I Remember freshman hall, lockers slamming, saddle shoes running, clock ticking, four minute bell ringing.
I Remember upside down and backwards padlocks, cleats clicking on shiny floors, frustration at boyish pranks.
I Remember hall monitors sitting straight up in square tan desks checking hall passes.
I Remember English class, the Ides of March, Julius Caesar, “Et Tu, Brute” and our teacher, Miss Barton, reading aloud to us.
I Remember pony tails, petticoats, angora sweaters and class rings on neck chains.
I Remember GAA initiation, walking through peeled grapes and cooked spaghetti blindfolded, trying not to scream.
I Remember every stair and hallway, where they led, and the shortcuts only upper classmen knew about.
I Remember graduation day, on the football field, my classmates and I shedding bittersweet tears as we marched to “Pomp and Circumstance”.
I Remember signing annuals in the rotunda on the last day of school, not realizing those words would remain longer than the building we were standing in.
I Remember Pearce Campus before its bricks were sold and it became a parking lot.
Free Verse/Repetition Poem
I wrote this poem as an imitation of Joe Brainerd’s poem “I Remember” as spoken of in “Adventures in Anaphora” by Rebecca Hazelton.
I wrote it in memory of my old high school campus which was just torn down last summer and turned into a paved parking lot. I attended classes there from 1959-1962. The building held many memories before I attended and many afterwards. Its destruction touched the hearts of many people.
Leonas Lines--Poetry Plus 
Love the memories it conjures up, even for me in another location, though I never experienced some of those things. My high school is still very much in use. It was built only a few years before I moved into Grade 9. We didn’t have such a thing, by name at least, as upper classmen. We didn’t have initiation either. But I remember similar things done at Halloween parties with the peeled grapes supposedly being eyeballs!
Thanks Diane. Interesting hearing about your experiences. I am glad the poem invoked good memories for you and that your school still stands.
My elementary school is still in operation, too. It was built in 1919 and my mother went there when she was a child. Actually we both had the same Grade 8 teacher, decades apart. My Grade 4 teacher is still alive and I just missed seeing him at a 90th birthday party for the school. He had left before I knew he was there.
Wow! That’s so nice!
Loved your story. I wanted to upload a picture of my old high school but it doesn’t look like I can. I have a Blog Page about the angry lunch lady. I would love to hear some of your cafeteria stories if you wouldn’t mind sharing them in the comments. https://angrylunchlady.wordpress.com/
ps. our old high school was torn down several years ago. It also had pipes sticking out and walls falling apart. It was hysterical! We loved it!