Old MHS Open House, Part Eight of Many

Short post today. This is where I spent much of my time at Mandan High School: the library. I read a lot of car magazines, science magazines, books, and whatever else I could get my hands on in this place.

Unfortunately, most of the library was roped off. I guess a lot of that has to do with the array of tablets collected on these shelves. That’s a lot of taxpayer money being protected there. It’s a bummer, because I would have eyeballed every inch of that library.

I worked at this desk at every opportunity I had, just like I’d done at Mandan Junior High School beforehand. Checking out books, checking in books, putting books away, filing in the card catalog, the works. There’s even a photo of me working this desk in one of my high school yearbooks.

I bet they’re going to have a pretty fantastic “libary” (for those of you from Rio Linda) in the new place. Looks like they’re hopeful! That’s a good sign. Do kids still read car magazines?

We’re on the home stretch. I alluded to a couple of interesting things in previous posts, and I need to make sure I tie up those loose ends. Y’all come back real soon, now…

Old MHS Open House, Part Seven of Many

I’ve mentioned before that I never intended to photograph or write a “tour of ol’ Mandan High”, and I have not. In fact, for a good portion of my wanderings I put my 100mm macro lens on the camera! Instead, I opted to find and capture interesting sights in my alma mater. Like this photo, for example: it makes a clever play on the Mandan slogan, “Where the west begins.” I like it.

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I love finding places like this

Rolling through Sheyenne last weekend, I spotted this beautiful building. I’m just old enough to remember when one could get tubes to repair older TVs and shops like this had plenty of business. It’s a whole new world now; when my garage TV went *pop* and malfunctioned, all I had to do was order a $30 circuit board, replace the one with the blown transistor, and I was in business. Sadly, that meant the end of most TV repair shops, but I guess that’s progress. Doesn’t seem like it when we see shops boarded up, but time marches on…

Old MHS Open House, Part Six of Many

When I stopped in for the alumni / open house day last week, several of the hallways still contained pallets of bins. The bins contained the contents of the classrooms, items which need to be moved to the new school. But the most interesting part of these hallways: Well, the lockers, of course! After all, we all had one. Four, actually…one per year. Except I had five

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Old MHS Open House, Part Five of Many

The old Mandan High School building will be going away. At least, that’s the plan…although, as a Bismarck resident, I have yet to see a school building actually torn down once we’re told that it can no longer house students. They always find a way to reuse it and draw tax money. But enough of that. I figured that if I ever wanted to check out some parts of the school I always wondered about but had no access to, this was my opportunity.

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