This is an aerial shot of the soon to be dramatically changed Scranton State School for The Deaf. Go ahead and click on it and you'll get a decent resolution photo, one that will give you a pretty good grab on the size of this campus.My familiarity with the school goes way back, back to the '50s, back to when I was a little kid who was being awed and wowed by the vast world before him from the comfort of a front porch.
Very often before me sat The Oral School, as it was still then called, and which was its original name. I really don't think the name became politically incorrect at some point in time. I likewise don't know why they changed the name to Scranton State School for The Deaf. The road, a dedicated street, that ran behind the campus and St. Joseph's Center is Oral School Road, or at least it was. There were signs on poles telling you that it was. Did that change as well?
We'd sit on the porch waiting for hummingbirds to visit the petunias in the wooden box planter that hung from the railing in front of us. See, my grandparents lived right across Electric Street from the school. The front of their house faced the front of the school.
These were warm summer nights. We spent more of them than I could possibly count sitting with my grandparents on their obligatory front porch glider. Everyone had a glider
back then, didn't they?We'd sit and look at the gorgeous lawn that swept up to meet the main building of the Oral School. We'd sit and gently swing, my grandfather lighting and re-lighting his ever-present pipe or cigar.
We always called my grandfather "Dad." All of his grandchildren called him "Dad." Never knew why, never much figured it mattered. He was just "Dad."
That picture I've posted before. It deserves another, so here they are one more time, l. to r.; my father, my grandfather, my Aunt Mary, and my grandmother. This was the clan Sweeney as it then existed. In time, there would be four more children. Today, but one survives.
I grew up with SSSD. Only once, though, did I ever set foot within, and that was early on in my television career. We did a Christmas piece at SSSD somewhere in the late '80s.
For whatever reason, SSSD's campus was strictly off-limits to the nosy and adventurous who just wanted to come onto the property and do no more than stroll around, poke around without
entering any of the buildings. There was always some security guy who they'd scramble to shoo you away the second you entered SSSD airspace.These people had their own definition of a "closed campus." In an extra measure of keeping it closed, a sturdy and spikey wrought iron fence surrounded much of the place. A moat would have been a nice touch.
The photo at left is also a rerun. Its relevance is that Mom and Dad are not only looking at whoever had the camera, they're also looking at SSSD. That's my grandparents' driveway.
Enough reminiscing, I suppose. There's an old saying, I think theatrical in origin, that says, "You go with what you got." And what I got is memories of a childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood where The Oral School/SSSD was simply a fixture, a given, in every day life.
That it would, or could, go away never much crossed our minds. To be frank, I don't think it crossed the minds of most until the last several months. There's been some considerable shock over the school's future, if it even has a future.
Looking at the aerial shot up top made me think what a fine "city estate" it would make for some really rich person. Actually, it would be more like a manor. Although possible, that seems an unlikely fate for the property.
Marywood? Scranton Prep? Commonwealth Medical College? They all seem to be a good fit in one form or another. With a medical school under construction, wouldn't the next big step for the Scranton area be, oh, a law school? Could happen, the academic foundations are certainly there. Marywood or UofS are positioned such. Lackawanna College could have a stake here, too.
In the end, though, I do feel a sense of sadness and loss for SSSD's likely fading into history. It was a source of great pride to have such an institution in Scranton, although I think a big chunk of the property is physically in Dunmore. For the many who were educated there, it's also pretty darned tough to watch this all fall apart.
Like most others, I took a look at the numbers. Sadly, and if they are accurate, the cost of operating SSSD is hard to justify, it's a tough sell. It costs us more than twice Harvard's annual tuition and board to take a student through a school year at SSSD.
Still, I cannot help but wish those fighting to save the school abundant good luck.
