Often you will get a raised eyebrow when someone catches you talking about your high school time and with a smirk they’ll start singing “Glory Days.” Kinda like you’re Al Bundy on the TV show “Married with Children” nostalgically going on about his high school football heroics. Can’t you move on? Haven’t you done anything else?
You generally won’t find that attitude with graduates from S.D. Lee.
It truly was a one-in-a-million experience. Truly special. A special place.
I have been many places and done many things, from my years as a South Florida based rock and roll musician at the peak of it’s glory to my fairly successful career in the motion picture industry after that. Until 10th grade, I attended school (as an Air Force brat) in many places including Britain.
But my years at Lee overshadow all others. Very few schools in this entire country were like the “Happy Days” script we played out. We had fun at a level most people don’t get to experience, in a golden time to live in America.
They were gorgeous years burned into my soul and memory. Quite a few of my friends stay in contact even now.
Last Fall during one of our return trips to Columbus, Denise and I went over to “Lofts at Lee,” which was being repurposed as a very cool and different apartment complex while still maintaining the core of the building and all it’s history.
Not being in Columbus full time, I’m not able to keep up with how well that’s going, but I’m pulling for it to be successful. Or for someone to save it. My fingers are crossed.
While standing at the locked front door trying to take pictures, a young man inside saw me and opened it. He was nice enough to let me come in and access the common areas and take photos.
As I stood in the large foyer at the center where all the trophies and framed pictures used to display, I was transported to a time when our lives were brand new and shiny, before the world started its inevitable wearing and grinding on our spirits and bodies.
At the inside of the big front doors, I looked out from J.V. Carr’s point of view across the street where the dairy bar was for decades, where the real business of the day was done. Where Coach Carr was on the lookout for class cutting deserters who would feel the biting sting of the wooden paddle when captured.
Not too far away I found the cafeteria. It dawned on me that in all those years, I had never set foot in it. Guess my lunch consisted of paper trays full of French fries at the dairy bar. Too late now… it was locked.
The auditorium that our rock bands played in for assembly and where we spent many hours in study hall was also locked. The owners were converting it into a theater of some kind for the residents.
I’m hoping that the project works out.
The real ghosts of Lee High are so many of our friends who no longer are with us. As I walked the building I saw in my mind so many faces and names.
Bill Love and Tom Capley, from my band… Patty Back and her brother Mike who died during high school… Mahlon Vickery, my dearest friend… Jerry Warren, from my band. There’s also Stevie O’Callaghan, my friend and great guitar teacher for me… Dean Swartz, a great musician and liked by everyone in school and beyond. And many more unfortunately.
I’m running out of page here, but I’ll never run out of memories.
Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.
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