Show Me the Place, 12

“Show me the place.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It (2.1)

13: Hiram Local School, 1956–62; Hiram, Ohio

The Hiram School, I quickly learned:

The perfect place for me.

Because the school was very small,

Oh, sampling was so free—

Activities—from sports to plays

To band to choir to shop

And publications—other things.

And then there was the “hop”—

The dances we held now and then

When even I could try

The Twist and then the Stroll—such grace!

(That sound you hear’s a sigh!)

That “graceful” goal I didn’t reach—

Not ever (to be true),

But now that school is razed and gone—

Oh, how those years just flew!