Up in Smoke...

The little rural two-story stucco Canal Point, Fl elementary school where i attended 3rd-6th grades in the early '60s is burning to the ground at this moment. I had recently written about my Dad and mentioned the old school and its library; here's part of that... ..."so we kids were Dad's hobby, and my interest in shooting, was sparked by a gem of a Canal Point Elementary school library book. I started there toward the end of third grade when we moved from West Palm; there was just one classroom for each of grades one through eight in that old schoolhouse, and coming from a city school i was shocked and delighted that half the kids went barefoot, and the other half was barefoot too after recess. The book was "A Boy And His Gun"; reading it, feeling it, loving it resulted in my badgering dad unmercifully as  I progressed through the BB gun phase until on Christmas morning when i was ten, the most beautiful little Marlin single shot .22 appeared beneath the tree..." 

Abandoned for years, the school caught fire this morning about 2 a.m. and firefighters are letting it burn out while containing it and protecting power lines...what's left of the tiny Lake Ckeechobee farming community of Canal Point is only about two hours from my home in Sebring; I drove through there alone recently and stopped at the old school; at the time I didn't know why...now I guess I do. My Mom left a voicemail for me this morning to let me know about the fire; she had such a sad sound as she told me i didn't need to call her back...and I didn't because i don't really want to talk about it right now. 

Maybe the old school deserves a post of it's own later on...I'll think about it, but right now there is just a dull hurt and sadness as I remember some things about that old school and the people I knew there.