LETTER: Grand Illumination Marks Year of Enlightenment

December 1, 2012

DEAR EDITOR:

Tonight the Town of Cape Charles will have its Grand Illumination in Old School Park. The lights will come on, speeches will be given, and we can all hug and have a hot chocolate.

The use of the word “illuminate” dates to 15^th century Middle English — in the archaic, meaning to brighten with light, or to be intellectually or spiritually enlightened. The basic meaning still stands today.

It is fitting then, that the Grand Illumination should be taking place in School Park, as the Grand Old Dame herself, the Old School, broodingly looks on as the self-congratulatory event takes place.

But let’s leave that for now, because this is a season to give thanks. Thanks to the Echelon deal, it has been a year of enlightenment.

Despite the deal being concocted in the dank, musty recesses of Executive Sessions, meant to keep citizens in the dark until it was too late to do anything, in the end, through diligence and the power of the Freedom of Information Act, the inner workings of our town have been dutifully adorned with light.

We learned, thanks to independent engineering reports, that everything we have been told about the Old School has not been entirely true. According to the reports, the Grand Old Dame is in wonderful shape, solid as a rock, with little asbestos even to be found.

The cost to turn it into 17 apartments might take a chunk of change, but basic renovations and repairs (lest we forget the power of Eastern Shore volunteerism, tax credits, grants, etc.) to open it back up as a multi-purpose event venue, could be done for pennies on the dollar.

When the cost ($349,000) of the harbor bath house came to light, one had to wonder why the school was left to languish, without even a few tubes of caulk being budgeted to correct water leakage at either end. That question is still shrouded in darkness—we may need more lights.

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A few years ago, during this holiday season, I was lucky enough to play Ebenezer Scrooge in the Palace Theatre production of A Christmas Carol. It seemed such a simple story, but it was an overwhelming challenge for the actor. Fortunately, I was working with a true friend, the brilliant Sheila Cardano, who had adapted the play and was directing. She held my hand, coaching me in techniques that would illuminate what Dickens was trying to say; for Scrooge, he had to come to terms with the connectivity of all things in the world, his past, present and future, and how his actions affected everything.

Fake Rolex

Ms. Cardano’s patient understanding and clarification of that role has also taught me something about the Old School. Some may say it is an eyesore, just a heap of inanimate brick, wood and stone, that it has no soul. But I have walked those halls, and I understand that it does.

Too many people have passed through its doors and left parts of themselves behind in the process. Standing in the chemistry lab, reading notes scratched into the wall, seeing words left on the chalk board, even thinking about the first students that began their artistic journey with Arts Enter in that place, these things are like strings in the darkness, intimately tying you to those moments and this place. If you are quiet and alone, and you let them, just like Scrooge, you will be visited upon by the school’s ghosts, those memories and essences of lives past, still lingering in the mortar.

When we turn on the lights this Saturday, take a moment and look at the Old School. Remember its past, realize its present, and try to imagine its future.

Just think back a few years, when we were still a tight-knit community, and held the Renovator’s Ball in the school auditorium (yes, the irony of the event’s name is not lost on me). In Christmas present, we still control its destiny.

In Christmas future, instead of fighting through the parked cars of Echelon residents that will be lining the streets, we could illuminate the park, and then stroll inside to the Jean Collins Memorial Auditorium for the Cape Charles Winter Formal, with great food, plenty of cheer, and dancing.

It has been a tough year for our town, full of strife, misgivings, anger, and disengagement. But it is Christmas, and for this season maybe we can enjoy the present, remember our past, and think about the possibilities for the future.

During that production of A Christmas Carol my son Joey played Tiny Tim (my daughter Rachel actually played four roles!); I remember Joey delivering that famous line at the end. As he spoke, I was finally able to let go of the stress of learning the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.

I cried a bit, then laughed, and I knew Dickens had it right:

And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, “God bless Us, Every One!”

After everything we as a town have gone through this year, what Dickens says of Scrooge may be our best advice:  “Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh!”

WAYNE CREED
President, Old School Cape Charles