10/31/2026
Holy Angels
By Old Upton
Some call me an eyesore.
Some call me a money pit.
Some just want me gone , like a hole in the ground gone,
Others just don’t know what to do with me.
I am a conundrum.
But I gave you so much and you owe me nothing.
For all the years that I have been around I have never asked for a thing.
I didn’t ask for this dilemma,
Whether to be disposed of at auction or to a public bid for a dollar, to some unknown entity who may not give a holler.
I have been here since 1848 and I have seen the horrors of America’s Civil War,
the trials of the Spanish-American War, World War I, II, Korean, and Vietnam conflicts.
I welcomed home the soldiers of Desert Storm and honored our Firefighters on every other Memorial Sunday since 1901.
I was built as a Baptist, then a Unitarian Universalist, and finally a longtime home of the Catholic parishioners.
Boy Scout meetings of Troop 132, countless Christenings, First Communions, weddings, Ecumenical suppers, and very emotional funerals.
My walls are Greek Revival, my stained glass windows are Tiffany, my story is universal, I am becoming a dying breed in our ever-changing landscape.
I was once loved, and one day from now I hope to be loved again,
Where children and adults can enjoy the arts and theatre, where history is shown and taught,
as a museum or arts center, or both.
To give back to you, my Upton family and to my community.
