Old is new again at high school

Brian and I toured the renovated areas of Biddeford High School Monday. Actually, we toured some of the old parts too for memory’s sake. We both graduated from BHS, though I like to remind him he graduated way before I did.
The main entryway impressed us and everyone else there for the tour.
It is today we must create the world of the future – Eleanor Roosevelt.
We liked the Roosevelt quote stenciled simply on the wall, but wondered why it didn’t have actual quotation marks in front and behind it. We notice things like that.
Later on I got to meet Superintendent Sarah-Jane Poli who said to look for an added “quote” to go up soon.
Our trip through the new main office brought us to the hallway next to Steve White Gym. It was the first area that was recognizable from way back when.
Our group, which included Mayor Joanne Twomey and other men and women, toured the girls’ locker room. Jokes were surely made and I told the mayor this better be the last time Brian is spotted there.
Kidding aside, the sinks were sleek and handicap accessible. Our group was impressed by simple things, I guess. I just think we all remembered what it was like before and couldn’t believe the transformation.
Talk about being impressed, there’s this new drinking fountain that is designed to fill water bottles. Did I even use water bottles back in high school?
We all filed down the hallway known as the “bridge” and reminisced about paying bridge tolls as freshmen. We joked that it must have been all those decades of students who paid tolls that funded the new school.
The bridge brought us to my old homeroom – Brian’s was actually next door. Our lockers were near one another’s too. We were as excited as if we were high school sweethearts on the first day of school.
We got separated from the group as I posed for a picture near my old locker, so we wandered the halls with a couple “chaperones” – Grady Sexton and Dennis Anglea. Grady graduated from BHS way, way before both of us.
Speaking of halls, we expected to turn down one hall to find it had been blocked, only to round a corner to find a stairwell that hadn’t been there 10 years ago.
One particular stairwell conjured a shared memory.
In the center of the building there are side-by-side stairwells that students streamed up and down between classes. Meanwhile, there was always that one kid going the opposite way like a salmon trying to fight its way up river, practically pinned against the wall by backpacks.
We passed a bathroom by the old front entrance and I remembered sitting on the windowsill, reading a note from a good friend on a particularly difficult day.
Our rogue group found Tiger Gym and visited the boys’ locker room. It was like stepping into a different era. It was dark and reminded me of the locker room in the Stephen King movie “Carrie.”
We walked around for about an hour through the old science wing and past the old band room and Little Theater, where I spent many afternoons. The smell of sun-ripened raspberry lotion still reminds of it and a few precious people.
We would have explored more if my feet hadn’t been killing me.
We didn’t recognize most of the names on classroom doors, but a few were the same. None of our favorites remained, however.
Alan Casavant stood outside to greet visitors as they arrived for the tour. He only retired from the school in May, but his classroom was one to get a makeover. I think. It wasn’t always easy to remember where old was now new.
There was no question about the school’s new library and its old media center, however. That was beautiful.
Brian and I joked that the center of our days probably hardly contained any media other than an issue of the Courier. Maybe, but we still spotted an issue Monday and I posed for a picture with that, too.

– Molly Lovell