Posted by Craig Faanes Enroute to Rice Lake I stopped in Cameron to visit the school I attended from grades 3 through 10. Parking by the old shop I walked inside to see if i could explore old hallways. I wasn't able to because of some reason. Instead, I walked around the outside and over to the old elementary school part. I remembered the days of 'kick ball" on the concrete playground; remembered the time in 3rd grade when Tim Ebner knocked me to the ground during recess and stuck pins in me to "let the air out". I saw Mrs Switzenberg's 3rd grade room; walked over to the outside of Mrs. Moe's 4th grade room; remembered how flashy Mrs Bronson was to all us guys in the 6th grade, and could still see Mrs Orn's persistent scowl in grade 7. As I walked around the building I could hear our voices yelling and laughing and being carefree kids so very long ago. Standing by the old gym, I could still hear the screams of excitement during a Comet basketball game, could imagine Carl Klauss giving his fluid-voiced play by play of our games on WJMC, and remembered during a game with Weyerhauser when we were in grade 5 that Jean Anderson (now Havenor) kissed me (or was it the other way around?) after we scored a basket. Looking at the football field I remembered the night playing Bruce that Greg Larsen ran diagonally from our 10 yard line and tackled the Bruce ball carrier on their 10 yard line. He ran like a deer on a mission that night. Looking at the baseball field I remembered Dick Gay yelling "you dummy!" at me when i'd drop a foul ball during practice. I drove by my old church and then by Keith Popko's house to see if he was home. Then drove down my street. I remembered the night in grade 10 when myself and someone else spray painted a "dirty word" on Mr Murray's picture window! Drove by the Robarge's house and remembered a "fair" that their mom and mine helped us put together. Drove by Connie Hover's house and remembered my first serious crush way back in grade 4, and then drove by our house. All those trees I planted in April 1966 now look like a forest, but the box elder tree in our old yard is now dying a slow death. So many memories and so little time to absorb them. Living in suburban Washington DC now, I've become very much a "big city" person. But that short bit of time that day where I actually grew up reminded me that we all came from a little town in the north woods, but I think we are all better for having come from small town roots. I hope all is well with any of you who remember me from so long ago, and thanks to John Popko for creating this website so we can have a medium for bringing back memories from a much simpler time in our lives
on 9/10/2004, 9:12 am
164.159.194.72
I returned to Barron County in mid July 2004 to attend the Rice Lake class of 69 35th class reunion (in typical class of 69 fashion we had the police called on us for rowdiness - some things never change!).
Message Thread:
« Back to thread