9 maybe caught a ball with his mouth.  He got in the way of an errant throw and knocked teeth out and required quite a lot of dental work through the years.  After making several calls in the area that night found a young dentist in Monmouth who agreed to work on Mark that night.  His name was Philip Sexton and the entire family began using his from that point on, due to his willingness to help and also because he was so damn nice.  He finally retired a couple years ago. 
• The school had hot water heat and the popping sounds and noise from those pipes remain with me today.  
• While there were no lockers that I recall, there were wooden cubicles lining the hallways that were used to put our snowy rubber boots and gloves.  Somehow the smell of new snow and the warmth of the hallway created a small unique to hallways and I haven't smelled it since.
• In one of the classes if you got new shoes you paraded down all the aisles while everyone could get a good look and sang the "New Shoe Song."  Weird, huh?  
• First grade teacher, Miss Anderson was the second best teacher.  She was a tall Amazonian woman.  But if you pissed her off she get in your face and she had two eyes that were offset.  I swear, one would look through your soul while hunched down in your face, and the other twirled around wildly in its socket.  
• My grandmother from Quincy, Mona Westlake,  would visit on occasion and a couple times she would visit the school.  They would let Mona sit next to us in class.  I suppose she spent some time with Mark then some with me.  Naturally we had to be on our best behavior.
• Mike Sponsler's mother made some kind of reddish hard candy, flat like peanut brittle.  We had that a lot.  Everyone liked it but I can't remember what it tasted like.    

Probably no different than a lot of places.  School opened up a new world for us,  the start of many new worlds.  I liked all my teachers, all the way through grad school.  There were some I liked more, of course, but I generally liked them all.  In a few years another new world would arrive with junior high and high school over in Aledo.  But that first school, in little old Seaton was probably the best.  It prepared us for all the new worlds yet to come.