The (School) Bell to Toll Soon for Former Charleston Elementary

Charleston Elementary School – the first elementary school I attended in Lorain – has been a favorite topic on this blog since its beginning.

Although I only went to kindergarten and half of first grade there before my family moved in 1965, the school occupies a special place in my memory, as well as my heart.

Why?  Because Charleston has become a symbol to me of my early youth – and of simpler, more innocent times. My memories of my teachers, my classmates, my walk to school and the building itself are still vivid after more than 50 years. For me, it’s also a connection to a Lorain that hadn’t yet begun its downward spiral.

Way back in 2010 on this blog, I did a four-part series on Charleston Elementary that included my teachers and a photographic re-creation of the route I took to school.

During the Big Admiral King Painting Caper in 2011, Charleston Administration Center employee Lisa Miller of Lorain 365 invited me to pay a visit my former school. That memorable visit resulted in one of my favorite posts.

Which brings me to a few days ago, when I noticed that Lisa had left a new comment on my original Charleston post. She wrote, "As of December 2, 2016, the Charleston Building is officially closed and will be demolished.

"The Administrative Offices have been moved across the street to 2601 Pole Avenue, a small building outside the Performing Arts building on the SW corner of the new Lorain High School.”

I was grateful to get the heads-up (thanks, Lisa!) but disappointed – maybe even more than when Admiral King High School and Masson School were demolished.

But that’s the way it is. In Lorain, when an old school building’s gotta go, it’s gotta go.

****

In case you missed it (like me), here's the link to the story in the Morning Journal.

More Charleston Elementary Memories

Fall always brings thoughts of old school days...

Over the summer I had the need and opportunity to visit the Charleston Administration Center on Pole Avenue (thanks, Lisa!), and long dormant memories came flooding back again. Last year about this time (starting here), I wrote about going to kindergarten and part of first grade there when it was Charleston Elementary. I still have a soft spot in my heart for that place, since it was my introduction to Lorain's public school system.

Lorain's S. Dohanos Elementary
(Photo courtesy Lorain Schools)

I gotta admit, I still like that boxlike 1950's style of school. The one-story design made sense, and the building was probably easy to empty during fire drills or actual emergencies. Today's typical Ohio public school design (at left) to me is a strange style – like a prison – and the multi-story layout seems kind of dangerous.

Anyway, during my visit to Charleston, I walked down the same narrow hallways that I did back in 1964 and '65, and it was eerily familiar after all these decades. I even found my old kindergarten room, number 7. It was a strange feeling, and when I peeked into the room, I half-expected to see a vision of my old classmates sitting there. I guess I've seen too many Twilight Zone episodes.

"Come in, Dan" said the ghostly voice. "We've been expecting you for 45 years!"

I also stuck my head into the auditorium (or was it the gymnasium?) to get a look at the stage, where my kindergarten class posed for pictures all those years ago. It sure shrunk over the years!

This and That

I found this ad photo of the iconic Sherwood Inn sign while (what else?) looking for something else on newspaper microfilm. It's from June 1969. (Give it a click for a closer look.)

I still can't remember if I ever went in there when it was the Sherwood Inn, but that really doesn't matter. Nowadays, my wife and I spend a lot of time in there on Saturday nights enjoying the Mutt & Jeff's atmosphere. Our favorite waitress Brenda always takes good care of us, and the food is really fantastic. The burgers are great too. 

We never stay for the bands, because that just isn't our thing – we like to eat and run. But if enjoying some great local bands appeals to you, Mutt & Jeff's has an all-day end-of-summer event calling Mutt-Fest coming up next on Sunday, September 26 featuring a lot of local bands and the delicious great food. The event is a benefit for the American Cancer Society.

Here's a link to the Mutt & Jeff's Facebook page.

Mutt & Jeff's/Sherwood Inn/Airport Tavern is rapidly becoming one of my favorite topics on this blog, as it was the subject of my very first post back here, and some follow-up posts here and here.

****

Loyal reader of this blog (and fellow Admiral King High School alumni) Jeff Rash left a comment last week about my 'virtual trip' on the sidewalk over to the former Charleston Elementary School (which I posted here). He remembered a 'very small creek' on the west side of the sidewalk and noticed that I did not include a photo of it.

