©Mark Ollig
Facebook
has officially reached 2.32 billion monthly active users.
Little
did I know, it would end up being the means which brought together former
classmates, who I had not seen or talked to in decades.
During
the 2010 demolition of the old Holy Trinity grade school building in Winsted
(where I attended school), Facebook all of a sudden became the source used to
share information and memories among its former classmates.
Many
of these classmates had spread out and were living in other parts of Minnesota
or in different states. Facebook brought us all together again.
June
2010, I traveled to Winsted and visited the grade school building. I brought my
camera to take pictures of the old school before next month’s scheduled
demolition.
I
uploaded these photos to my Facebook profile, where all my Facebook friends
could see and comment on them.
A
week later, I uploaded a six-picture photo album onto my Facebook page which
included a photo of the grade school’s southeast corner, where the 1907 corner
block had already been removed. A few dozen “St. Mary’s bricks” were lying on
the ground.
“Can
we get a brick or two?” was the first comment posted from a former classmate.
Thus,
the “tearing-down-of-the-grade-school” conversation began on Facebook.
Soon,
other photos of the grade school were being uploaded and shared among Facebook
users and former students living in Winsted.
Facebook
quickly became the new “street corner hangout,” the place to meet and chat about
the tearing down of our beloved grade school.
Many
former classmates reminisced about their experiences attending the grade
school, and were posting messages about past teachers, classes, and memorable
events.
And
so, grade school memories flowed – causing a wave of nostalgia to set in on one
group of Facebook users.
On
July 10 (one day after the demolition), I took 30 photos of what was left after
all of the brick and mortar walls had been removed. There wasn’t much left,
except for the stone foundation, a few inner walls, and piles of rubble
scattered here and there.
Looking
over where “the tunnel” crisscrossed into the high school, I noted the tunnel’s
entrance next to the high school cafeteria was now filled with bricks, cement
blocks, and debris.
Lying
on top of a small pile of broken bricks, pieces of plaster, and broken wooden
lathes, I came across an item which immediately caught my attention.
I
focused my camera and took a picture of a dusty and slightly-damaged plastic
cover case from an LP (Millennials: this stands for long-playing) vinyl album
record player (1970s Fisher Price player) containing the paper jacket from a
children’s record for grades k-6. The paper record jacket showed a picture of a
small group of smiling grade school children with the words “Music! Music!
Music!” written above them in bold colors.
Seeing
this paper jacket lying on top of the ruins of what was once a place filled
with learning, laughter, and memories caused me to become somewhat taken aback
and melancholy.
It
was eerily quiet as I stood out there alone on that hot July afternoon,
surveying the remains of my former school and remembering the teachers, nuns,
priests, classrooms and classes, and my classmates who share those memories.
Looking
over where the entrance to the underground tunnel to the high school was, I
recall our teacher getting us into “single-file” to walk through the tunnel to
the cafeteria for lunch, a Friday afternoon pep rally, or tornado drills.
I
posted the photos from that day on Facebook.
“Looking
at these pictures kind of makes me a little nauseated. Very sad, progress
really sucks sometimes,” wrote a former classmate.
“Good
pictures, Mark. It looks very strange to see our grade school gone,” wrote
another classmate friend.
“They
should give away the bricks; it would be a physical memento to cherish,”
commented another classmate.
Feeling
a bit disheartened while taking pictures of the ruins of my former grade
school, I looked at the nearby, newly-built grade school building, and
considered the positives.
“Now,
new memories are being made by a whole new generation,” I thought to myself.
Holy
Trinity School in Winsted uploaded a YouTube video of the grade school’s
demolition from July 9, 2010. It can be seen at https://bit.ly/2HPvFBX.
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| Photo by Mark Ollig July 2010 |
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| Photo by Mark Ollig July 2010 |