The school is on fire!!!!

[ddurbin]

There's been a lot of talk about the summer of 1969 and all the things that happened forty years ago.  The moon landing----Woodstock-----Vietnam War.  My most vivid memory is much more local.  August 19, 1969 is the day the Moline School burned, and I was there.  Don't have time this morning to go into details, but will try to tell more this evening.

[whizkid238]

My cousin  Nita Jones,Longton ,taught there that year.

[ddurbin]

Didn't mean so long in getting back to this.  Anyway, August 19, 1969 was a Tuesday.  I started the day by going in to the school to complete enrollment.  School was scheduled to start the next week.  Having that done, I went out east of town to the Livestock Auction to work a special Stocker-Feeder sale they were having.  That afternoon after I finished I was headed home and noticed this big black plume of smoke rising from the east side of town.  My thoughts were "Trip's burning a pile of tires again"  Dewayne Triboulet dealt a lot in junk vehicles then and he would often burn his old tires. (It wasn't prohibited 40 years ago).  His place was a block east of the school.  When I walked into the house, the phone was ringing and it was my grandmother calling from in town.  "The schoolhouse is on fire."  That was about all the conversation as I quickly got back in the car and headed to town.  The area around the school was packed with firetrucks and firefighters from all the neighboring towns, with more arriving.  It wasn't long before this able-bodied 16-year old was 'drafted' to help out.  I soon found myself being 2nd hose man half way up a ladder on the south side of the building helping shoot water into the room where I would have been taking Physics in just a few days.
The cause was never officially determined, but it originated in the basement type storage area under the stage in the center of the building.  Basically the entire high school portion was gone, but the two wings going east that held the elementary classrooms was salvaged and put back into service after a period of time.  The jr. and sr. highs were moved to the school building in Grenola.  The south half of the district had been consolidated at the start of the 67-68 school year, so the Grenola students got to return to familiar surroundings, even though we still remained Moline High School in name.
School closings and consolidations are never easy situations and carry a high level of issues and emotions with them.  This is easily seen with the current on-going discussions regarding the elementary schools in the district.  But to lose your school building, so quickly, without any warning, was a whole nother matter.  I had always imagined I would graduate from Moline High School just like my parents did, and my grandfather before them.  And actually I did---just not from a building in Moline.  Looking back, the building my parents attended was not the same building as my grandfather either.  Structures come and go.  A school is the student body, the staff and the community.  None of that really changed for me, and I can't see that I'm a better or worse person because I didn't get to finish my schooling in the old building.  (But I do still miss it somewhat to this day.)

[Ole Granny]

If those walls could have talked..........Still I can walk into each room with sounds and faces appearring through memory.  Upper floor held the tiny little library at the end of the study hall room.  How many foot prints polished the halls  throughout the building? The science and math rooms where minds were filled with knowledge. Dissecting my first earthworn (Thanks Harry).  The poliitics discussed in Government class.  (Thanks Bill)  Moving to the other side of the building to the film room then the Business (Typing and Shorthand) taught many fingers to move across the keyboards.  Typed on my first electric typewriter there.  Next was the Band and Music Room where glorious sounds (and some not) flowed throughout the building. (Remember the beginning band classes) The main floor: How huge the Home Economics area was, along with the massive trophy case and the class photos that greeted visitors.  The English room and the Boy's Locker Room (bet that could really tell some tales).  Last but not least the Office.
The stage and gym area are not the same now.  How many graduates walked across the stage?  The personal lockers that lined the hallways.  We did not lock our lockers and don't remember anyone ever missing anything. Oh, so many memories, but we do have them.....

[Janet Harrington]

I think school memories are a very important part of our lives and I sometimes wonder about people that don't seem to remember their school memories, especially the people that were in their class.  I, too, miss my two high school buildings.  I attended Severy High School my freshman and sophomore year.  Then the school district consolidated Severy and Howard and I came to what was the first year of North Elk High School in the old Howard High School building.  Did I ever look at that building as the Howard High School building?  Nope.  It was North Elk High School and it was our school where we brought old friends and made new friends.  North Elk High School only lasted three years, 1971, 1972, and 1973.  1974 was the first year of West Elk High School and my baby sister graduated from that class.  The Severy High School building was torn down.  I don't remember when, but that building will always be in my memory as will the building that was Howard High School and North Elk High School.  School memories should be a part of a person's life and I am sad for people that don't have school memories beause of choices they made or choices that were made for them. 

[Ole Granny]

I was very lucky to have attended the same school for 12 years.  Small town schools are very special since you know everyone and they become like family.  The school is the home away from home so should have special feelings and memories.  My childhood home also burned years after I had left Moline so memories fill my heart. My grandparents last home in Elk Falls burned when struck by lightning many many years ago. I still drive by when I am there.  The cellar and barn are still standing. And I drive by the little Methodist Church where my grandmother worshipped.  Remembering her love of flowers and her great strength of mind. Beauty was in everything she encountered, even in a bell pepper from her garden.