1958: "Wake Up, Susan -- You'll Want To See This!"

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Hole in the Fence

I strolled along the fence with my two brothers, looking for the familiar spot. "There it is!" my younger brother chimed in, pointing at the hollow place, with the newly repaired fence stretched firmly across it. We could see the schoolyard just on the other side. I dropped the stick I had been lazily holding, and sauntered over. "Thank, Al," Martin smiled. I picked up a rock and threw it at the bottom of the fence softly. It bounced off onto Al's foot. Martin started bending the edge of the fence back up. "I think I can crawl under now," he muttered under his breath. "Al, what do you think?" "Groovy!" Al exclaimed, sticking his foot through the hole. "Awesome," I smiled. The grown ups tried to stop us from slipping under the fence, but it was so much quicker than walking all the way around!

-- Marina Tretton

Fire at the School

My mother shook me gently. "Wake up, Susan! You’ll want to see this," she said as my eyes slowly opened. My brother Martin burst into the room. "Susan! The school is on fire!!" he yelled as he pulled me down off the bed. I hit the floor hard, but by that time I was almost fully awake. I followed everybody down the steps, and onto the porch. Across the field, I could see a bright red flame burning, flaring, and dancing out of the school window.

My youngest brother Allan was half-asleep in my mother's arms, and Martin and Dennis watched in amazement as parts of the school came crashing to the ground. Not long after, the firefighters arrived, and we watched as they put out the dancing flames.

We went to bed, happy that we wouldn't have to worry about turning in our science projects tomorrow.

-- Josefina Mora

The Terrible Smell

But the next morning I got woken up too early by my mom saying to me over and over, "Wake up, you still have to go to school! Wake up!" Martin, Dennis, and I (after much protest) walked out the door.

"Is the coast clear?" Dennis asked.

"Yeah," said Martin. "Hurry, before she sees!" We all quickly ducked under the hole in the fence and ran across the field to see what was left of our school.

When we got up to the top floor we were overwhelmed by the smell of burnt blackboard and soggy books coming from the classroom that was set on fire. We went to all our classes with ongoing headaches from that disgusting aroma.

At the end of the day, Dennis, Martin, and I snuck back under the fence.

"Look, someone hit a baseball through my window again!" said Dennis, pointing to the bedroom window. “I hope Mom made the beds first — last time I had to shake glass out of my sheets!”

" She’ll have to call Mr. Bowen again," I said. “I wonder who hit that home run?”

-- Irene Bowen and Tieran Sweeney-Bender

Evidence

These stories are all straight from the horse’s mouth! Susan Cole Kelley, who grew up at 4435 S. Dawson in the 1950s, contacted us when she heard about our project. She told us about clambering under the fence to shorten the world’s shortest walk to school, the night of the big fire, and how the principal, Mr. Bowen, paid over and over to replace their upstairs window, frequently shattered by flying baseballs. She also sent us photos: her house in 1962, the Cole children showing off their Easter booty, and others. We got additional details about the fire from a Seattle Times article: apparently it was started by “juvenile arsonists.”

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