I got to do something I felt was really worth it. But I have to explain
why.
The local school system got a new Junior High built, even though they
don't call it that - the term they use I absolutely hate because it
makes no sense. I went to a Junior High, and that's what they'll always
be.
Anywho, the old building was required by passage of the levy that built
the new one to be demolished. And as such, during the demolition, a
little copper box time capsule was found in the 1931 cornerstone. Today
that was finally opened and the contents looked at during a public
ceremony on the former site of Hazen Junior High in Minerva, Ohio.
HJH as I'll abbreviate it, was where I went to 6, 7, and 8th grades. It
was the source of some of the worst moments during the time I went to
school.
Mr. Hudson's shop class where I never got many good grades due to
Hudson's own judgement, which he never explained anything. I want those
grades expunged from my record. I don't know why he didn't give me any
advice as to what I was doing wrong. HE NEVER EXPLAINED ANYTHING!
Miss Beck and her math class - I thought it was incredibly funny to say
to her "I have your Teacher of the Year Award" then blow a short
raspberry in front of her, then run back to my homeroom. She didn't
think it was funny. Miss Beck, I'm sorry about that, but when you're in
6th grade, the strangest things are funny. It took a lot of courage to
do that. I remember flicking a booger that landed on the open book page
of the boy in the row in front of me, and I laughed to myself when he
and his friend next to him noticed it and wouldn't touch it because they
didn't know what it was nor where it came from!
Mr. Wiley and his insistence on the boys taking showers after gym class.
Uh, no. I got out of that one. I remember him trying to get me to take a
shower after lunch one day because I wouldn't do that in front of the
other boys after PE. It took so much effort that my mom had to go to
the school to get me out of that one. BTW, the day Wiley tried to force
me into the showers - I snuck out the other door to the boys locker /
shower room. Up until that time, the showers were inoperative, but man
oh man the things that happened after they were fixed.
Mr. Swank the music teacher throwing chalk at students who don't pay
attention. The time I took a stupid chord organ to school. Mr. Cyders
nosing in on us doing a play in 6th grade and getting me in trouble.
Miss Glauss / Mrs. Syverson (same person) banishing me from 6th grade
Art class because I used to look forward to art in school and kept
asking "What are we doing today?" too many times when she showed up. I
don't know what her frickin' problem was. It took meeting Mr.
Butterworth in 8th grade before I liked art class again.
But there were a few good moments and teachers. Mr. Miller in 7th grade
English. Mr. James Hetrick in math. Mr. Walker in 8th grade English.
Mrs. Pearl in 6th grade homeroom. (I'm sorry about crying at the
Christmas party that year - you gotta understand even in 6th grade we're
still kids who will cry.) That one kid who traded stamps with me and I
ended up with a load of them when he forgot to take them back. Heh.
(Never mind the sheets of notebook paper that people blew their noses in
and then handed them to me to look at. kimochi warui!!)
My "career" in any school choirs ended in 5th grade. Thank god. I hated
it. I don't know why I was forced into doing that. It had to do with
Miss Homer / Mrs. Fugelberg (same person) wanting the boys to do
something stupid to "I'm going to wash that girl out of my hair" at the
edge of the stage. I didn't know nor was I given the option to say I
didn't want to do it. I got sick the day we were supposed to do this for
people. Nobody believed that. I was summarily kicked out of choir.
I hated Mr. Wiley and gym class most of all. We all thought he was gay.
I hated wearing gym shorts. To this day I won't wear shorts of any kind.
I also don't go swimming anywhere.
Mr. Marcenkoy (sp?) at the high school made my 2 years in PE bearable by
not asking me to do anything except keep an eye on the baskets. Thank
you. I hated PE. I liked Marcenkoy. About the only part of PE I liked
was when we went bowling. I sucked at it.
Anywho, as the box from the cornerstone was opened, they presented 1931
copies of local papers: The Alliance Review, the Canton Repository (full
name there), and The Minerva News and Clay City Times. Where is / was
Clay City? The papers all mentioned the laying of the cornerstone on the
front page.
The Masons and the Oddfellows appeared to have had a hand in making sure
this school was built. Letters from the faculty, superintendent, and
principal were in there. A copy of The Crescent from 1931 was in there.
All items were practically still brand new as if they were in there
yesterday. Explanations of the Depression were abound. People unable to
pay property taxes lost their properties to the bank, and the banks
unable to collect on the debt went under. It was a massive domino
effect. Nobody at the time knew when it would turn around, and the
Depression lasted for about 10 years or so. Then Roosevelt (The 2nd one)
passed the New Deal and of course World War II happened. One paper
mentioned something about Chinese Troops in 1931. As soon as the items
from the time capsule are on display at the historical society, I plan
to read those newspapers, hopefully.
Lots of interesting things were in there. The Newspapers were most
enticing. The Minerva News was a whopping 8 pages!! I think I'll try
re-creating the masthead using Word. ^_^
It seems in spite of that building being the source of the Worst times
of being in the local school system had the last word as voices from the
past let us know what their hopes and dreams for the future of the
children and the school would be. They added more onto the building
later on, only to have it torn down nearly 75 years later. At least my
last memories of the building would be those from that box, and they're
good ones at least. I got video of the ceremony of the opening of that
box. ^_^
I wonder what's in the cornerstone of Mary Irene Day Elementary, or if
West Elementary has one??