I felt a little guilty that I had rushed through that part of the tour, so I went back with the camera to see what Jeff was talking about. Sure enough, there was a small ditch leading to a storm sewer right where he remembered it. It was dry that day, but I am guessing that this is what he remembered.

Here are the photos of that missing portion of the tour, which starts right at W. 28th Street. (Click on each for a larger view.)

Looking back towards 28th Street you can see the sewer grate.

Thanks, Jeff for pointing that out!

****

My blog entry about Johnny Appleseed in Lorain County has caused me to think more about apples, and I've been plowing through the bag of Honeycrisps I bought last week at Shipula's. 

So Saturday morning I headed out on Route 113 to another favorite roadside stand, the Grobe Fruit Farm to get even more apples and a few bottles of apple cider.

Grobe Fruit Farm is also where I've been getting my pumpkins for about the last twenty years.

Here's a link to their page on the Ohio Apple Association website.

****

Lastly, I was driving over the Bascule Bridge today and looked over at the harbor and saw some of the first local Autumn color. So, of course, I had to capture it photographically for all you homesick Lorainites living in western states!

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.

Charleston Elementary School Memories Part 3

I couldn't reminisce about Charleston Elementary School without mentioning Edna E. Reiber, my first grade teacher there. (That's a photo of her at left, from her obituary.)

Although my family moved in 1965 during the middle of my first grade year, and I didn't have Miss Reiber as my teacher very long, she taught me something – after I was no longer her student – that has stuck with me for years. 

Let me explain.

Miss Reiber had been my older sister's teacher as well, so by the time I was in her class, I was able to enjoy some of the goodwill left over from her earlier encounter with our family. 

But when it came time for us to move in December of 1965, it would be reasonable to think that my relationship with Miss Reiber would come to an end.

But it didn't. She sent Christmas cards to my sister and me for years. 

In the early years, it seemed to be a nice parting gesture from a former teacher. But she kept it up, and every year around Christmas, my sister and I would watch the mailbox. It became a contest. Often one card would arrive before the other, and my sister and I would always ask each other: "Did you get a card from Miss Reiber yet?"

Years later, when I was in high school, my Mom took my sister and me out to visit her at her place out in the country near Vermilion. She was very warm and friendly, like a grandmother.

Even after college, even after I got married, I still traded Christmas cards with Miss Reiber. Hers always had a few lines on it telling me what was going on in her life, and I would fill her in on mine. As the years went on, she would mention that she still had some of my old drawings that she saved, and that she would dig them out sometime and mail them to me.

As the years went on, her notes got shorter, and her penmanship shakier. Finally, the lines were almost illegible and I feared for the worst.

When no card arrived in 2004, I knew that she had either passed away or was in such bad shape that sending out cards was out of the question. 

She died at age 90 on Saturday, August 13, 2005.

****

Miss Reiber taught me that friendship and tradition were important. It would have been very easy for her to throw in the hat after that first year and save herself a few stamps and cards. After all, she had a whole new crop of kids every year. Why worry about a couple of former students?

But she was a dedicated teacher – devoted to all her students, past and present – so she obviously thought it was important to maintain that connection.

Miss Reiber certainly left an impression on my sister (who is also a teacher) and me. We think of her every Christmas.

Charleston Elementary School Memories Part 2

Here's a photo of my kindergarten class at Charleston Elementary School. Mrs. Ellis was our teacher for that 1964 - 1965 school year. (Click on the photo for a super-size view.)

That's me standing next to Mrs. Ellis. (My Mom helpfully drew an arrow pointing to me. That's because we have a lot of old family photos where we don't exactly know which person in the photo is the family member – and she didn't want to have the same thing to happen again!)

Anyway, I remember Mrs. Ellis very well. She was very nice, a little stern, but a warm person.

I remember one time when we were about to have our milk and cookies, and I forgot to wait until the prayer (!) was over and just started to dig in. She made it a point to let me know that I made a mistake, and I felt really terrible about it. (I must have, if I still remember the incident after all these years!)

Mrs. Ellis was very encouraging regarding my artwork, and kindergarten was where I really developed my love of drawing. I would basically try to recreate all the cartoons I saw on TV in crayon from memory. I still have a lot of those school drawings today, and it's funny to see how much of an impression TV had on me back then.

