Monterey resident enjoys MHS (Monterey High School)
progress from front porch
Doris Sampley, 83, doesn’t have far to
go to see the construction of the new Monterey High School —
only to her front yard. Amy Davis | Herald-Citizen
MONTEREY — When it comes to the new
Monterey High School, Doris Sampley has a perspective like no other.
After
all, the 83-year-old has a front row seat at the show — on her front porch.
She’s
heard every blast, seen practically every block lain and endured all the
construction clatter as the massive building has slowly risen from the ground.
Not
that she minds.
Sampley,
who has lived in the brick house just behind the school for the past 41 years,
likes being close to the action — and has likely witnessed more than anyone in
the community. She’s even captured the progress in photos, going back to when
the old MHS came down early last year.
“The
other morning, they woke me up,” she recalled. “I said, ‘There’s something big
going down today.’”
That’s
when she looked out the window and saw the first cement truck rolling in, just
across the bank in front of her house.
“It
filled the whole street... never saw one that big in all my life,” she said. “I
ran to the front door and looked, and there was one going on the school
property and more still coming in off the road. Oh, it was something to see.”
It’s
times like that when Sampley is sure to have her camera with her. She’s even
gotten pictures from many of the blasts.
“They’d
blow the horn three times and holler, ‘Fire in the hole!’ and then I’d have
time to snap it,” she said. “One of them shook, and I thought the house was
going with it.”
It’s
a sound Sampley has gotten used to since students vacated the old MHS building
due to dangerously flammable roofing materials in the spring of 2012 and made
their temporary home in the former Uffelman Elementary building that fall. By
the following spring, the old school — which was built in 1955 — had been
demolished, and by October 2013, ground was broken for the new one. Once
complete, MHS will serve grades 7-12, while Burks Elementary will house
pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. That time is expected to be around late July
2015.
The
blasting has meant Sampley’s view of the MHS construction site has gotten
better over the months as the bank between her front yard and the school
property was taken down quite a bit.
The
only bothersome thing, though, was all the dust that came her way in the early
days of construction.
“Even
if you had your windows closed, it figured out how to get in,” she said.
Other
than that, she’s enjoyed witnessing all the progress up close.
“I
just love anything about building — seeing something go up,” she said.
It’s
a love that goes back to when her first home was built near Chestnut Avenue.
She was 22 at the time, and her husband, Dewitt, was working in Ohio.
“He
was sending me money, and I went and bought two lots,” she said. “I said, ‘I
want me a house.’ I was tired of paying rent.”
When
it came time to bulldoze for a basement, they hit rock.
“I
had a man come drill holes to blast,” she said. “Then I went and bought a box
of dynamite.”
With
long fuses, of course.
“Dewitt
and I would put them down in the holes,” she said. “We started from the center
and we knew which ones we were going to light — and then we’d run!
“That’s
where I got my taste of building.”
The
Sampleys moved to their home behind the high school around 1973 — which meant
their three youngest sons, Steven, Mark and John, didn’t have far to go.
“They
would be getting ready to go to school and hear the bell ring, and they’d have
five minutes,” Sampley recalled. “They’d dash out the door and get to their
class before the second bell. That’s why they liked to live here so good.”
Her
two oldest sons, Ricky and Randy, graduated from MHS prior to the move.
Over
the years, she’s watched as new wings were added to the school.
And
she saw it all come down.
“There
was a little sadness about it,” she said.
But
her mood improved as the new one has slowly gone up.
Another
reason she’s enjoyed the progress is that it has helped take her mind off her
recent bout with kidney cancer. She had surgery to remove it in February.
“I
could prop up on my couch and watch them when they were doing all that work,”
she said. “It took my mind off myself and how bad I was feeling. And that made
me happy.”
Sampley
looks forward to finally seeing the school complete and noted that she has
several nieces and nephews who will be attending.
“Oh,
that’s going to be something,” she said.
Even
if it means possible sacrifices on her part.
She
recalls a conversation she had with a man who always told her when to expect
the house-rattling blasts.
“He
came to meet me and said, ‘Ma’am, we’re fixing to blast,’ and I said, ‘You know
that rock you’re blasting on is the rock this house is sitting on?’ And he
said, ‘Yes, ma’am, I know that.’”
Not
that Sampley was complaining.
“I
said, ‘We can’t help that... This is a brick house. If it cracks somewhere or
if the windows jar out, that’s all right — we’ll fix it. This school has got to
be built no matter what.”
She
said the man was surprised to hear that.
“He
just looked like he was in shock — but I’ll never forget that smile and the way
his eyes looked just as long as I live,” Sampley said.
“He
said, ‘Yes, ma’am. Not many people look at it like you do.’
“But
that’s the way I felt about it.”
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