Bridge City resident Richard Schur’s mother, Luna Louise Hudson, was a student at the New London School when it exploded on March 18, 1937. Hudson had missed school that day because she couldn’t find one of her shoes, but her brother, Elisha, died in the explosion. Photo taken Wednesday 3/9/16 Ryan Pelham/The Enterprise, Beaumont, Texas
Some do work to keep the history alive. Good on them.
Have we learned? How do we explain the explosion in West, Texas? How do we explain the general lack of attention to school facilities nationally?
Did we forget?
When I visited my granddaughter in Tyler, where the school is located, we toured the New London Museum, which is in the back area of a cafe right across the street from the school. The curator said everyone at the time wanted to forget about it, and it’s just now that the tragedy is attracting attention.
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Yes, they do remember. I even saw something about it on Facebook. A friend’s mother went to the school but stayed home that day. I also had a distant cousin that died in the explosion. I did not know about the book that Pat Bean mentioned. Also I mentioned it in one of my posts http://coastalcrone.com/2015/10/09/deaths-garden-crossed-fingers/ And it seems we don’t worry about the safety of schools until there is a school shooting. In the US students should not have to attend unsafe or rundown schools.
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Thanks! Didn’t know about that book.
I’ve often wondered how school board meetings in that district might be different, almost 80 years later. I wonder whether there is a lasting effect of the memory.
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Lorine Bright, the first person whom I told I wanted to be a writer, was at that school on the day of the explosion. She wrote a book. New London: One Woman’s Memory of Orange and Green, about it. Then my granddaughter taught at the school. The world is a small place.
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