Jan. 10, 2021

Before Columbine: Remembering the Bath School Bombing of 1927

n May 1927, one of the deadliest acts of mass violence in American history unfolded in the quiet village of Bath, Michigan.

Over the course of several weeks, Andrew Kehoe, the treasurer of the local school board, secretly wired the Bath Consolidated School—and his own farm—with hundreds of pounds of dynamite. On the morning of May 18, just one day before graduation, a series of explosions tore through the school building, killing 45 people and injuring dozens more, most of them children.

Kehoe was a respected member of the community. His violence was not impulsive. It was deliberate, methodical, and hidden in plain sight.

The bombing also killed Kehoe’s wife, Nellie, and ended with Kehoe himself detonating a truck packed with explosives and scrap metal, killing several more villagers before taking his own life. At the time, the crime seemed beyond comprehension—an isolated horror without precedent.

Nearly a century later, it reads differently.

In this episode, we are joined by John Smolens, award-winning author and longtime chronicler of Michigan life, to discuss his historical novel Day of Days, published by Michigan State University Press. The novel revisits the Bath School bombing not as spectacle, but as lived trauma—tracing how a single morning can permanently alter the moral landscape of a community.

Through the voice of survivor Beatrice Turcott, who recalls the bombing decades later from her deathbed, Day of Days examines how collective trauma endures long after the dead are buried and the wounded appear healed. Smolens explores how memory, silence, and resilience coexist in the aftermath of violence—and how reckoning with the past becomes necessary for surviving the present.

The Bath bombing is often described as an anomaly. This conversation asks a harder question: whether it was instead a harbinger—an early warning of a form of violence that America would come to know all too well.

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Transcript

WEBVTT

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Hello, this is Arthur Bush.

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You're listening to Radio Free Flint.

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Today, our episode guest is author John Smolen, who's an award-winning novelist whose historical fiction tells the story of the tragic and shocking bombing of the Bath, Michigan Schoolhouse in 1927.

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There were 45 people killed in that bombing and countless children and adults injured.

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In the spring of 1927, Andrew Kehoe, the treasurer for the school board of Bath, Michigan, spent weeks surreptitiously wiring the public school as well as his farm with hundreds of pounds of dynamite.

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The explosions on May 18th, the day before graduation, killed and maimed dozens of children, as well as teachers, administrators, village residents, including Kehoe's wife, Nellie.

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A respected member of the community, Keho himself died when he ignited his truck loaded with crates of explosives and scrap metal after he had set off explosions.

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In its portrayal of several bath schoolchildren, Day of Days examines how such a trauma scars one's life long after the dead are laid to rest and the wounded heal, and how an anguished but resilient American village copes with the bombing, which in its time seemed beyond comprehension and now may be considered a harbinger of the future.

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One survivor, Beatrice Turcott, who decades later lies in her deathbed, recalls the spring of 1927 and how this haunting experience had led her to the conviction that one does not survive the present without reconciling hard truths about the past.

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Smolens has published 12 works of fiction.

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Eleven of those were novels and a collection of short stories.

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His most recent novel is Day of Days.

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His novel Wolf's Mouth was selected as the Library of Michigan's notable book for 2017.

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His work has appeared in various publications across the nation.

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His work has been featured in the Columbia Journal of Literature and Art, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.

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He was educated at Boston College, the University of New Hampshire, and the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa.

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He's been on the faculty at Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, and is a professor emeritus at Northern Michigan University, where he taught in the English department and served as director of the Masters of Fine Art program in creative writing.

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In 2010, John Smolens was the recipient of the Michigan Author of the Year Award from the Michigan Library Association.

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He lives in Marquette, Michigan.

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Thank you for listening to us.

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We hope you enjoyed this podcast.

00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:10.960
And uh welcome, John.

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Thank you very much.

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Good to be here, Arthur.

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And I'm glad to that you took time to join us.

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Uh uh, we're interested in listening to uh some stories about the book Day of Days, historical fiction.

00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:25.840
And tell us uh tell us just a summary of what that book is.

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The reason that I was drawn to this, not many people know, though I think here in Michigan it is better known than in other parts of the this is historical fiction and that is based on the real incident that occurred in the town of Bath, which is about 10 miles northeast of Lansing, in May of 1927.

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Terrible incident where uh on the day before graduation, these the towns relatively new, a local farmer named Andrew P.

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Keogh had uh spent weeks and quite possibly months wiring the entire building.

