musings a go go

Like many elementary students in Crossett, I attended Price Elementary. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1978 destroyed the original building (which part of that still remains). This new building was completed in 1979 just in time for me to start kindergarten in 1980. I remember this school so well, had many great teachers, and learned a lot in this new "modern" building. It was a colorful school, with each teacher's door painted a bright yellow, orange, blue, etc. I attended Price from 1980-1986. Two separate times, once during the third grade (in 1984) the school was deemed unsafe due to it sinking in the ground and I remember cracks in the wall and the floors buckling--every grade had to go to a different place (third grade went to First Baptist Church and used the Calhoun cafeteria for lunch and presentations). The other time we were in the fifth grade and had to go to Hastings. My mom was a teacher at North Crossett Elementary and instead of having her three kids go to three different places, during this time she enrolled us at North Crossett so it would be easier. Even though Price has a rather unsafe history, I still have fond memories of it. Now, don't be shocked by these pictures of this modern school---a lady lives in there and operates a penny saver type newspaper out of Mrs. Vought's room (my old kindergarten room) and has a dog that has defecated all up and down the hallways. I simply knocked on the lower grade entrance until this lady came to the door and I explained that I wanted to tour it and she obliged. The pictures I took are of: the lower elementary hall with the office on the left, the upper elementary hall with the teacher's lounge on the right, the bright blue doors are where the library was (can anyone say "Dewey Decimal System" like Miss Porter?), the fountain thing was where boys and girls, when they came out of the restroom washed their hands--you stepped on a bar and water would come out--the stairs lead up to the stage in the "cafetorium" and there is a picture of the lunch room (where the lunch line was and the lunch ladies served the food) and there is still even that hole where you placed your tray when you were finished. The big open space that is cluttered with junk was the cafetorium. What a waste and what such memories of this place.

// posted by andy @ 11:32 AM