Just a Building?

The Icon of my childhood is being demolished as we "speak". My beloved Piedmont Elementary School is being destroyed with intentions of rebuilding a "better" school. All three of my brothers and myself went to Piedmont from K-6th grade. Sure, I cried every day for the first 2 weeks of school, but I grew to love that school and everything it stood for.



Kindergarten: Memories of sitting on the circle with letters and numbers painted right on the floor! Building towers and walls with those large, soft red blocks. Taking the wagon down to the cafeteria and getting milk for the whole class. And my first "boyfriend", Sam.

First Grade: I got in trouble for eating glue after some bitch ratted me out to the teacher. I never ate glue after that. This is also when I met my best friend, Mindy. We're still friends to this day.

Second Grade: My teacher was a bit bipolar. Rumored to throw erasers at kids, I was a little leary of being a student in her classroom. The craziest thing I saw her do was lock herself in the closet crying after we were making fun of the way she was conducting out little choir. We apologized and it was all good from there.

Third Grade: A fun teacher, Ms. Ling. We were known as the Peanuts, had a homemade classroom yearbook, danced for local nursing homes, and learned how to write in cursive! I was invited to join Sage, an extracurricular activity for kids with good grades. Oh, and our school had a set of twins in its presence. They were a bit of local celebrity. You would think Mary Kate and Ashley Olson attended our school.

Forth Grade: My teacher was a lesbian or at least appeared to be. She was divorced and had 2 dogs named Pepsi and Cola. Get it? She had certain Teacher's Pets each year. I was determined to be her Pet, but this year was not my year. This year Nathan would win.

Fifth Grade: I win! I had the same teacher for 5th grade and got to be the Pet! Woop Woop. This was also the year I had my first enemy, Stacy, who then turned out to be one of my greatest friends. Our truce? We found out we shared the same Birthday and all was gravy.

Sixth Grade: My final year in Piedmont. I started to play the violin. On the last day of school, I bawled much as I bawled on the first day. Full Circle.

Some will argue that it is just a building being torn down; argue that it is about the memories and the people. True. But, each time I drove by that Neighborhood Icon, it brought back those memories much like looking at a photo album. Without the physical building, the photo album is gone. The memories will always remain, but will continue to fade especially when the new school is erected. At least a school will be in its place and new students can make new memories.