Events have been going on all week (all year in fact) to celebrate the school's hundred year old building before it is torn down to make way for a new Lincoln. Visitors were greeted with chalk drawings surrounding the school, many with a drawing of the school's mascot, a lion, or Abe Lincoln himself with hearts drawn around him, and one with a sad face and this message:
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Lincoln's famous attic (There is a light in the attic) was open for viewing, complete with the Lincoln lion mascot and what some of the kids swore was Chucky watching TV but I don't know---
The lore is that some of the teachers from long ago lived in the attic. I also heard stories about which steps were haunted-- one of the dangers was that "you would have cement thrown at you" if you stopped on that one. I laughed and said, "Well, that one's kind of true if you stick around until they tear it down."
The building was full of former and current students, teachers, families, tromping up and down the maze-like hallways for one last visit. I think I've compared the school to Hogwart's before. It is full of twists and turns, with the creative touches of teachers, kids, administrators and families past and present celebrating the great work going on there in every stairwell and long hallway. It is a fun place to walk around, fortunately there have always been kids around to point me in the right direction when I get lost.
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Here current students find their faces on a poster of all of the kids from the 2013-2014 school year. I had to assure my daughters that all of the photos would be kept, and that the Lincoln of the past would survive, just in another building.
Outside on the playground, parents were buzzing with talk about the "crazy neighbor" just a few streets away, who has caused the basketball courts at Kauffman Park to be closed. Several regular (and wise, in my opinion) posters on the Deck have children at Lincoln and were shaking their heads, wondering when it was that the mayor got his psychology degree (and where) and became capable of diagnosing dangerous neighbors. And if the guy is really dangerous, what's stopping him from attacking the toddlers who sometimes shout at the top of their lungs on the swings? The City of Lakewood's policy is to close things around people like that?
These are the same parents who haven't quite gotten over the fact that the sidewalk in front of the school was torn up for so long, and no lanes closed on Clifton, requiring their children to share the slow lane with cars on their way to work, a situation that wasn't remedied until these very same parents got involved, bringing up the issue on the Deck-- which was then picked up by local television stations.
When there was a danger of children getting run over... Nothing. When a guy complains (Did he complain?) about noise, the park gets closed. Parents were nervous to the point that they were musing out loud over whether we maybe better leave the current Lincoln standing until things calm down. Maybe the neighborhood is too dangerous to build a new school there right now.
Overall, it was a lovely night however, with a huge number of Lakewoodites dedicated to the children of this city, and committed to keeping them safe, educated and well cared for now and in the future.
Betsy Voinovich
