This is a story that any Baby Boomer who went to Berlin Local School will remember and maybe this was used in other schools too, green saw dust. This was used in 2 applications at our school. The first was to cover the gym floor when the school had some program in the gym. We were never allowed to wear “street shoes” on the gym floor unless the green saw dust was spread on it first. You had to wear “gym shoes” on the unprotected gym floor. I could never figure out why. Maybe the hard souls on “street shoes” would mar and/or scratch the finish. There were times I started to walk on the gym floor in my “street shoes” without thinking. I usually remembered and while a shock went up my spine, I quickly made on exit to the sidelines lest I get caught and yelled at. There were times that I got caught, usually by  “Spoolie” the custodian or a teacher who would yell, “Get off the gym floor with your “street shoes”!

 

 Once and a while when there was no one around, I would venture out a few feet onto the floor with my “street shoes” just to see if I could get away with it and also just what damage it would actually cause to the gym floor. I never noticed any damage but still felt “funny” and “weird” walking on the floor with my “street shoes”. When we had Physical Education and the floor didn’t have any of that green saw dust on it we had to go onto the floor in our stocking feet if we forgot to bring our “gym shoes”. It always amazed me what a big deal everyone made about the gym floor. Looking back, I think their fears of causing any damage to the floor with “street shoes” was no doubt exaggerated. It just gave the school officials one more thing to yell at us kids about.

 

The second use of the green saw dust was when some kid threw up all over the floor. They would call “Spoolie”, he would bring a bucket, and spread the same green saw dust on the floor to soak it all up. When he transferred it into another bucket he would then spray the floor with some kind of spray that smelled good. They must have had a lot of this green saw dust on hand. The two things I always wondered about it was where they kept it (I never did know) and why was it dyed green. I remember it also had a good smell to it, kind of like vanilla, so I always liked to smell it all over the gym floor. I wonder in this day and age at the Berlin School if it is still forbidden to walk on the gym floor with “street shoes” and if they still use that same ubiquitous good smelling green saw dust???? I’ll have to ask my sister Sue since she works there!