Rumor has it that the Covington Elementary school will soon disappear making way for expanded businesses and a growing Covington.  The exact time is unknown.  I, however, attended that school for four years between 1969 and 1973.  Interestingly, although the school looks very similar today, a few changes have taken place.

When I attended, the outside halls didn’t have locking doors on them as they do now.  Instead they were blocked off by large gates that you could peer through.  The gates didn’t go all the way to the roof though.  There was a gap of about three feet above those gates and it wasn’t unusual for mischievous youngsters and teens to climb over them to run the halls when no one was around. 

I also remember somewhere around fourth grade a new nature trail was constructed behind the school gym in the woods.  I don’t know if it still exists.  The classes would take mini field trips on this trail to enjoy the forest and learn.  Of course going on this trail alone was forbidden and it was pounded into our heads that strangers or other misfits of society could be lurking there just waiting to attack or kidnap us. 

The field out back was huge, or so it seemed when I was small, and climbing the banks in the far corners of the field which butted up against the forest was also forbidden.  Again, the same reasoning; the potential for children to disappear.  At least once for me and many times for others I remember the playground teacher yelling at us to get off the hill and back on the field.  To this day I can still feel the haze of fear instilled in us if we dared venture into the forbidden zones.

In the near future when this school disappears from the map, those memories will remain within the confines of my mind only to be accessed by the synapses and neurons that control my brain. Until that time comes, enjoy the school that has been there some forty years or more.  If your children have the privilege of attending there now, what kind of stories or memories will they take with them and recall when they are adults?