Once A Bulldog, Always A Bulldog

I have heard rumblings of my elementary school shutting down for years. My mom would always ask me if they had some kind of send off if I would go.

"Of course!" I replied every time. I'm all about memories and nostalgia and going back to my roots. I'm never too good or proud or busy to look back on what brought me to this point.

A few months back I got wind of their 70th Celebration. I guess it ended up being a party and reunion and goodbye all in one. After this year Fern Creek will be no more. Another elementary school will move into the buildings for a year while their school is under construction. After that it is anyone's guess. I am just going to assume it's worst case scenario aka the school will be torn down. It's old but that's kind of what is so special about it. My childhood home was recently bulldozed so it's been a weird time of reflection about all things in my childhood.

That house on Park Lake St. and this elementary school were everything in those formative years.

My original plan was to go to my mom's house so I could change (I had been sweating it up at the Science March at Lake Eola - more on that next blog) but when I called she was leaving. Mind you it was 1:45. She insisted that she needed to get there early for a "good parking spot". So I drove past our old house  where our old house once stood and cringed a bit and then drove up the road to Fern Creek. I parked around back near my 4th and 5th grade classrooms. And that's where I was forced to change - IN MY CAR. My mom arrived soon after and we started walking around the school. One of the teachers whom I recognized immediately, but couldn't quite place her name, asked us if we needed help. We told her we were early (WAY EARLY) for the celebration. She said we were early (believe me, I knew) but invited us into a classroom to stay cool in the A/C which was much appreciated. I'm pretty sure the classroom was my old 4th grade class. It was a lot brighter now as the walls had been painted over the years and the blinds were kind of circus-like. My mom's friend and neighbor, Sandy, showed up shortly after. We talked and took pictures and before we knew it we were walking to the auditorium to get the party started, but first we all used the restroom. It looked exactly the same. I think the stalls themselves had been replaced but the tile, sinks, and toilet seats (yikes) all seemed to be original.

Before going to have a seat in the auditorium we were given the cutest little green paw print charm to symbolize being a bulldog. We also filled out name tags with the years we attended.

The auditorium also looked exactly the same. I remember chorus performances on that stage and dare I mention that was the stage my mom played "lead hobo" in a school play. I remember playing hide and seek behind the curtains when I should have been in extended day. I remember my fellow classmates lighting up assemblies with their L.A. Gear shoes. It all just flooded back.

I started to recognize faces here and there, mostly teachers. I saw Ms. Schwaner, my kindergarten, from afar. Then Mrs. Abel, my 5th grade teacher, walked by and we hugged. Then my friend Adam came in whom I hadn't seen since 9th grade even though we keep up over Facebook. And finally my girl, and fellow troublemaker - Val. She came in with her adorable baby, Taylor, and mom.

They played a video on the projector of teachers talking about what they love about the school and their experience at Fern Creek. It was really neat to see. Of course Val and I whispered through it because there was just too much to say. I feel like all of these memories were coming back to everyone and we all just wanted to get them out. During our little assembly we sang the Fern Creek song which I still know by heart. Also, they had teachers and old students go up to the podium and ask us questions like...

Stand up if you remember the honey and peanut butter sandwiches.
Stand up if you had multiple generations go to Fern Creek.
Stand up if you remember this...or that.
It was a lot of fun.

Afterwards we all mingled a bit and took photos. They had a classroom open in each wing/grade level and photos from each decade. The 90's was in what I remember to be the second grade wing. Then we all went to the cafeteria to look at more photos. It was so much fun finding pictures of our 90s selves. We all laughed at Adam's hair and my clothes. We reminisced about it all: pop-ice Wednesdays, cookie crisps treats in music class, Field Day, tie dye shirts in 5th grade, being mean to the intern, sitting on the brick ledge by the clinic to get our head checked for lice, extended day, square pizza, spelling tests in Mr. Chamblin's class, doing flips on the monkey bars or playing on the tire swing.

I'll never forget sitting in the lunchroom discussing Kramer "on that one show" with a group of kids. And when one of them asked me if I watched, I responded "Yeah, I watch SeinFIELD." I later realized it was Seinfeld and felt like a complete moron for a week. Mind you, this was early to mid 90s and although Seinfeld was a thing I clearly was not actually watching it but wanting to impress some of my classmates.

They served cake in honor of the school's 70th birthday and we had to go through the cafeteria line to get it. There is nothing that brought more chills than that moment. Oh to be a kid again!

I was honestly really disappointed by the overall attendance of the event especially my own classmates. There are so many people I would have loved to see and catch up with. Obviously there wasn't anything those that live out of state or the country could've done but I know so many are still fairly local and it would have been nice to see them. It's hard for me to accept that most people don't really give a shit about these kind of things (which pretty much breaks my heart because um hello - SO. MUCH. FUN.) I'm very much present in my life but dammit do I love to reminisce.

Regardless of the smaller turn out I had the absolute best time laughing my ass off with Val and Adam. Val and my mom were also hilarious especially in their lack of technology knowledge. We had to walk them through how to use our camera phones. I'm also glad I got to see Nick. We got to really hang out with Mrs. Abel and Mr. Chamblin which was just the coolest. They are just as awesome as I remember but it's a weird feeling being on their adult level. I'm bummed I didn't get to talk to Ms. Schwaner more. We waved and said hello but I didn't get to have a real conversation.

All and all those few hours were incredible. I felt like a kid giggling at everything with Val.
Those were the days.

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Below are some photos I found from my days at Fern Creek that were not at the event.