Chapman Revisited: Or You Can Go Home Again

Yesterday was my second granddaughter's high school graduation. The ceremony was held at my old grade school. Now, before you wonder how a grade school auditorium can be big enough to house graduation ceremonies for a high school, this is not your typical, 400+ graduating class high school. Both of our older granddaughters attended Metropolitan Learning Center, a part of the Portland Public School system, and home to grades kindergarten through 12. Enrollment is limited, obviously, because the facilities aren't large enough to include students from three different school levels in one former elementary school building. Maggie's graduating class was about 25 students.

Although we saw the school from the outside for many years, neither of us had been inside the school since at least 1963, when my brother graduated from 8th grade. We arrived early, parked the car next to Wallace Park and had a leisurely stroll through the park to the school. We had one of our daughter's with us, who remembered her aunt & uncle taking her & her twin sister & brother here to play when they would come to visit. My memories included being in the sheltered area and doing craft things (anyone know what gimp is?) during the summer, to watching my brother play little league baseball on one of the ball fields; catching a glimpse of Bill Walton and some of his '77 Trail Blazer teammates playing basketball there, the wading pool (no longer there) where I stepped on my first bee and got stung, thereby solidifying my fear of bees from that point on. The old sandbox is no longer there, either. We used to build elaborate road systems using our shoes as bulldozers to construct them. Ah, many a summer day was spent playing at this park.

Walking up the front walkway of the school was another moment in time travel. I remembered the row of rose bushes lining the walkway. While I doubt they are the same ones that were there from the mid 1950's to now, at least someone decided not to tamper with the past. There were a couple of statues added to the walkway though, a nice touch. I remember a date on the building, I think it was "1928," but I couldn't see it as we approached. Up the stairs we went, and the old auditorium was still in the same place, still had the same hard wooden seats, the curtains looked the same as when we attended. I had forgotten there was a balcony, but seeing it brought back memories of the all-school assemblies and getting to sit in the balcony when I was in the upper grades. Both my brother and I fondly remember seeing some great movies in the auditorium during lunch recess. "Godzilla" and "It Came From Beneath the Sea" were the two we remembered. For a nickel you could catch about 20 minutes or so of the movie each day during lunch recess. I seem to remember that Fridays the movie was free, so if we were short on funds, we saw the end of the movie on Friday, but not the beginning or middle.

When my brother arrived, the first thing he recognized was the door to the principal's office. It's in the same place, and he said that if anyone ever put up a plaque commemorating the student with the most visits to the principal's office, he's pretty sure his name would be on it. Waiting for the ceremonies to begin, we reminisced about the old teachers we had and the rooms we occupied. I doubt that any of our old elementary teachers are still living--at least our 8th grade teacher would have to be over 100 years old now if she were still alive. She was planning to retire when I was in 6th grade, her class planned a great retirement party for her, but she was still there long enough to teach both me & my brother. I know she was old, and her favorite subject was English. Anytime there was a spare few minutes before lunch, recess, or going home, she'd call a few students by name, direct them to the blackboard, and give them a sentence to diagram. I was a master sentence diagrammer back then, a skill that I never used again after 8th grade.

As we wandered outside following the ceremony, we looked at the old hopscotch and 4-square painted plots on the cement play area; noted the new covered area that wasn't there when we were students; the tennis courts that were there, but we didn't use them as students; the back fields which housed two baseball diamonds that are no longer there; and the hill that we used to run up and down in the younger grades. You know, usually when you revisit a hill in later years, they are smaller than you remember them. This is the first hill we saw that was actually bigger, or so it seemed. We didn't go into the basement of the building, but we both remembered playing prison ball during lunch recesses on days when it was too cold or rainy to play outside.

It was a lot of fun going back to our old grade school. It sure jogged some long-forgotten memories for both of us. If you haven't visited your old grade school in a while, I hope you get the opportunity to visit some day.