One from My Childhood....

       the old Beaver Dam Academy ..... this was the older part of my Elementary School.....
       Beaver Dam was the old name for the Town on the northern side of the RR tracks.....
This old structure was torn down in 73' or 74'.... we attended 5th grade in one corner of this old structure......That following Summer , as we stood around watching the workers tear down the school, we watched as the first (three) impact landed upon the roof of my old class room on the corner....
(it took three droppings of the huge steel ball... cracked the roof ... the next drop we saw as it brought down roof upon the very desk that I had sat in for that school year.... ( yes, Not only were All of the Desks still in the building..... so was "Everything" else .... even all of the schoolbooks ...)
... me and a couple of other neighborhood kids were inside of the other section of the building breaking windows ... and down the hall , you could watch that end of the building being torn down ... just down the hall ... (All of the ,"old and heavy" brass handles and fixtures were left behind as well)
 As we would enter a classroom all was as it should look ... neat rows of desks , each facing the desk and chair of the teacher as well as the 2 to 3 large green slate chalk boards at the front of each classroom.... (the chalk dusters and a few pieces of chalk still resting there...) Only the books (neatly stacked) upon desks at the front of each classrooms were the only odd thing not where it would normally set....
... The central Stairwell..... By the time the workers were beginning to start tearing down this section
the Custodian and a worker made us leave the building.... "Mr. James" slightly "scolded" us (more so to make it look like we were being fussed at , for the benefit of the worker, who was "upset" at the fact that we had been in the building.... thus the "concerned" worker went back to work ... "Mr. James" laughed a bit a slapped one kid on the shoulder and walked over to the rest of the small crowd that had gathered by now....
          The Central Stairwell.... (We will tell you much more about this "Stairwell" in our next post)......This Thing would not 'come down' ... they were beating the hell out of this section with that huge steel ball .... the first hit went great ( the crane operator got to break a window of his own.... the the huge multi-framed window of the third floor landing of the Stairwell....)  ... After many more Strikes  (by now he was pulling the arm of the crane way back before swinging)... Finally, the top two floors collapsed down crushing the first floor .... it did so with a loud rumbling "Boom"......
 This let loose the thickest dust cloud we have ever seen.......
           ... the "creepy" thing about this dust cloud was the fact that id did Not "dissipate"...!!!!
This cloud (2 to 3 stories in height) became a rapidly advancing thick Wall of Dust and darkness that went right up the street in front of the old school... ( Still not weakening on force or size... we watched as it crossed the next road over after that block it continued on till it had passed from our sight ... leaving in its path a thick layer of grey-brown dust....
... The "dust cloud only traveled the One direction.... very little dust went anywhere else.....
Other than the few 'personal" items taken by the staff "Everything of the school was Buried.....
... For the next year we had all new desks and books.... and very little was ever spoken about the old building by the staff and they would become "irritated" and tell you "well, it gone..." and send you away....
........ A bit of "creepy" childhood memories about the Stairwell... and "What" was there.....
 got to take a Break for now..... We Type so very slowly....