While drawing the entrance doors to the Central School Building from old photographs, I perceived that any literal drawing of the architectural elements could not possibly evoke the  associations that our memories and mental images provide.  A rendering can not recreate the sensory memories of the creaking wooden floors, the lingering smell of the coal fired furnaces, or the sensation of the towering verticality of the staircases and the terrifying heights of the rear fire escapes.

     And, of course, the sight of friends' faces as we changed classes.  As we search our memories, the images of teachers, clothing styles, and the covers of text books vie with the words of popular songs and even our moods on certain occasions.

      For this reason, "The Shades of Central"  has been embellished with students, teachers, and ghosts.  The familiar carved stone faces (whom sophomoric wits dubbed "Edna and Isabelle")  flanked with Romanesque foliage are reflected in the spirits evolving from the leaves of the trees in the yard-each class reflecting yet another season. Those trees which threw the North facing entry into even deeper shade were the same ones that my mother recalled playing "ring around the rosy" in the mid 1930's/

     

    

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