When we were in school, there was always something that fascinated Tim and/or me. One of the things was a big room at the end of the hall. We always wondered what was in it and longed to “get a peek inside it”. One time the door was ajar and I actually got to glance inside. It was a large room and I don’t recall if I saw anything in it. The one thing I do recall was that it had a gray metal ceiling with large ribs and gobs of tar were hanging down from the ceiling like stalactites in a cave. I never could figure out what caused that, but later I assumed it was tar melting from the heat of the sun. I never figured out if the tar was under the ceiling or over it. It was probably the latter.

 

Another curious place to me was the boiler room. The entrance was located by the 7^th and 8^th grade rooms and had a wooden door that was always closed and locked. Hmmm, I just can’t figure out why they always kept it locked. Did they think inquisitive kids like us would sneak down into it to check things out? (Of course we would have). They weren’t dumb. Although on many occasions, I tried the door to see if was locked and it always was. One time while walking passed it, I saw “Spoolie” the janitor coming from downstairs out of the boiler room door! It must have been hot down there because he was wearing a t-shirt with no shirt. I was tempted to ask him if he could take me down there to see what it was like. I didn’t for 2 reasons. I didn’t think he would have and I didn’t want to be late for class. Well, I guess it wouldn’t have bothered me if I were late for class, which by far wouldn’t have been the first time. I wish now I would have asked him anyway since I had nothing to lose. Hey, wait a minute! My sister DOES work at the school! I wonder if I asked her if I could go down into the boiler room now to FINALLY see what it looks like! School is over for the summer and it would be a perfect time for me to do this without getting caught by the present janitor, a teacher, or worse yet the Principal! I’ll ask her. She probably doesn’t have a key to the boiler room door though. Well, what have I got to lose by at least asking? 

 

Outside the building there’s a big grate, which is still there, covering a large deep well that lets in air to ventilate the boiler room (See pic below). It has a “flap” window in it that lets in air. The “flap” window always seemed to be opened even in the winter, so I figured it was really hot down there. As a kid, I stood on the grate and looked down it at the open window hoping to get a glance of the inside of the elusive boiler room. I never could see much. The grate well seemed deep at the time. This was due to the “kid prospective” view of things. This is illustrated that when, as an adult, you leave home for a long period and upon returning for a visit, everything looks small. As a kid, I always thought our house and barn were huge, but upon returning home after a few years of being gone, they looked very small compared to how I remembered them. I think everyone has the “Kid Prospective Syndrome”. However, while recently inspecting the grate to take pictures, I found that it is indeed pretty deep! This is one rare exception to the “Kid Prospective Syndrome”. It’s a wonder Tim escaped injury to the extent he did! They always said that Tim and I were “hard headed”!

 

There was always a lot of junk at the bottom of the grate well. Mostly paper from potato chip bags and fudge bar wrappers and the like. We always hoped we would find money down there like pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters. We even had a plan of how to retrieve it. We would take a long string and tie some ABC (Already been chewed) gum at the bottom of it. We would then lower the string down with the gum through the grate, put it on top of the coin, and pull it up. We never tried this because I don’t recall us ever seeing any money down there and we never had any string long enough to tie the gum on either.

 

One day, I believe when we were in the 1^st grade, Tim was standing on the grate and may have actually spotted some money at the bottom of the grate well, or more than likely was just curious to see inside the “flap” window. I never asked him about his motive. I’ll have to ask him about this, since I wasn’t around. It’s very paradoxical that I can vividly remember and with great detail things that happened over 50 years ago, but can’t remember what happened 50 seconds ago! As my doctor says, “Welcome to mid life”. That’s a great comfort! You’d think that all the money I pay her, that she would at least “embellish the truth” and say that my short-term memory is just a temporary thing and prescribe “memory pills”! On the other hand it wouldn’t do any good since I can’t remember where my pharmacy is anyway.  I also don’t think the plethora of medications I take for my Psychological “disorders” are doing my short-term memory any good either. By the same token, I wonder if they’re doing my brain any good as well. I just talked to Tim to get more details about this caper. Tim’s curiosity indeed caused him to lift the big grate to get a better view of things. As he did, the grate came loose at the opposite end and pulled him into the bottom of the well, grate, and all. Jan M., a “big kid”, pulled him out. I remember the side of his forehead had a big green spot on it when he hit the open “flap” window below. Eventually he went to the hospital to test whether he had a concussion (he didn’t). It’s a good thing this didn’t happen now days or the E Squad, fire department, OSHA, rescuers, “onlookers”, and the police complete with a helicopter hovering around overhead, would all be crowding the scene. Also CNN, Fox News and the other “full time” news organizations (including several reporters from the local news outlets, newspapers, radio, and TV) would all be there with video cameras going and recording interviews with “officials” and “experts” on the scene to show on the evening news broadcasts. I can see the prep now, “Local boy falls into grate well at school! Video at 11 o’clock!” There would also be counselors and social workers at the scene to counsel any students who were traumatized by the events. To add to the pandemonium on the scene, would be great hoards of parents, after hearing of the event on TV, radio, and/or the newspapers, rushing to the scene, worried about if it was THEIR kid who fell into the grate well.

 

In contrast with the present, in those days, after the fact, word would have eventually gotten around about the “dumb kid” who fell through the grate well! My oh my, how times have changed!