On my report card (shown at right) Mrs. Ellis gave me good marks: all S+'s for the first session and all O's for the second. In her remarks about my progress, she noted that "he is interested in his work and feels satisfaction with his results. He plans his work carefully and works with sustained interest. He is able to express his ideas clearly and definitely using color in a dramatic way."

That's better than the last review I got at work!

****

Looking at the class photo today makes me smile, and brings back memories of carefree childhood days.  

Even though my family moved nine months after this photo, I regrouped with most of the kids years later when we all ended up at Masson Junior High School. A few had stayed in the public schools all the way to junior high, but many had gone to parochial school.

Since graduation, I've managed to keep track of a few classmates. Many of them were at the 20th and 30th Class Reunions for the Admiral King High School Class of 1977. Facebook also comes in handy to smoke some of them out!

Some classmates still live in the area like me. Bill Milks (top row, far left) is a great guy and the owner of Milks Mower Sales & Service on Cooper Foster Park Road in Amherst; he always takes good care of my lawn mower and me.

If any of my old classmates – or anyone who had Mrs. Ellis – reads this, please post some of your memories or thoughts!

Next: One of my favorite teachers: Miss Reiber

Charleston Elementary School Memories Part 1

I happened to be driving by the old Charleston Elementary School building (above) in Lorain recently. For years it's been the administrative offices of the Lorain City Schools, but for me it's the place where I attended kindergarten and spent half of first grade before my family moved.

According to a local history compiled by Lorain Board of Education Member James Smith, Charleston Elementary dates back to 1956. It was named in honor of the former name of the City of Lorain, as well as a previous Charleston School that was destroyed by the 1924 Lorain Tornado. (Also, its location was originally at Charles Street and Pole Avenue; Charles Street is now W. 23rd.)

Even though it's been about 45 years since I attended Charleston, I still have vivid memories.

One thing I remember is how my siblings and I managed to walk to school (which was several blocks away) without getting lost. We did this by following our parents' instructions to "follow the blacktop." Let me explain.

That part of Lorain used to be farmland, and when it was finally developed, the streets were laid out in a very rigid pattern. There were no gentle curves and winding lanes. Practically all of the streets were perpendicular to each other, running north or south. The numbering system of Lorain's west side made them even more generic-looking. (There were cul-de-sacs every so often, but even they looked alike.)

But one good idea that someone had was to create a sidewalk that ran right through the neighborhood towards both Charleston Elementary and Admiral King High School. Thus, if the kids could stay on that sidewalk, it would channel them all the way to Pole Avenue and school. Kind of like following the Yellow Brick Road.

You can see it in the MapQuest aerial photo; it starts at the first 'e' in Meister Road at the bottom of the map and runs straight north. (My family lived on W. 30th Street, approximately 5 houses to the right of the sidewalk.)

Back then in the early 1960's, the sidewalk had been paved with asphalt, making it easy to follow.

Here's the official Brady "first day of school" photo from September 1964. (I wonder if families still do that?)  I'm off to kindergarten, along with my older brother (who was in first grade) and my sister (who was in fifth). It must have been chilly that day!

Like many families back then, my parents only had one car, and Dad took it to work. So if it rained, we walked to school and got wet. Good thing we had those spiffy raincoats!

****

Click here to visit the "Old Ohio Schools" website that has photos of almost every school in Lorain County, past and present. It includes great archival photos, as well as a status report as to whether the school is still in use, threatened or demolished. The schools are grouped by city, so scroll down to visit your town's places of learning.

Next: Mrs. Ellis' class

Back to School: Charleston Elementary School

Starting tomorrow, I turn back the hands of time with a multi-part blog series about my old elementary school: Charleston Elementary School in Lorain, Ohio.

Built in the late 1950's, Charleston was a classic one-story brick building, the likes of which isn't being built any more. Nowadays, it seems like too much attention is paid to how new the building is, and whether or not it has all the high-tech bells and whistles.

But school is about much more than buildings – it's all about the teachers. At least it used to be. And in the second and third part of the series, you'll meet two of my most memorable teachers – who also happen to be the first teachers I ever had.

So I'll see you tomorrow – and don't forget your cigar box containing paste, scissors, plastic ruler, and big fat stubby pencil!