Brick by Brick

Will and Hallie's elementary school was built in 1989. At 25 years old, the building, which could be considered "old" when compared to many of the other schools in the district, was showing its age: the roof leaked and apparently quite a bit of water regularly made its way in between the exterior bricks and interior walls.

Will and Hallie's elementary school is just a baby - maybe a toddler - compared to my elementary schools, which still house elementary school students and were built in 1923 and 1906. 

To solve the water problems, the school district scheduled a massive construction project - removing all of the exterior bricks, fixing whatever needed fixing beneath the bricks (clearly I know a great deal about construction and building materials), and rebuilding the brick walls - to begin immediately after school let out in May and to wrap up by the the first day of school in August.

The building's original bricks lay in huge piles next to the school nearly all summer long. One afternoon, as we walked past the school on our way home from the playground, we asked a construction worker where the discarded bricks would end up; when he informed us that the bricks were headed to the dumpster, we decided to "rescue" one of them.

Hallie wanted her own picture with the brick.

So now, wherever we go or even if we never leave College Station, we'll always have an actual piece of Will and Hallie's (first) elementary school with us.

I just realized - four weeks too late - that we should have gotten TWO bricks. Betting on when the fighting over this sweet, sentimental memento will begin is now open.