Sunday, September 12, 2010

Charleston Elementary School Memories Part 4

To wrap up this look at Charleston Elementary School, I thought I'd include a little 'virtual trip' down the 'blacktop' starting from W. 30th Street, so I drove over there this past Saturday, parked and hit the trail!

Here is the W. 30th entrance. (Click on this and all photos for that "You are There" experience!)


It was strange to start down this sidewalk towards the school as I had so many times back in 1964 and 1965. I still think it is rather unique that the sidewalk cuts across so many properties. I felt somewhat like a trespasser. Dogs barked at me, and various homeowners turned to see what I was doing – so I wondered if the sidewalk still gets much foot traffic at all in this age of widespread busing and parental 'chauffeur service'. (Although Charleston is no longer a school, Frank Jacinto Elementary is right behind it on Marshall Avenue.)


It was easy to see that time was beginning to take its toll on the sidewalk!

I finally hit 29th Street.
After looking both ways, I crossed and kept going. Very shortly, I hit W. 28th Street.

After that, the sidewalk ran alongside the fence surrounding Admiral King (oops, I mean Lorain High), and then Charleston Elementary came into view.
That was one thing that was interesting as you walked to Charleston, you had a preview of your high school just to the east of the sidewalk. Of course there was a little thing called junior high school that you had to get through first. (I wonder if 'junior high schools' are dead as an educational concept? It seems that middle schools are now the norm.)

Going home, with the high school to the left (east) of the fence, the view looked like this. Fortunately, no big kids blocked my way as I headed back.


Like regular blog reader Jeff Rash pointed out, the sidewalk also ran south to Meister Road, where it hooked up with a sidewalk that went down to Willow Park, and across the bridge over Willow Creek. Then it connected to the sidewalk on Palm Springs that led to Masson Junior High.

I still think it was a great idea to create this sidewalk to funnel the westside kids over to school safely. Out in Sheffield Lake where I live, sidewalks are still considered a pesky, newfangled invention.

Oh well, it was great to walk the path 45 years after I last did. Good to see that it's still there, just as it was in my memory.
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3 comments:

  1. KenSeptember 13, 2010 at 8:54 AM

    I remember a bunch of us kids gathering around that big oak tree on the right in pictures 1,2 & 3 and having acorn fights evry day after school. I remember taking a plastic bag from home and filling it up with acorns so I would have plenty of ammunition. It gave me the edge I needed. Especially when I would throw the whole bag at somebody.

    Thanks for the virtual trip, I made it with you many times.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 13, 2010 at 4:31 PM

    Dan,

    Thanks for that walk again...it was just like I remember it!!! Except I did not see the plum tree I snacked from all of the time. Also..I remember somewhere after 28th..heading towards Charleston was a very small creek?? on the west side of the walkway. I remember playing in that on my way back to Charleston after lunch. Remember the days we could walk home and eat lunch!! I would debate my mom on if I could watch Bewitched...she wanted Jeopardy (back when they sat behind desks....and Art Flemming!)

    Again, thanks Dan.

    Jeff Rash

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  3. TheresaJanuary 4, 2015 at 11:05 AM

    Thanks for all of your hard work with these posts! I enjoy reading them. I grew up a couple doors down from where you did on W. 30th...we called this sidewalk "the crosswalk". When we were younger, we could only ride our bikes to "the crosswalk", until we were old and brave enough to venture out farther than our parents would allow.

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