Being lost in one's thoughts is called a reverie; kind of daydreaming and taking a trip in one's own mind. On Tuesday, Oct. 5, I experienced a reverie with three people: me, myself and I.
It was a beautiful fall day and I was sitting on a bench under the covered walk between the main building and the gym at South Hamilton Elementary School. A gentleman traveled from Pennsylvania to look at the school property as a prospective buyer. It was a rather bittersweet trip for me and not the first one I experienced since the school's official closure at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
As I entered the front door with the prospective buyer and members of the school districts dedicated maintenance staff, that familiar smell that said, "South Hamilton," greeted me.
We walked through dark and silent halls, into the auditorium and through the school and, as I told the prospective buyer about the history of the school plant, my mind was moving along various planes. I heard bells ringing to signal class changes and saw students hurrying to get to class on time. I saw students performing in the auditorium, singing to wonderful melodies played on the piano by Delores Howell. As we approached the cafeteria, I breathed in and smelled the wonderful aroma of yeast rolls baking in the oven.
Later, as I sat on the bench, while the gentleman who presently has the property in escrow visited the boiler room and other places with the maintenance employees, I breathed in and smelled popcorn popping, heard the laughter of children at a school fall festival and even heard voices of a filled-to-capacity gymnasium cheer the school basketball teams on. South Hamilton Elementary will always be my school. I attended school for eight years there, did my student teaching there, taught there, was principal there twice and began my career as a school board member there.
There, on that bench, I wiped my eyes and bid South farewell. I have been asked a thousand times: what will happen to the school? I can't answer that, but I can answer, with sadness, it will never again be the center and heart of our community and "our" school. Change happens with us or "to us" and I realize that, but at 63, I feel I have earned the right to my reverie, especially in a place I spent so much of my life and enjoyed many wonderful times. On Fridays, though, I purchase treats, put on my red shirt and encourage reading, as I have done for close to four decades at Hamilton County Elementary School in Jasper, because our main responsibility is children, not a building.
I enjoyed my reverie and I will always cherish my memories of a time and place that lives on in my memories, as well as in the memories of many others. From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing you a good day.