RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Monday, August 24, 2009

Audubon High School


When I was a child the high school that Runnemede students attended was Audubon High School. It was in, duh, Audubon, NJ, and was about 10 miles from where I lived. The Runnemede students were bused there. The school colors were green and gold (that's really emerald green and yellow). We all were Audubon sports fans and followed the football, basketball, and baseball teams avidly.

Then it happened. Audubon was getting too crowded because other towns also attended that high school, and our end of the pike had no high school, so it was decided to build one in our neck of the woods, and three towns would be the main occupiers of the building -- those being Bellmawr, Runnemede, and Glendora (which included Blackwood and Turnersville, so it may be that Glendora was part of a township or something). But basically it was supposed to be a three-towns high school and was called Triton. Get it?

Triton's colors were red and blue.

I have to tell you how disappointed I was that I wouldn't be going to Audubon. After all I'd heard church kids older than I talking about how much fun it was attending that school and all the clubs and sports they had, and I had, after all, been hoo-rah-rahing the sports teams for as long as I could remember.

Well, the new high school, unfortunately for me, fortunate for the three towns was built on schedule and it opened the year I started high school, so I never got to go to Audubon, in fact I never, ever set foot inside the building. I never attended any games (listened to them on the radio). Never got a green and gold sweater like my friends all had. I was just one year too young to go to Audubon.

When the switch was made it was decided that Runnemede students who were going into their sophomore and junior years would come over to Triton. Seniors would stay at Audubon. So my first year at Triton, the only seniors were those who came from the southern end of the Pike, those being from Blackwood, Glendora, and Turnersville. I don't recall which high school they were bused to, but I think it was Lindenwold. Don't hold me to that. And it may be that there were no seniors that year at all, I just can't remember.

Why am I recalling any of this? I don't know. I was laying bed and it occurred to me that I had a big depression when I was around 11 and it was mainly because I knew that I probably wouldn't be going to Audubon high school. Hope springs eternal, though, and I hoped that the completion of the building would be delayed by strikes or other means, but that didn't happen.

There was only a brief time when I was at Triton that I was unhappy to be in the new building instead of attending Audubon. Soon I was hooked on the new school and it became my alma mater with all the support I could give it.

The picture is Audubon high school. I posted one of Triton a year or so ago. I also supposed I was thinking about this because my best friend from those days is going to be celebrating her 50th high school reunion in a few months. Imagine that. Where did the time go? I'll be celebrating, Lord willing, in two years with my classmates. Can't wait.

No comments: