As you enter the building the sound of talking hits you like a baseball. You see people all over, both short and tall, small and big, male and female, black and white. You have never noticed this majestic building until now. This is the present day Fraternal Order of Eagles, now called The Howard.
As you enter the ballroom you can feel all the magical energy coming from it. You close your eyes and imagine all the beautiful dresses girls wear and tuxedos on the men. You can hear the laughter ringing from wall to wall and the sound of peoples feet as they dance; you can hear the stomp of an elephant and know to steer clear of those dancers and the majestic, soft touch of a swan, the experienced dancers.
As you walk the halls you hear the pitter patter and the rushing steps of the students walking to their classes. You hear the juicy gossip on who’s dating who and what one person did to another. You hear the scratch of pencils on paper and you see the writing on the bathroom stalls.
The feeling of excitement comes over you as you walk past the place where they used to record music. You can feel the nerves, the hope, the amazement, and the awe just spewing out of the studio. It makes you wonder if you could ever get into a recording studio due to all of the electric vibes pouring out of this one.
You walk down to the bowling alley with that beautiful bar and imagine all the people having drinks while bowling and you can see all the silly things the drunks would do. You hear the clinking of glasses and the roaring voices of people talking. You can feel all the different energies coursing through your body, misery, excitement, nervousness, anger, disappointment, longing, and love.
You arrive at the ballroom again except this time you don’t see everyone dancing, you hear exercise music. Then the ballroom is filled with a class of people looking for a good work out. Everyone is sweating buckets and grunting through the work out just wondering exactly how sore they’re going to be tomorrow. You hear everyone breathing and it sounds just like the big bad wolf trying to blow the place down and the upbeat music keeping everyone energized.
That is the Fraternal Order of Eagles, upbeat music, the pitter patter of feet, the roaring crowd and the stomping feet of bad dancers.
Written By: Taylor Kwasny
Date: 10/12/18
Historic Location: Fraternal Order of Eagles