My Feature Story (for writing class)

Have you ever wondered what certain landmarks and buildings around Norman are? You drive past them day after day. You ask your friends what they think it is, but you never take the time to really find out. Well I did take the time. I was most interested in two things, one a building and one a landmark.

The building is the one on McGee just off of Lindsey, here in Norman. You may have noticed it because it has two signs, one for a Hollywood theater and one for the Pioneer Library System.

The landmark is in Andrews Park, next to the Blake Baldwin skate park. It’s a large, underground, cement structure; with two hatches, two doors and two windows. None of which are accessible.

Now as far as the building goes, my guess was it was some kind of sub-library. To find out exactly what it was I went to the source. The building itself. It is owned by the library, and no, it’s not a theater for the librarians personal use. It is, in fact, a large warehouse where the new books bought by the library are sent and cataloged. They also use it for storage, (such as, right now while the Noble branch is being remodeled). The building itself is pretty interesting looking, inside and out. When you go in you find a very large mural of Harry Potter. It’s a huge rectangular shaped room, filled to the brink with shelves upon shelves of books, newspapers and archives. I felt like a kid in a candy store, being the avid reader that I am. The building has been in use by the Library for about 3 years now. Before the Pioneer System bought it, it belonged to the OU law library. “I remember when it was still a theater,” the librarian I spoke to recalled, “I saw Jaws and Superman there.” While I was visiting, a man came in to ask what the building was used for, so as you can see, the unusual appearance does spark interest. While this may be some what of a nuisance to the librarians that work there, I for one am happy to see the appearance was mostly unaltered from it’s former cinema days.

Next, I went to find out about the landmark in Andrews Park. My guess, and the guess of a few others I talked to, was that it’s some kind of bomb shelter or storm shelter, maybe a large storage cellar. To find out what it really was, I went to Norman’s department of Parks and Recreation. Upon entering the department, I found the secretary and an official sitting in the waiting area. The walls were decorated with posters from Jazz ’n June and Medieval Fairs of years past. On the side table next to the official sat a life-sized severed gipsy head floating in a crystal ball. Suffice it to say, it was very distracting while I was trying to take notes. However, I did find out that the structure is 69 ft. wide, 146 ft. long and 14 ft. deep. People’s interest in it is obvious by the footprints found in the dust of the door as if someone were trying to kick it in. Probably local kids trying to get in. The strangest thing about this story is the ending. The structure did not turn out to be a bomb shelter or a storage cellar, long since used for nothing more than to store old Christmas lights. No it’s nothing so practical as that. It is in fact an abandoned water storage unit. Basically, an underground water tower. Why the city would go to so much expense is a mystery, even the officials at the department couldn’t explain. They did however tell me what is down there, now that it is no longer in use. Water, about 3 ft. of it. “They did have an architect look at it a few years back,” the secretary told me. “To see if it could be converted for storage, but the damage was too extensive. It would have cost more then it was worth.” So there it sits, year after year. Sparking the curiosity of the park goers and skater dudes. When, in fact, anything they can imagine is much more fantastic than what it truly is, a big waste of space.

What did I learn from my “search for the truth”? Sometimes fiction is stranger than truth, and even plastic severed heads are pretty creepy.