The “secret room” story was picked up today by Paul Harvey. He read an edited version of the story – picking out “narrow catwalk” and “cavelike room”, while adding something about being in secret use by a select few – “the sons and daughters of the sons and daughters” – as if it were a family secret, rather than simply a legacy handed from one class to another.
What Mr Harvey didn’t say – and what the story picked up by the Rocky Mountain News from the Smoky Hill High School Express failed to make clear – is that those “narrow catwalks” were specifically designed for safe use by students hanging lights for theater productions in the school. The “cavelike room” – far from being an al qaeda hideout – was … well, okay that part is pretty cool – but hardly more insidious. than any other hidden corner that students find to nap or make out or simply escape the increasingly opressive hand of school administration.
I admit, I get a charge out of learning that one of the secrets we kept back in my high school days has remained secret this long, and I am suprisingly sad to hear that it has been shut down. If I were still a Smoky Hill Theatre student, I know where I’d be hiding out to mourn its loss.And THAT… is the rest of the story.