The Po Show

Alma Mater on the Ground

They've razed my high school. It was a weird feeling to see it completely demolished, just rubble on the ground, waiting to be hauled away.

It's been a long time coming, actually, since they moved all classes to the newly built high school about 10 years ago. And prior to that, it had literally been falling apart for years, and so overcrowded that they had to house a large number of classes in portable buildings. I graduated in 1984, and that was at the tail end of the time before it really deteriorated.

Today I was driving by on my way to return some books at the public library, and saw that the only shell of a building still standing was the "multi-purpose room," which had served as the practice and performance room for chorus and drama. Most of the best moments of my high school years occurred in that building. I discovered singing and acting and while I shone as a student academically, I was happiest as a performer. In that room, I had stood in flowing black and sang "Rhiannon," backed by my friends on drums and guitar, and my favorite teacher on the bass. I played Alma in "Bus Stop," and when a reporter from the local paper came by to see it, he came up to me afterwards and said, "You're going to be a great actress someday."

I was sort of lost in high school, secretly wanting to be a cheerleader and homecoming queen, but knowing I never could be. Girls were smart or pretty in that time and place, and I was smart. But in the multi-purpose room, I felt glamorous, and accomplished, and pretty.

RIP, Oxnard High v.1.