Learning A HUGE Lesson
Passing a construction site, yesterday, I parked my car alongside the roadway and watched for about half an hour while workmen methodically dismantled a building that had served, faithfully, for years as an elementary school.
My gaze tracked a crack in the old sidewalk alongside what was left of the south wall, up the front steps, toward the side door, and wandered into fuzzy memories of Bobby pulling Paula’s hair in geography class and Freda kissing Bif on the playground near the swings. Both felonies, now, but at one time regarded as almost a rite of passage.
My reverie broken by the approaching foreman of the project, I spoke with him, briefly, about future intentions for the property. With no emotion, or irony, in his voice he informed me that within a few months the land would be the home of a new store selling bulk food items and other wares. One of those places where you can buy a 55 gallon drum of Cheez-its, then wheel around the corner and shop for a sturdy chair that might hold you once you’ve polished off the snacks.
I drove away comforted by the thought that, if we could afford to tear down a school and build a Costco in its place, Americans must be plenty smart; but, apparently, still not fat enough.
Doesn't it seem like we're working overtime to get things exactly backwards? Well, at least that time we're not tearing down a forest to build a shopping center!
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If we're going to deplete the forests and eliminate our source of oxygen, I suppose it's nice to know that we're eliminating the need for it.
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I was sure you were going to say it was to be replaced by an temperature controlled storage facility. Those things are popping up every where. A sure sign that we have way too much stuff!
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I guess that would be a good place to keep our Cheez-it stash.
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I'm sure folks will learn a lot at the new place, calorie-wise, salt-wise, and tub-o-lard-wise. It doesn't get any better than that, some say.
Malcolm
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I doubt 'wise' has anything to do with it, Malcolm. I can smell sarcasm from across the continent.
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Good riddance, I say. Sounds like that school didn't teach kids anything other than to be felons anyway.
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You're probably right. "Spare the school, spoil the child", I always say.
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Sounds perfect. Why waste perfectly good commercial zoned land on a silly old school? Heck, maybe Costco could even open up a learning center in the back room right next to the pet grooming place!
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Perhaps you're right. Many people in the industrial sector simply purchase their degrees...why not let their children do the same.
Thanks for stopping by, Terry.
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I make paintings, try to get others to look at them and hopefully buy them.
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