Posted by: |
Greg Boyle |
On: |
11/29/2002 |
ID: |
16 |
At OLA on 12/1/58? |
Born before or after 12/1/58? |
Where Lived on 12/1/58? |
No |
Before |
Midland, Michigan |
Hello, my freinds. I was only two years old when "OLA" became more than just initials for a school. Eleven years later, I was attending school as an eight-grader in Midland, Michigan at one of the towns' two Catholic shcools, Saint Brigids. The other school, Blessed Sacrament, was a newer-style single-floor school, while Old Saint B. was built early in the 20th century, a two-and-a-half story brick building along with an addition built on in the late 1940's (Gee, do we see a pattern developing here?) We had the normal fire drills that everyone here is familiar with: Stand up beside your desk, file to the door, and down both sides of the good ol' wooden staircases to the ground floor. In the fouth grade, we thought we heard the fire alarm go off, so the teachers in the newer end of the building (You know, the one WITH the fire escape) start us out of the classrooms, and it turns out the "fire alarm" was a city worker with a jackhammer (Go figure!) outside the school, cutting into the sidewalk. Red faces on our parts! Four years later, as an Eight Grader, in the OLD part of the school...Yeah, you're right, the part with NO fire escapes....One rainy, cold afternoon, after lunch and recess, the fire alarm goes off. "What is THIS?!?" was the thought of the moment, for we only prepared for the unthinkable in warm, dry weather. We did as we were told, fall in for the drill, open the door to leave, and..."What's that smell?" "Is that smoke?" "SMOKE?!?" Needless to say, we cleared the top floor (Where else would we be at, ask any fireman!) in record time, and went to the church. Then the sirens. "What in the WORLD IS GOING ON?!?" Us children had no idea, but I'm POSITIVE the nuns and preists had only ONE thing on there minds...Our Lady of the Angels. We were allowed to go back into the school later for a rather disjointed remainder of the day. I remember some of the boys in my room opening the windows with the long poles (Any of you who went to the old-law type schools know what I mean) to let the smoke smell out, while other boys were trying to shut them again saying it would make the fire get worse....Funny, considering the danger was over, but, hey, we were just stupid kids..... Later, we found out a boy from my class, R.(for the sake of legal purposes) had set a fire in the waste basket in the Boy's room next to the boiler room in the basement. I would be willing to believe, in the days before P.C., he got a beating that lasted him 'til he graduated High School! In the years following, I learned of Our Lady of the Angels, and contrasted it to our situation. OUCH! Doing research at the Public Library, I found the Midland Fire Department Cheif was interveiwed by the Midland Daily News on December 2nd, 1958 saying tha "such a thing could not happen here". Riiiiight......And this was 11 years later, with most things in place that were at OLA, and we had all the same negatives working against us. Ten minutes of going undiscovered may have made a repeat of OLA, maybe not. Why? Hindsight may be 20/20, so now as an adult, I can see how money can get in the way of things, and how someone will ALWAYS think, "Oh, that will NEVER happen to MY little Johnny/Janie!" Maybe you can't keep lighters/matches away from kids. Maybe there will be a cure for the common cold. Maybe it will NEVER happen, so why worry? Why.....I remember in the early 1980's, my wife-to-be and I passed by Saint Brigids, or rather, what was left. It was in the process of being torn down. The old shool, which bore more than a passing resembelnce to the old OLA, was replaced with a NEW Saint Brigids school complex....with more than just a LITTLE resemblence to the NEW OLA. I do hope I haven't bored you all by being so long-winded! My prayers are with all of you. Take care, and make sure you remember to tell your family that you love them. Regards, Greg Boyle.
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