Classroom wing picked over in sale

Buyers, many of them with lumps in their throats, flocked to Lake Roosevelt High School's classroom wing Friday and Saturday to pick up items that were on sale in the soon-to-be-demolished structure.

Many of those who showed up had been students at the school, and with a tear in the eye, scrambled through the rooms looking for just that right memento.

Some were there trying to purchase the locker that they had used. Unfortunately, the lockers came in rows of four, five, and more.

But people were busy prying sections of lockers from the wall, which will later probably turn up in garages and recreation rooms.

Workers found a special memento when they pried one section of lockers from the wall. There, written on the back wall was a name and date: "Ray, 1-4-80," a message left there by the late Ray Halsey after a remodeling project done while he was maintenance supervisor at the school. Halsey a 30-year-plus mayor of Electric City, died a few years ago.

There were piles of chairs on dollies, a woman carrying a flag from one of the rooms, and another with a pencil sharpener pried from one of the walls.

People were looking through outdated books, and carrying boards and light fixtures.

The school was good on its promise of "no reasonable offer refused."

The two-day sale will barely be over before a demolition company will knock the structure down, but not before another company will take out all evidence of asbestos.

Gone will be the building, but memories will prevail for a good long time.

When it was all over, officials reported, the yard sale raised $1,924, which will go into a new gym fund recently started.