A Peek into Summers County’s Past: Talcott School Gymnasium

TALCOTT W.Va. (Hinton News) – Today’s piece is going to lack historical detail of the structure as a whole, as I do not know much about the time frame of the various additions to the Talcott School Gymnasium. I had already gone into detail in my October 31, 2023, piece telling the history of the Talcott School Gymnasium. All I know about this area is my Great Great Grandfather, L.W. Thompson, was contracted to add an addition on the back side of the cafeteria area. It was built out of a textured, glazed/glossy rust colored cinder block material. I salvaged one of these blocks after the demolition for a keepsake.

The gym portion was completed in 1936 by a WPA project under the New Deal, brought about by the Great Depression, as a gymnasium and community center for the Talcott area. This painting was painted by my good friend Lita Light in the early 1990s. It hung by the door into the office above the copy machine.

My mother and Lita were both “Home Room Mothers” and volunteered in the office. So I spent a lot of time around this painting. They also painted a long section of hallway beside the cafeteria towards the elementary wing with cartoon characters. This was the area where my 1st grade class with Pete Tabor was.

Mom and I met her long-time friend, Cathy Mirabile, and her husband, Charlie, in Hinton on Wednesday, the 16th, where she gave me this copy of Lita’s school painting.  Looking at this brings back lots of memories for me. Talcott Elementary was a positive experience for me that brought about my love for community activities.

Such as Mrs Karla Tabor’s 2nd grade class in the two-end window long section on the right side. The hiding of a time capsule in those raised brick flower beds being built under the cafeteria windows. Come to think about it, I had Mike Tabor for 3rd grade. I had the Tabor family for 3 years straight.

Attending the donkey basketball games every year in that gym where my mother and Louise Standard became known as the official “pooper scoopers” for the games, ha. Helping sort Dunkin Donuts and Tom-Wat in the gym where the students sold them for fundraisers for different fundraisers and trips. Or attending the school carnival each year, spending most of my time and money on the “dime toss.”

I could go on and on for hours about this school as I am part of four generations of my family that attended there. My Grandfather Bernard Thompson, my father David Jones class of 1974, my brother David Lee whos last class was 1994 as a freshman before being transferred to the high school, my last grade I went to Talcott Elementary was the 5th grade in 1996 before being transferred to the middle school in Hinton and my niece Grace Cales who attended in the old building shortly before being relocated to the new Talcott Elementary School constructed beside of the one in this painting.