I have been going there on weekends and reminiscing. Sitting on the steps and looking out over the playground. Looking at the walls on the outside of the building where I used to flip baseball cards in a child's version of gambling of our life savings away. Looking at the spot where, I swear to this day, I got in trouble for vandalizing the building, though thinking I was being efficient and smart, for banging the cloths used to erase the chalkboards against the wall. The smudge is still there. I guess Mrs. Paris was right.
I could go on and on about the lifetime memories I carry from belonging to this parish and this community. And, part of that is what makes me sad--it truly was the last time I felt a sense of community in my life.
So, these are the last days of my grade school before it closes down for good. So, thank you, St. John's.
Thank you, Sister Joan Bernard
Thank you, Miss Elgin
Thank you, Mrs. Dressler
Thank you, Miss Malloy
Thank you, Sister Amadeus (and Mrs. Adamo, and other substitutes that year)
Thank you, Mrs. Paris
Thank you, my seventh grade nuns whose names I have forgotten
Thank you, Sister St. Michael....
....for helping to make me the person I am today. You have been a great influence in my life and my classmates lives, and, let's face it, for good and/or bad. But, a major part of it, you were.
Looking at the school, it is showing it's age. What once was home for 8 hours a day to thousand of children at a time is now done to a few hundred. The last time alumni can walk the hallways is tomorrow night on June 4.
Good-bye, old school. You will be missed.
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