Wednesday the high school students of America went back to school. Summer vacation was a lot of fun, but we were sort of anxious to get back and add another year of education towards our future.
Many of the high school crowd walked through the same halls, saw the same teachers and yelled "Hi!" to the same kids, but a thousand students of this age bound together by the love of a dead Alma Mater, were strangers to the cheerful scene. Like many of my friends, I was too busy remembering other days in another school to be accurate in filling out the usual form card that was set in front of me. We had a right to our memories though, for we had said goodbye to the best high school in the world when Broadway closed her doors to us for the last time.
I tried to concentrate on answering the questionnaire, but my mind kept leaving the printed page and rushing back to that last day at Broadway. It was as if something bigger and stronger than I grabbed my hand and pulled me back through the summer to the time last spring when we received the unbelievable news that the school we belonged to no longer belonged to us. The study hall in which we received the message was usually rumbling with the whispers of pupils anxious for the bell to ring, but that day as the period ended person after person passed through the doors to the hall taking the empty silence with them.
Precious Days
The last few days, that were so precious to us who were never to attend Broadway again, went fast and were filled with many goodbyes. They were filled with hours of worry, too. I wondered what next year would be like and if I'd ever be able to heal the hurt spot in my heart that the closing of Broadway had left. The thought that I would never be able to yell a football cheer or worship colors for a different school kept pounding in my brain.
Then the final climax came. I can still see the assembly hall packed full of students as we raised our voices in the Alma Mater for the last time. No one seemed ashamed to cry and as the song came nearer and nearer to the end my voice quivered and almost stuck in my throat. I looked around rather guiltily for a moment, because of my off-key note, but then I realized that nobody was in the mood for listening to pitch. I swallowed as hard as I could and struggled to keep my voice under control until the end of the melody.
It was all over then, and as we walked down the steps for the last time our minds were dull from too much useless hoping.
Thoughts of Broadway
Suddenly I was through remembering and sitting back in the desk that was so new to me. I was listening to a strange voice asking me if I had filled out my paper yet. I glanced down to verify my answer and as I removed my hand from the top of the question blank I noticed some wet spots on the middle of the form. I picked up the tear stained paper and handed it forward, and as I watched it being passed on I thought once more of Broadway.
How serene she stood with the ivy clinging to her as it climbed toward the sky. How strong she made us, her students, feel to be part of her! We've learned many lessons from our years there, including how to be good sports, so we'll go on and become part of another school.
We'll never forget Broadway though. I, for one, will always remember and perhaps even sing the last two lines of our loved Alma Mater.
"In defeat or victory, it's Hail Broadway Hail."
Many of the high school crowd walked through the same halls, saw the same teachers and yelled "Hi!" to the same kids, but a thousand students of this age bound together by the love of a dead Alma Mater, were strangers to the cheerful scene. Like many of my friends, I was too busy remembering other days in another school to be accurate in filling out the usual form card that was set in front of me. We had a right to our memories though, for we had said goodbye to the best high school in the world when Broadway closed her doors to us for the last time.
I tried to concentrate on answering the questionnaire, but my mind kept leaving the printed page and rushing back to that last day at Broadway. It was as if something bigger and stronger than I grabbed my hand and pulled me back through the summer to the time last spring when we received the unbelievable news that the school we belonged to no longer belonged to us. The study hall in which we received the message was usually rumbling with the whispers of pupils anxious for the bell to ring, but that day as the period ended person after person passed through the doors to the hall taking the empty silence with them.
Precious Days
The last few days, that were so precious to us who were never to attend Broadway again, went fast and were filled with many goodbyes. They were filled with hours of worry, too. I wondered what next year would be like and if I'd ever be able to heal the hurt spot in my heart that the closing of Broadway had left. The thought that I would never be able to yell a football cheer or worship colors for a different school kept pounding in my brain.
Then the final climax came. I can still see the assembly hall packed full of students as we raised our voices in the Alma Mater for the last time. No one seemed ashamed to cry and as the song came nearer and nearer to the end my voice quivered and almost stuck in my throat. I looked around rather guiltily for a moment, because of my off-key note, but then I realized that nobody was in the mood for listening to pitch. I swallowed as hard as I could and struggled to keep my voice under control until the end of the melody.
It was all over then, and as we walked down the steps for the last time our minds were dull from too much useless hoping.
Thoughts of Broadway
Suddenly I was through remembering and sitting back in the desk that was so new to me. I was listening to a strange voice asking me if I had filled out my paper yet. I glanced down to verify my answer and as I removed my hand from the top of the question blank I noticed some wet spots on the middle of the form. I picked up the tear stained paper and handed it forward, and as I watched it being passed on I thought once more of Broadway.
How serene she stood with the ivy clinging to her as it climbed toward the sky. How strong she made us, her students, feel to be part of her! We've learned many lessons from our years there, including how to be good sports, so we'll go on and become part of another school.
We'll never forget Broadway though. I, for one, will always remember and perhaps even sing the last two lines of our loved Alma Mater.
"In defeat or victory, it's Hail Broadway Hail."
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