Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Elementary School


I toured my old elementary school while I was home in Florida. It's called Sanders Memorial Elementary School, and as you may remember, it's being torn down this summer. A special farewell ceremony was held Saturday where alumni, teachers and other visitors could get a last look at the old place.

It was pretty much as I remember, though predictably it seemed much smaller.


This was my old sixth-grade classroom, I think. (I had trouble remembering exactly which of two rooms it was, but I'm pretty sure this is it.) This part of the school dates from 1948.


This is the entrance to the cafeteria.




The older buildings at Sanders were mostly long structures with outdoor sidewalks. These were two classroom additions from the '60s and '70s where I had classes.


This was the old library. At another time it served as the office, which was also once housed in one of those sixth-grade classrooms like the top photo.

It was fun to tour Sanders again. I don't have any negative feelings about it being torn down -- it's a very old school and not really suited to today's learning environment, when schools have to be more secure. That open plan must give administrators fits.

The only unfortunate thing is that my hometown, Land O' Lakes, doesn't have a whole lot of historic structures. This is probably one of the most significant. But time marches on!


Coincidentally, my mom and I found this old photo of me and some of my classmates in first grade at Sanders. That's me on the right, and I remember the girl, but I don't know who any of those other kids are. Pretty funny, huh?

5 comments:

Merle Sneed said...

That is a funny photo. Put kids in fron of a camera and it always comes out the same.

37paddington said...

looks like my old school in jamaica! especially the long classroom buildings with the outdoor porticos. memories.

Reya Mellicker said...

I wouldn't be heartbroken to see that building go. It's not exactly beautiful, is it?

Great that you had one last tour before it came down, though.

So glad you are blogging again!! Yay!!

Tom said...

Funny. They tore down my old elementary school this year as well. The site will become condos for old folks and retired people (I think)

Unknown said...

I went there from 1970 through 1975, Mr. Crawford was the principal