As I drove up 400 east today I passed my alma mater, Orem High School. In the parking lot a brand spankin’ new High School is nearly completed. I realized that if I did not stop, I might never walk those halls again in my life, so I pulled over into a new parking lot where the west lawn used to be and entered in the north Northwest A-hall doors, near the little theatre where we were initiated into the National Honor Society. I turned east into E-hall finding my old calculus class, my physics class and Al Davis’s E-20 recreation class and life learning lab. Funny how things had changed so little. I came to my sophmore locker E626 at the intersection of the middle cross hall… that I shared with my best friend ever… Brent Olsen (see blog 54) I stood there looking at it for nearly a minute thinking back on the day we first arrived there and dialed the combination, making it ours for the year. I peered out the east door of E hall, and to my surprise an old classmate of mine REED was there on the sidewalk directing a maintenence crew. When he saw me he smiled and asked if I had seen the NEW SCHOOL…mostly I am just interested in seeing the OLD one I laughed. I then walked back down to the cross hall and walked south to D hall. I turned right toward A hall and walked past Lindstroms class, Morris’ class and the library. I even looked in to see that there was no longer a table where I spend my study hall hours during my senior year. I got to the student lounge where the tables and chairs had been replaced with permanent benches…otherwise things were nearly IDENTICAL to what they were when I used to play chess every lunch hour when I was a junior.
I walked back down D hall to the east and exited onto the patio like entrance of the NEW Basketball arena, which has replaced the Boys A-gym as the coluseum of the mighty Tigers. I turned back to see Mr Delaney’s and Mrs Henderson’s classrooms then thru cross hall to C hall where I had Allred for history and Sondrup for health..and where I used to sit with Laurie my junior year flame. As I walked down C hall I noticed that the out door garden between B and C halls had been covered and converted to a dance recital area…arriving at A hall I turned left and walked past the offices to the Auditorium where pictures of all the student body presidents since 1956 hang above the trophy cases in the main school entrance. I walked past the teachers lounge and thot about Al DAVIS (see blog 40) and walked into the lunch room as I did so many times in my three years at OHS. I recalled the best christmas dance ever when I was a senior…I took Mari and it was snowing. The lunch room had been magically transformed into an elegant setting with magnificent decorations and the perfect charm and music. I walked across to the entrance to the auditorium and put my hand on the chair where I sat during that sixth grade field trip to see the Unsinkable Molly Brown. It was on that day that I caught the High School bug and longed to be there as a student.
I walked out the band room door behind the auditorium, only to notice that they had added a new band room onto the east end of the lunch room…hmmm The open cement patio area between the school and the GYMS were we gathered to sign year books and load the busses was part construction zone and part….oh wow…the drafting room, the metal shop and the auto mechanics shop were GONE, replaced by the NEW building…and A-GYM was demolished except the entrance over to the B-gym wall…First I went over to the wood shop and peered in the door much as I had that day when it was my FIRST high school class…I then walked around the end of the Gym building, and followed a small corridor which traveled roughly thru the middle of where the old main gym floor used to be..gone were the locker rooms…I paused just a few feet from where my old football locker used to be, and where the tape room guarded the confines known only to the athletes…then I walked around one arm of the new building to the track and the bleachers west of the football field. I found my way thru the fence on the south end near where the ticket booth used to be, and walked along the field on OUR side reliving days on both sides of the track…cross country runs, pep rallys, repelling from the bleachers, and walking around the track when breaking up was so very hard to do…I then went .north towards the new basket ball Arena. I poked my head in the door to see them refinishing the floor. It wasnt there when I was a student so seeing such a beautiful basketball facility, built right on the lawn where we used to get in shape for SKIING in recreation and where the girls used to do archery was a new experience. It is just beautiful…
I walked back west down E hall to A hall then turned right to cross the drive way and entered the seminary building. I looked into Bro Smoots classroom then walked in and sat down at my old desk in Bro Lant’s classroom…and recalled that year of 4th period seminary with 8 others … and some of the best discussions you can imagine about life, god and finding happiness in this existance. After a few minutes I got up and walked back thru the seminary building to places where I had spent any time at all… I exited near my van and looked back on the building that in a few months will be leveled and replaced by the new one now being completed on South Campus. its strange how an hour strolling thru the memories as high school student can make you want to be younger than you are… What I would give to laugh today like I did then…to be that carefree and optimistic about the future. Ah but then it has mostly turned out as wonderfully as I thot it would back then. As I backed out and drove away it was like I was leaving a hallowed spot…where my soul was free to learn and love and discover exactly who I am… I kinda miss the rush those days brought me…Oh well. back to life…theres work to be done..places to go…people to meet…
The Adventures of Thotman 
If my life depended on it, I couldn\’t identify any of my old lockers in Pocatello\’s old WPA constructed high school. I think I could find the library because it is big, and if they haven\’t turned the auditorum into a "Gymnasium extension, I could find that. (Heck, I don\’t remember when I parked the car most of the time), But I enjoyed your memories. (I could do better in Twin Falls High School where I taught._Richard. (You are gradually getting as infrequent a poster as I ).
People who say time travel is impossible have never visited their old childhood haunts! I\’m betting as you travelled those halls you heard the chatter of classmates, the footsteps of teachers pacing the aisles, the balls bouncing across the gym floor, and even smelled lunch being prepared by harried cooks. If we\’d known how few of those people we would see when those days ended, what would we have changed while living them?It\’s good to see an update! -cindy
Hi, hello and all that wonderful jazz! Seems so many of us have traversed afar now for many many moons and we rarely seem to get back to our old friends here on spaces. I must admit that I miss your blogs and I imagine the many of those who used to stop by many other blogs miss hearing how and where our latest adventures and memories have taken us. My old school is gone as it was a few buildings scattered around our small hamlet. How I miss those days and my teachers. I often think of them and wonder where everyone called home. Nice to see a post from you again and even nicer to relive some of those dormant memories through you. Take care my friend!