Mar 6, 2023 5 min read

We have administrative building attached to end of the middle school building. It’s exciting for us, building built in 60s or 70s. The one other thing about the entryway to the administrative offices. Darla Bowman Monaco donated a couple benches in honor of her father and husband. Back in the 1980s, early 80s, the bell the blue and gold bell down at the stadium, we had one just like that back then and it came up missing, there’s police were on the trail, were looking for it, never found it. suddenly four years ago I got a call from one of our paraeducators who was Scrapping with her daughter on a Saturday, it was in a scrapyard, general alloys, she found this bell that had a CM on it, very rusty and dilapidated, she took a picture of it and sent it to me and said do you know anything about this? Is this Canon-Mac? I said it sure looks like it. Let me ask some of the old timers on the board, maybe they’ll know and sure enough, I threw an email out there and got responses from Manuel Pihakis and Darla Bowman Monaco, saying yeah that’s our bell. I remember that! So we retrieved it, we got it, and it wasn’t easy, it was for sale at great cost, we got it for $500. Our guys, our maintenance crew, shipped it off and had sandblasting done, and it came back and the restored it. and it’s beautiful and it’s there right now as we speak. Terri said I want to make sure this isn’t going to sit and collect dust. I promised her, ..We got our bell back. Terri from General Alloys….she gave us check for $

The guys who were hand’s on , harry leonoardi and George parkas and harry clutter. 

I remember, so I started here FEb. 2001, I recall this is heresy and memory, bell went missing sometime around there, the rumor was people were saying Rick Bell who came to coach C-M basketball , came from PT, rumor was we stole their bell they stole ours, funny rumor, We actually don’t know what happened. 

Someone said we need bell since football season is coming, a bell was located, a lot of these guys are not here to tell story, it was located and installed, did a paint job on it, John McCrory who was woodshp teacher created the circle…..

Then years and years went by, the bell these guys put back up again needed refurbished. 2019, 2020, they decided wooden ring needed refurbished. Some school board members said it looked crappy, we took bell down, had it sandblasted, guy in Carnegie painted it, we made a new wheel for it, in 19 or 20, we painted it, we couldn’t get it off because it was so heavy, we wanted to use Bobcat but we used forklift to reinstall the new bell we just painted. The forklift ended up dying, we had to tow forklift to garage….maintenance truck pulling a forklift. We got in trouble, boss not happy we used forklift, but we had new refinished track, what in carnation were you doing, Sam Hill . We got it back together, then all of a sudden this person mentioned in  ceremony found bell in scrap yard, all of a sudden it became a priority, SD paid for it, was going to donate to SD as long as …

We went and we got the bell, took to support facility, we need to refurbish it. Tatano opened 446 painting, he offered to sand blast a paint it free of charge, he did a great job, sandblasted, did powder coating, took it to bus garage, sat while we decided where to put it. Lo and behold when we built new MS, people said let’s do that there. They set it on the concrete. Person who found bell for scrap yard…..it was a long run-out thing. We couldn’t find the clapper for the longest time, that was missing for a while, custodian didn’t want to give it to anyone because kids would ring it. We did refurbishing in 2020….. the opposing team rang our bell ……we finally got it back together and reinstalled, 

Late 90s it was stolen, I started in 2001, I remember them scrambling to get a bell put up at stadium…I remember them scrambling. We’ve had track the running joke was PT 

RT Bell…we were refurbishing bell we had when the other one was found, we made a new wheel out of oak at the high school…..had to We got it all installed, wham o another bell appeared out of no where. The bell taken down since then, we were talking about putting it 

We don’t have anything to make it work, need a stand, if you come to stadium ….Need clapper….we just have the bell. Couple of years ago when this one was found, it didn’t exist and now all of a sudden it exists. Couple months ago my current boss, I took measurements, I think I think they moved it back down to maintenance garage, original contractor was supposed to make a base for it. We still have it, it’s protected again. Came out of New now we have 2, we have a backup in case someone steals one. 

Don’t know how they stole it, we used a forlisft. You can unbolt it but how you get it off that track, that’s the mystery how cthe heck could someone get out the stadium without being seen. We have cameras today. 

Call John McCrory, retired woodshop teacher and RT Bell.