Lake School

 

There was a "Lake School" in Aurora, Ohio, I swear to you.  It may have been torn down long ago, but I'm telling you it very much existed.  (I suppose I should check next time I'm in the area?) There doesn't appear to be any record of it online.  Well, that changes today.

 

That school pictured above isn't it, I just Google'd "run down school."  It maybe didn't look quite that run down, but it was a piece.  One thing I can tell you is that Aurora was hit by a tornado in March of 1986, and it tore the roof off part of my elementary school.  My mom told me that the roof was rolled up like it was a sardine can.  My family and I were on vacation at the time, so we completely missed it.  I think it was Spring Break, so nobody was at the school except for a group of hapless Girl Scouts, who according to a teacher were screaming in terror and not following the safety protocol we all seemed to engage in weekly.  If you're from the Midwest, you know of that head-down, curly ball thing I'm talking about.

 

Anyway, I don't recall how we spent the rest of that school year - it was possible we were shipped off to Lake School right after, but I can tell you for certain we were there come Autumn 1986 so that damaged parts of our real school could undergo repair.  When I say "we," I'm talking about just my 3rd Grade class.  I don't know why our class was singled out.  I think we were told some bullshit reasoning like "Well, the 4th grade class is getting ready to go to Middle School, so we don't want to jostle with their emotions, and the younger kids are too young."  So there we were, the 3rd Grade, shipped away to this dump known as Lake School.  I remember when the bus pulled into the driveway of the school, my older neighbor friend was like "Oh, this place?"  It was coincidentally right near where I lived, but at the time seemed just as far away as any other place.  It was no doubt known as "Lake School" because it was right on Aurora Lake, which also bordered my backyard.  I had never been there before, but it was basically a destination for neighborhood fights and cool boys riding 4-wheelers.  I don't think it was being used prior to our arrival, and it certainly showed.

 

It felt like the Wild West being there - no doubt burgeoning hormones had something to do with it, but I feel like it was a constant barrage of boys punching each other and kicking each other in the balls.  The classrooms and hallways were pretty dirty, and the gym floor was made of this weird rubbery material that you could pick apart.  My memories of that year are pretty vivid party due to the drastic relocation.  And well, here are some...

 

I remember farting being a big deal that year.  I sat next to my friend Pat, who was big into BMX/Skateboards, and we would talk about farting all day, and try to outdo each other with farts.  I remember when I had my best fart of the year, it sounded like I was playing a musical scale with my butt.  Sadly though, Pat was away at the pencil sharpener when it happened, but this kid Alex heard it, and he laughed his head off.  If you ever see Alex, ask him about the fart.

 

Flipping people off was also important.  I was constantly giving people the finger, even my own family when they weren't looking.  It was nothing personal, more of an OCD thing.  I remember one day walking back to my desk and giving my teacher the finger, and when she looked up she might have seen me doing it, because she looked down and shook her head in disgust.

 

I remember our music teacher practically having a nervous breakdown.  One day she was teaching in our classroom, and we were all being so rowdy that she picked up her stuff and walked out in the middle of the lesson.  On the way out she paused wide-eyed, put her hand up in the air and said "No one touch me..."  After she left, she told our teacher, and when our teacher confronted us about it, my friend Bobby was like "That's a lie!"

 

One day we were assigned to make PSA-style posters.  A lot of kids were doing something stupid like "Don't Do Drugs!," but I made one that warned "Don't eat something if you don't know what it is."  The poster had a drawing of a guy taking something out of a cupboard, eating it, and then I drew a gravestone to show that he died from eating the thing.

 

Garbage Pail Kids were still a fad, but they were on their way out.  I mentioned in a prior blog entry that during 3rd Grade I gave away my GPK cards during random moments. I would sanction races between boys in our school's gymnasium, and the winners would get a card.  I remember I told my friend Scott I would give him a card if he jumped six times in five seconds, but he angrily yelled "I can't do that!"

 

I brought a couple of G.I. Joe figures to school one day for show & tell, and they later got stolen out of my locker.  I had never had anything stolen from me before, and it broke my heart.  I pretty much know who did it, it was the same person who stole stuff from me multiple times over the years.  I won't name him here, because of the possible beatings.

 

*******

We just spent that one year at Lake School, by 4th grade we were back at Craddock Elementary.  What a time. I don't want to be a kid again, but I can't help but get a little nostalgic, especially when talking about stuff like BMX riding and skateboarding.  My family couldn't afford a BMX, and they didn't want me riding a skateboard because I'd break my neck.  If only we couldn't have known it was the mid-80's while we lived it.