I am writing this column while sitting at the A & E Gallery. It is early in the day and Saturday and summer, so the town is not yet moving.

I find myself in a situation I have never been in and it is so welcoming. I am amongst all of this talent, this soul, in the stillness of this very old building where so much life has already been lived. The aged shutters slam and the doors creek and I hear the constant chirp of a family of birds occupying a rent free space somewhere in the back of this old building, all the while knowing that they belong here and are more a part of this than I. I love this feeling of stillness against this backdrop of oldness and art. Paul and Lee Schexnayder have rearranged this space and redefined this building and a wonderful new story is being told in this old building.

I continue to think of the old buildings in this town and think of the lives before that have given us rich history and formed us into a community.

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I think of North Lewis Elementary, a.k.a. Elizabeth Forgy. I have never been inside of the old school that will soon be gone, but have passed by it and glanced for nearly my whole life, building stories around the children and faculty. I have read their sign telling me when school opens, when Christmas holidays begin, what time PTA meetings start, and advising me to be safe over summer vacation.

I also think of the Home Ec building on Center Street. I was in junior high there and I remember walking into that building; it was like walking into my mother’s world of Betty Crocker, starched aprons and homemade brownies with icing and dresses with rick rack and lace. There it all was for me, a home ec department like the one where she had learned to sew, read a recipe and set a table.

Those days and that building are no longer here, but I can’t help but think of how warm and safe they felt. I don’t know anything about city politics or why things are torn down instead of reused, but in my naïve mind I don’t understand how destroying our past enables our future. For me, that building was an icon for an era where manners and supper with the family and the security of home connected the dots in our lives.

Anyway, I offer a formal good bye to the little red school house on Lewis where Dick and Jane once “lived” and taught many to read and I offer a tender goodbye to the old home economics building where many girls  learned the art of homemaking.

Today is the first day of summer, my sister Susan’s birthday, Father’s Day, and the longest day of the year. What a wonderful spot on the calendar. Hopefully, the Full Thunder Moon on July 7 will be a match for the Full Strawberry Moon we saw on June 7. My garden has been and continues to be so productive this year. Sadly, however, I am seeing fewer ladybugs and more stink bugs as the summer moves on and the heat turns up.

I end with a definition of “father” that carries a bit of humor and a whole bunch of truth “A father carries pictures where his money used to be.”

Happy Father’s Day.

PAM SHENSKY is the mother of five and a teacher at New Iberia Senior High.