Room 203

If you walk down the hall of the BBMS Memorial High School and pay close attention to the arrows carved into the walls and lockers of the first floor, you will reach Room 203. Aileen carved those arrows to honor the site of her first meeting with Erica. On April 23rd, 1986, after days of staring at her intriguing, androgynous hair, Aileen accidentally on purpose punched Erica in the gut as a way of greeting. Erica kicked Aileen in the shins. They formed Selwyn & the Storks then and there.

Two years earlier the room was the scene of the infamous Great Caulking Horror, the details of which are questionable as the story evolves into legendary proportions. Every year brings new bits of information, some from sources who cannot be trusted. Local children innocently skip rope to rhymes commemorating the event. Frida’s Catering has a sandwich named after it. The only thing that remains certain is the inability of Steve the Janitor to walk in a straight line anymore.

The school is empty now as the summer season brings vacation time, but Room 203 remains lively as the Cuyahoga Falls Popular Museum. Mayoress Reputa, in an effort to bring in tourism, made it a museum just last year after Hybrid Molasses used it as a rehearsal space for their latest album, Chevrolet. They cited the room’s intense vibe as the foundation for their best record to date.

Emmett Colquitt penned his first philosophies from a fourth row desk during a math class in Room 203. The BBMS student pro-choice/pro-life march started from this room. It was here that in a fit of patriotic loyalty Blink Edwards stood upon his chair during American History and brought everyone to tears with his “Greatest Citizens” speech. Indeed, Cuyahoga Falls’ greatest citizens and then some have been a part of this room since the school’s first incarnation as Cuyahoga High in 1912.

Many have wondered at how fate has worked to bring such a collection of events to this one small blip on the map. But in life some mysteries must remain so.