Found memories
This is an image of the former YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association). When I was younger, we’d catch the bus downtown and walk to the YWCA. They had swimming for 2 hours for $1.00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was fun stuff.
Last year, I made a book for SoFoBoMo, In Retrospect, which can be found here. It was inspired by a trip that I made back to Ohio to visit my sister. In the book I took you on journey from elementary to high school. At the time of that writing, my high school, Central-Hower, had been closed.
When I went back this year for a visit, I found that both my middle school, Goodrich Middle School, and my elementary school had been closed as well. The elementary school, McEbright Elementary, has been torn down and is being replaced by what they are now calling Learning Centers. These are two floor, high tech elementary schools.
I took Chris Klug by the school to show it to him, as he was interested in where I lived and where I went to school. I was shocked to see that the school no longer existed, but found instead, the skeletal beginnings of the new learning center. Time marches on. Now, even as I type this, I remember my old school, the faint smell of coal dust from the furnace in the basement, and the sounds of traffic that passed on Cole Avenue. The school was so old that it was not air conditioned. I wish that I could have walked the halls once more.
So, the moral of this story is, if you are thinking about doing a book, or anything, do it now. Don’t wait for tomorrow, for tomorrow, you might not have the opportunity … it just might be gone.
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Amen to that. While we are standing still, the World carries on as usual. I, too, needs to get going sometimes.
Sorry about that with the school building, that it’s gone now.
Well, it’s physical form is gone. It lives on in pictures and in my memories. I just had another memory of the elementary school. I remember the janitor, not his name nor his face, but the huge ring of keys that he used to carry and the sound that they would make as they clanked against each other. I remember the school cafeteria and all of the food swaps that we used to do.
Yeah, for sure the old gives way to the new and once lost only memories may remain. I’ve been amazed how much my hometown has changed over the years — some things gone, some abandoned and some repurposed.
It sounds like you at least got a few moments to revisit those old halls in your memories and heart. You’re so right about doing things now and not waiting!
Finding good use of that new S90 I see. I like this photo, something timeless about it.
Earl, the S90 is coming in handy. I carry it with me always and there seems to always be something interesting to shoot. Things do change so fast, especially when you only get to visit that location at most once per year.
I am so glad that I was inspired last year to take a few moments and make those photographs.
As time marches on we do see the changes take place. I grew up in a town called Loveland with a neighboring town of Fort Collins (13 miles) as our rival in sports. There is almost no distinction between now as they blend together, any boundary lines have disappeared. Two of the fist homes we lived in back in Loveland are now gone. One is now a park along a canal and the other one is a duplex. It’s sad but all things do change. Our lives constantly change.
As it is said: The only constant is change. Many such small communities are disappearing as cities continue to annex the outskirts. Then, it all becomes one big ball of yarn. The city without a personality, just a lot of ‘folks’.
A valid point. What I do remember from my last year’s sofobomo experience is Paul Butzi’s admonishment: Stop Procrastinating! All kinds of visual sugar are in permanent change, and sometimes even waiting a single day can be the one day too long. So I have learned to savour things as soon and as long as they are.
Even when I come into a new situation I intend to explore I get some frames right at the beginning and only then start to think. It happened more than once that those turned out to be the best ones, as light or people or something else changed and with it the whole setting.
I’ve been burned by procrastination a few times and once very badly. I certainly regretted it. We had a neighbor who was 98. He was so interesting. He’d sit outside, smoke his cigar, and talk. I’d go out when I could and talk to him. I remember thinking: I should be photographing this guy while he tells his stories and smokes his cigars. I didn’t. I kept thinking: I’ll do it next time.
Sadly, he fell down one day, broke his hip, and never recovered. He died. I felt for him and his family and immediately saw the lesson in that. Immediately. Don’t wait, ever! No one is promised tomorrow. Shoot early. Shoot often. Don’t hesitate.