The Passing Of Time And All Of Its Crimes
I am in the midst of a week-long visit with my family in Catatonia, and I’ve decided to do a photo project with the Holga to document my life here. I went to my old Elementary School yesterday to take some shots and it was a MOST disillusioning experience. About the only thing that remained from my youth were the fields, asphalt, and buildings. All of the things that mattered most to me – that I REALLY wanted to photograph – were gone. The rocketship shaped jungle jim? Gone. The Semi-Circle jungle jim? Gone. The swingset? Gone. The cement ditch that we used to jump over? Filled in. The huge oak tree that we used to play under? Gone. The playset where Debbie Dwight accidentally knocked the little girl down and broke her arm? Gone. The pillars that we used to sit on every lunch period in 6th grade? Gone. The tetherball court? Gone. Most of them, I’m sure, removed due to lawsuit fears. “That tree might fall down on a kid one day – we better chop it down… We can’t have jungle jims anymore, they are too dangerous, especially on asphalt… Some kid tripped and fell in that ditch – we better fill it in… Some kid might fall from those pillars – better remove them…” etc.
When I was a kid, we had high swingsets that were set in gravel. We used to be able to swing so high in the air that the chains jerked as we started to descend. Then, when we were at our highest point, we could launch ourselves and soar through the air, before landing in the gravel. Nowadays, the swingsets are much shorter, the maximum height much smaller, and the ground is soft rubber. Sure, kids these days won’t get as many skinned knees or broken arms, but I find it much more disturbing that they also won’t know what it’s like to fly, or triumph against the odds. We are breeding a generation of wusses thanks to the evil that is litigation… and something beautiful is being lost.
Walking through the school, I felt like I was viewing the wholesale destruction of my youth! I don’t have any photographs of that school to even commemorate what it once looked like, which is very distressing to me. Despite my disappointments, there was one nice moment when I strained to look through a dark window into the girls bathroom and saw that they still have the weird round sink in the middle of the room like in the good old days. At least one thing remained the same. Oh, and the floors in the school were still painted that strange gray color that I remembered. And there were still enough cedar trees in the front to give off that smell that to this day always takes me back to the school.
Maybe it’s true what they say – you can never go home again. When you’re away, the world moves on without you. I wonder what I’ll find at the Intermediate School and High School today?
I remember all the playground equipment from my elementary school too. The Hamburger was a big favorite. You climbed a ladder and got into this round metal structure you could sit in and look out of, and the ladder continued through the top of the round thing so if you were very brave you could climb right on up out of the thing and be a mile high. I think they still have it, or something similar to it.
When I was in third grade, they put out two huge truck tires you could sit on or walk on. Those were a hit with the kids but they ended up being taken away because they collected rainwater inside their rims and smelled terrible and bred mosquitoes, and I believe there were some kids that used them for urinals and worse. lol
We fundraised so hard in 4th grade so that we could have a new playground in 5th grade. I sold so many magazine subscriptions, rolls of wrapping apper, and chocolate. I went back to my school recently and the entire thing was gone. They’re doing construction to make the school bigger, so the temporary classroom trailers are where we used to have fun. Boo-urns.
Despair,
I do hope you capture something from back then with your Holga. I too recall those swings and playgrounds. In the park not far from my home and that schools near by used the field and playgrounds too. I t was well used. We use to have a guy who frose every winter and built an ice rink there. He had a little shack he went in and there was a fire in a steel barrow just out side the shack so we could all warm up when needed. All people and children used that rink and loved that old guy. None of those things happen today and haven’t for years. They did pipe sewer/creek that ran through there. It was cool when we were kids…there were frogs, and big frigging rats. I grew up in an area that was just birthing….we were surrounded by farmers fields in which we played, stole and ate fruit till we were sick. We played pirtates as we quested through them till we got all the way down to the Lake. Which we weren’t supposed to do. The big trek Sat. morning that took all day for us kids. We would get to the lake where sat a Drive In theater. We got to be kids and use what was around us and our imaginations. It really was fun. Looking back those days are gone for the generations that came after. Somewhat sad actually.
Morgana
Absolutely beautiful post! nowadays the beautiful IS lost due to litigation. Anything for a buck. It IS sad and you look at society these days and how it’s changed… yeah, it’s sad.