Come with me down memory lane for a moment:
Shoals had one of those school setups where all of the kids from kindergarten through 12th grade went to school on the same piece of property, in one big complex. There was no "Westside Junior High" or "Larry Bird Elementary School" on a separate side of town feeding into the high school - there was Shoals Elementary and Shoals Junior-Senior High School.
Before the extensive remodeling and renovation they did after my graduation from there, there was a room just downstairs from the cafeteria. I don't know if it still exists, or if it met the wrecking ball when the school decided to join the 20th century (just in time for the 21st).
The room consisted of a smallish, non-regulation basketball court, a couple of locker rooms and a supply room. We had P.E. in there, and I also recall some fire safety talks being held there, not to mention dances after basketball games. When the main gym was in use by the boys varsity basketball team, this room would be where the other teams would hold practice. We also occasionally held baseball practice there. (Really.) It had a hard concrete floor and concrete walls, both conducive to concussions, as well as insulation hanging from the rafters about 20 feet in the air (conducive to mesothelioma and asbestosis, I imagine). When someone took a high-arcing jumper, it would hit the rafters and knock down some of that stringy brown insulation.
It was a room that served multiple purposes. It was called ... the Multi-Purpose Room.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Some remembrances of the MPR:
ReplyDelete1. When I played 6th and 8th grade basketball and nearly got sick with anxiety every night when I showed up for practice and the smell of the locker room hit me. Dale Brown tried to think of nice ways to say that I was slow, but Bob Iglehart just screamed at me. Iglehart also vowed to get us in shape by not letting us touch a ball until the last practice prior to our season opener vs. South Knox. He kept his promise, and when we got in the game we looked like a bunch of apes chasing a bar of soap. Well, the rest of them did. Iglehart came up to me in the locker room afterward and said, brusquely, "Lane, you'll get in some games."
2. Gathering on the last day of school and/or the last day before Christmas break to watch perennials such as The Apple Dumpling Gang and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
3. When I was in 4th grade and we had to put on the play "Peter and the Wolf," then sing "We are the World."
4. Always getting called back for a second look by the doctor who checked us for scoliosis.
5. Two words: Stormin' Norman (or as he spelled it, Storman Norman).
You may or may not be surprised to learn, Captain, that, after retiring from the State Police, Storman Norman found work as an auctioneer.
ReplyDeleteIf Bob Pollard had a song called "The Narcolepsy-Inducing Auctioneer," it'd be about Storman Norman. Oh, he sucks. He's also the answer to this question:
How did I end up with a $4 box of costume jewelry?