Junior High Gym

• When I was a kid we used to break into the gym to have a place to play basketball and dodgeball. The break-in involved finding an unlocked window and hoisting the smallest guy through. We would play for as long as we wanted then turn the lights off and lock ourselves out. I don't think vandalism ever entered our minds.

• I remember sliding on my knee while playing dodgeball while wearing some goofy synthetic fiber sweats. I also remember very painfully the second degree burns doing same caused my knee.

• There were holes in the floor where you could see all the way through to the ground.

• After a heavy rain you could find hundreds of tennis balls that washed off the roof.

• On the tennis courts in front of the building we would play dodgeball before school,at PE and at lunch-every day. Some of us were uncannily good due to muscle memory as much as any real skill.

• One of my teeth still has a chip from hitting a slick spot on the concrete which caused my leg to slide out and my face to impact my other knee. I couldn't touch my own knee with my face now if you cut me in half.

• We played dodgeball with tennis balls,basketballs,soccer ball and yes,even the red dodgeballs. Believe it or not we even experimented with footballs ! This idea was discarded as too dangerous for us even.

• One or two balls would only be about 75% inflated to allow a pinched grasp and a side armed throw. This would cause a curve ball effect-deadly.

• WA went back against the wall at "full court press",a basketball hit him in the face smashing his head against the wall. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slid to the floor without a sound.

• I still remember one of the bullies getting hit square in the throat by a ball and the grins of satisfaction all around. Everyone barely waited for him to stagger off the court gasping for breath to resume play. No one even asked if he was ok-except me, we had been friends since before first grade.

• There were always birds of some type in there.

• A Starling pooped in BWs mouth as he acted a fool chasing it around.

• This is the only building in the Decatur School system that can honestly say it kept me off its roof the entire time I was a student.