Old Brick School

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The view out the front window of my house in my hometown changed today. For 22 years I looked out the front window and saw this old brick building with an orange door. A large crooked tree stood proudly to the left, its branches reaching way up high and then down to the ground.
My dad went to school there when he was a young boy--it was a one room school house at that time. I went to pre-school there with my friends- some of which I graduated with 14 years later. I took my piano lessons in the basement. My mom took us there to get our shots when we were just babies. I browsed for books in the Wheatland Library that once was in the back room. It held many bridal and baby showers in the seniors room. I also climbed that tree and sat on top of the old brick school many afternoons. It is a part of me, the town. It is a piece of history, today it is gone.
The building was used as the town office it the last years. The seniors were moved out to the restaurant on Main street, piano moved to the school then the new rink complex, the library is now in a much bigger room in the complex and eventually the town office found a new home as well. The building was old, hard to heat in the winter with the old boilers. Its doors were closed for many years now. Condemned---the basement was flooded and the building needed too much work to keep. It was unsafe to have in the elementary school playground, so it was decided that it would be knocked down.
Like anything in the small town things take time to get accomplished. The demo was supposed to happen this past summer but delays occurred and finally here in November the demo started. Today I was not subbing and went out to Aberdeen to do some more wedding stuff with my mom and in front of my house I watched as the walls and the bricks were tore down. It brought a tear to my eye and a sad feeling in my heart. I wish the building could have been saved and developed into a museum or something. Aberdeen is changing so much. The blocks around my house look so different...the church has been moved, the curling rink tore down and houses put in its place.
I left Aberdeen before the demo was complete. I know when I go back there on Sunday it will be gone and the view from the front window will never be the same and I can't say to people that I live in the house across from the old brick school anymore....

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