Cushman Bulldogs

Following the giant, neon white paw prints up the road smushed between the white-n-red fire station and the run down do-it-yourself car wash, I come up to Cushman School. The school I had been attending since I was a preschooler and a bundle of energy. The scent of acryllic paint and clay coming from the colorful-inside art room and the scent of deodorant and perfume and TAG coming from the new gym with shiny wood floors and fresh paint on the cement walls. Just past the new gym sat two baseball fields. One freshly mowed and with the bases clean, the stands covered in sharpie with years of love and best friends, the snack bar still standing a scent of nacho cheese and hot dogs would arise every summer when the baseball season started up again. The other old and abandonded. The bases covered in a small layer of dust. Turning from the new baseball field with its multiple sponsers signs on the chain link fence is the old gym. The lights dimmed to a point of no return the stands filled with old chairs and desks and random tshirts and socks left over the years. A stale scent in the air. The hoops just bare rims and the giant foam matts for vault jumps torn and tattered as everyone jumps all over them. The window at the end revealing the Dog Pound where high schoolers go at lunch to munch on pop tarts and juice. The walls covered in bulldogs. Friends whisper about their latest crush and who is a jerk. Outside The library stands proud and full of a variety of books. The back section poetry, the front section the books for the the younger kids. Tables in the center and everyones favorite, crazy, eccentric librarion always dressed up when character dress up day turns up. The high school standing with brick walls. The school always homely and close just like a small school is. The buses lined out front, my bus always the bright yellow one. The middle school now in brick after once dying in a fire in the eighties or nighties, but once again standing tall with the computer lab and the red lockers. The two playgrounds for the younger kids shine happily. The giant purple and grayed wood jungle gym with the curly slide. The pebble ground always falling onto the sidewalk. The scent of biscuts and gravy or hamburgers coming from the cafeteria just a hill climb away. Friends jump from the hill and roll down it to the basketball court where the boys play and on the side girls make up cheers and do the cheers from Bring It On with a little revision. The kidergartens go in to the elementary back to their nap mats or to a fruit rollup snack wiating for them. The school once a vibrant piece of life now dead by society. The school shut down for "not enough kids". R.I.P CUSHMAN SCHOOL