Another little bit of my past

The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung;
The creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.

The Seattle Center Arena -- rebranded as the "Mercer Arena" in more recent years -- came crashing down yesterday.  Built in 1927, the Arena had seen the 1962 World's Fair blossom about it, and had remained as part of the Seattle Center which evolved from the fair. 

The Arena sat next door to what was once the Civic Auditorium, built in 1928.  For the World's Fair, the Civic Auditorium was transformed into the Seattle Opera House, which it remained until it was radically remodeled as McCaw Hall in 2003 -- where it now hosts both the opera and the Pacific Northwest Ballet.  Siblings, born in the 20s, and still looking good. 

One sibling yesterday gobbled up the other, however -- McCaw is annexing the space from which the Seattle Center Arena has been eradicated, and the Seattle Opera will move administrative offices, storage, and other non-performance functions into a new four-story building.

The Arena -- not to be confused with Key Arena, former home of the fugitive SuperSonics, by the way -- was perhaps the least known building at the modern Seattle Center.  It was built originally as an ice arena, and had at times hosted professional ice hockey teams.  It ultimately became a "multi-purpose venue."

For me, however, the Arena has a more personal connection.  It was in that building that I spent three long days in 1974, sweating over the Washington State Bar Exam.  My baptism by fire, from which I emerged unscathed, a spanking-new attorney, still wet behind the ears.

And so my heart jumped when I saw the photograph of its on-going demolition on the front page of the local newspaper.  It wasn't a beautiful building, or even a particularly useful building.  But it had seen me through an exhausting experience.  To me, in 1974, it had seemed a timeless part of the Seattle scene. 

Nothing is permanent.  "Nothing in life is certain but change," as the man said.  All things pass away.  I just wish they didn't pass away quite so frequently.