The window and the sledge hammer

I think that I was about 14 when the Church decided it was time to replace the Crescent Road Chapel in Calgary.  Some people were surprised that it was to be torn down and rebuilt rather than just added on to.  The Church bought a large home that was just north of the chapel so that they would have more land to build a larger building and provide parking etc.  I remember that volunteers started removing anything from the building that could be sold.  We took out the benches and the light fixtures and some doors etc while we were still using the building for seminary.

One night during the time that we were salvaging things from the building Martin and Lloyd and I rode our bikes over to the building and went inside.  We got in through the Bishop's office window which was at ground level.  There were no lights in the building because the electricity was off.  It was very exciting to wander around and we eventually made our way to a door upstairs that lead to the attic.  That was a place that we had never been before so we poked around up there and made our way to a round window at the end of the attic under the gable.  I remember that we pushed the window out and we grabbed it so that it would not fall but after we were finished looking outside we had no way of putting the window back in place so we eventually had to let go of it and let if fall to the ground.  It was a very nice round stained glass window so we were a little concerned that we might get in trouble for destroying it.  I don't think that we mentioned the incident for a few years.

Contractors were employed to demolish the house that the church bought on the adjacent property.  They completed the house one day and the next day was the last day of seminary.  It was a beautiful spring morning and for some reason that I do not recall Martin and I were standing (uncharacteristically) on the grass outside the basement window of our seminary class while the class was still in session.  The large basement windows were made of small opaque squares set in a grid of white wooden frames so the people in the class could not see us and we could not see them.

A young construction worker came walking up to us and we started a conversation.  He brought his sledge hammer with him and he was bragging about how fast they had demolished the house.  Then just to show off . . . he swung his sledge hammer back and said "today we start on this Church".  He sent the hammer crashing through the window breaking the glass and several of the wooden frames as well.  To his great surprise and horror when he looked into the window he could see that there was a class going on.  He dropped his hammer and simply ran down the street as fast as he could go.

Martin and I were shocked because the class members could now see us and would logically conclude that we had either done it or put the young contractor up to it. 

We just started laughing . . . and we have laughed many times since as we have told that story.