Yesterday I attended the 40th Anniversary Celebration for Irondale High School, in New Brighton. I was a graduate of Irondale way back in 1990. For the celebration, they had an all class reunion, and invited anyone who was an alumni of Irondale to come and visit the school and reconnect with old friends.

Wow! What a trip down memory lane. I drove into the parking lot and immediately flashed back to all of the times I drove into that lot as a high school student. Early morning Jazz Band rehearsals, late afternoon Odyssey of the Mind practice, Band Concerts, play practice. It goes on and on…. Strangely, as I sat in that parking lot, it felt like home….at least until I turned and looked at the building itself. The building looks totally different on the outside than it did when I attended. Not that it was bad….just different. Irondale was remodeled a few years ago and the main student entrance was completely redone, and that whole section of the building got a nice face lift.

I exited my minivan and ran through the rain soaked parking lot to the front doors and walked in to this foreign looking building and was greeted again with familiarity. It seems that through the remodeling, much of the interior of the building had been cleaned and freshened, so while it wasn’t exactly the same, it still carried the familiarity of home. As I walked about the building and talked with some of my old teachers and classmates, it began to feel more and more like walking back in time more than 17 years to my glory days of high school. (Yes — i was one of the strange kids who loved school. That, I’m sure, is why I spent part of my career as a teacher.)

I’ve decided I’m going to do a series of posts reminiscing about my time at Irondale, and also about what has changed since I attended there, and what has stayed the same.

More to come….

–Pete