12/06/2024
Brittania .
THE school in my neigborhood . Although kicked out for hitting the principal , Mr Connaly ...i have many fond memories ..from lifeguarding school to ice hockey for the Britannia Bulldogs i spent years here even out of school.
So heres a true story about it .
We used to climb these roofs ...in fact i remember the day i was too old to do that . 1983
We could hop from roog to roof building to building ...all but the pool and the highschool proper . A square 4 story monster in castle looking brick . The face was easy ...tiny fingers in the brick work on nimble young bodies . We spiderman climbed all over the first two floors. There is a friendly ledge on each window sill. Caged , the windows were not an option back inside so we went no higher than that second floor perch . Even if you hanf jumped from there it hurt . I did it ...lots of us vowing not to try that again climbed back down slowly to where you could jump easly .
But ...the other roofs had treasure . Basketballs , frizbees , footballs ...the ever sought after ...red hockey balls ...
Imagine the untouched magnificance ...the hero status to be the first . Throwing down equiptment long thought gone forever .
My pal joey ...was tall. A year ahead of me in grade 6. ...he tried one day . We stood in pa crowd the cool kids ...the portable kids ..even nerds ...myst have been 100 of us .
Teachers later commented they couldnt tell what we were looking at .
You see joey was wearing a brick colored jumpsuit ...so it looked from a distance like we were all just staring and the wall. ..
He spring boarded up the first two stories and stood on that ledge .
It was sunny . Joeys best friend Mike joston was urging him on . We were mostly silent .
The old school was imperial looking with high ceilings in stone .
The second floor ledge was abput 8 meters up?
Or about 30 feet? .
Thats getting up ..but here joey stood now uneasy on the 3rd ledge .
About 45 feet up .
Thats just higher than
A olympic pools 2nd highest diving board . And he had one more to go . We were nervous .he was visably
Scared but . Down no longer looked like an option . He waited ..catching breath . Psyking up.
He went ...up quick ..but ?
At the top ..we never thought that far . The cornice! A jutting out 2 foot flat you would have to throw one arm over
In a one shot way .
He clawed at the crack
s ...then ...with a long lanky arm he swung up over ......
And missed .
He immidiately fell away from the wall as was his push ...grabbing at nothing he started a free fall back first turned head down .
We froze in horror anf silent shock as he headed to his certain death in the center of our huddle suddenly stumbling to get out of the falling 120 lb body.
All but Mike ! He stepped in and opened his arms ...nothing was going to make this fine but he did it and let his best friend land right on top of him .
It made the sound of paint in plastic buckets crashing the same hieght . The two became a sandbag as bones shattered and flesh split on pavement
Teachers were running already ...seeing the fall finally and arriving at the accident scene almost as it happened
I was front row but looked away ...i was sure 2 friends were dead. .
But no ...a miracle performed by Mike Joston 1970-1999 rip.
Although their heads hit first ...they were young and sturdy ...the knock out reversed joes fall at a pivot . He broke his back and is a paraplegic to this day living here on the drive . Mike was made nearly brain dead and a quadroplegic but slowly regained some person though he died eventually of assisted su***de when his body failed in too many ways.
The moral ...
Dont climb the highschool .
It killed a kid .
Tjr .2024
