Once again my ferocious Googling revealed a location, which soon would be gone. The former elementary school of Finland’s smallest town, Kaskinen, built in 1978, had been abandoned for years because of moisture damage. It was set to be demolished.
There it is, and it looks like at least some preparations have started. Although the building itself looks typical for its era, schools like that are fairly rare.
As soon as I started walking around the place, I realized, that I had been here before. Back in 2004, 19 years earlier, I was the captain of a youth team in my hometown football club. The last match of the season was here. If we won, we’d won the division and earn promotion. Any other result would send the hosts a level up.
We drew 0-0 with the referee heavily favoring the home side. We were furious after the match.
“Don’t be so disappointed, it was a good game”, the referee said.
“Yeah, of course it was a good game, when the home team won the division”, I said bitterly.
“Do I have to write a complaint about you”, the referee asked.
That time he didn’t. But I was notorious for my fouling, antics and bad mouth. Later when I coached a youth team at a small rural club, I was sent off twice and booked four times in ten matches.
Well, so much for my footballing memories. Back to finding an entrance.
The school looked to be in a good condition from the outside. I guess, the problems lay underneath.
The dressing rooms of the sports field were in the basement of the school.
If I can remember correctly, we didn’t use them, though. As we played in small fields, where dressing rooms were a rarity, we always had to be prepared not to have any.
The school was built on a hillside. Moisture problems were common in 1970’s buildings built this way.
There had also been a kindergarten in the same building.
First looks inside. This looks like the kitchen entrance. And it also looks, like some preliminary demolition work has already been started. I am late again.
There had been break ins. And a duct tape fix familiar from another school a few years back.
Several broken windows. It also looks like the kids have had a do it yourself traffic park around the school.
Another, fairly blurred look inside. The big room up front could be the gym.
Not this time. And never. The school was demolished that very summer.