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This was a large brick building with hundreds of pounds of explosives and setting it up with timers and so forth.

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So that uh the morning of May 18th, he detonated, fortunately, not the entire building, but a good portion of the building.

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The number of people who were maimed and wounded, I don't think has ever been clearly determined, but there were a lot of people who were seriously injured uh and carried those injuries for a long time, if not for their lives.

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So the story revolves around the town of Bath leading up to this incident, uh, then a description of that particular day in considerable detail.

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And then it follows the main characters of the story, who are fictional, into the rest of their lives, trying to describe what the ramifications of this may have been for them and how it influenced the way they they they viewed life and how they lived the rest of their days.

00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:52.160
The book is in the genre of historical fiction.

00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:53.439
I believe so.

00:04:53.600 --> 00:05:05.519
Uh I'm I'm a little I'm a little wary of pigeonholing anybody's books, particularly mine, say this is historical fiction, but there's no denying that this is based on real historical events.

00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:17.040
Sometimes it seems to me that when people say, Oh, it's historical fiction, it's uh it's almost like they're trying to put it away in a corner, like that somehow diminishes its relevance to today.

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When my hope is that even though this book describes uh an occurrence that came about nearly a decade ago, 1987, there are parallels.

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I don't go, I don't think I go overboard in trying to draw those parallels, but I would hope that a contemporary reader would see that there are certainly connections between what happened then and what and the sorts of things that we could draw some parallels, but would prefer the reader to draw their own.

00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:42.800
Yeah, sure.

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You know, I I try I try not to use my books as as a bully pulpit, if you will.

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I mean, I have my say, but my hope is if I describe the environment, in this case, uh a small rural uh farm town, early stages of the 20th century, and how the people lived before this incident, and then describe the incident and you know how they came out of it on the other side.

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My hope is that uh I mean, readers are going to take away very different feelings and and thoughts from it, I would imagine.

00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:19.519
So I I I think, you know, once you finish writing a novel, you kind of have to let it go.

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I've had people contact me, write me, or talk to me, and they've told me what they've thought about one of those.

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And sometimes I'm nodding my head and saying, Yes, that that makes perfect sense to me.

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But there have been times when people have said things, I'm going, really?

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Where's that coming from?

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But that's their reading, you know.

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You have to kind of step back and say this is an entity that is separate from yourself.

00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:43.279
Sort of like the temptations, it's just my imagination, right?

00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:44.399
It's just my imagination.

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Yes, thank you for that Michigan connection.

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Absolutely.

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Talking about what you said that the life had changed in terms of the uh before and the after for the people, the characters in your book.

00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:03.920
And I'm curious if you would take us uh for just a brief ride, describe what you think those changes might have been.

00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.120
Well, this is a work of fiction, as I said.

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There are two sets of characters.

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A number of the characters who were directly involved in the bombing are based on the real historical figures, Andrew Keogh, the perpetrator.

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And then there's a a number of people who were involved, such as school administrators, and after the fact of the bombing, there were authorities, you know, police, the county prosecutor, you know, people like that.

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They are based, those characters are based on the history, the histories of the actual.

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Then there are um the main characters of the story are really four children and two in particular, who are fictional.

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Uh, the I would say the most main character, most central character, B.

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Turcott, Beatrice Dirk Turcott, who was about 14 years old at the time of the bombing.

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She is actually the telling of the story, she is a very old who is in assisted living and knows that she's dying.

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She's looking back on her.

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No moment, no event in the rest of their life was ever occurred without being somehow colored or or tainted by the events of that bombing.

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It's something that they never went, uh, that never never left them.

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Uh, I know today we talk about the PTSD.

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I can't, I I, you know, I don't have the medical expertise to say that children who in were involved in that bombing experience that, but my guess is that in the aftermath, they must have certain emotional and intellectual ramifies uh that carry through the rest of their lives and influence the decision.

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Uh, let me give you one example.

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After the bomb, Jed is a is a very bright kid.

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After the bombing, he becomes, as he's moving into uh deeper into adolescence, stronger, bigger, he becomes very belligerent.

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Uh he really doesn't understand why, but he just can't resist getting into fist fights.

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He picks fights with other boys, he goes after boys who are bigger than him.

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His uh role model, his hero is Gene Tunney, uh, you know, the famous uh the famous boxer of the time.

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I let me just say this.

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I know sometimes people who uh fiction writers who use history will manipulate history and they will change uh the the real historical elements, uh the factual aspects.

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For example, somebody wrote a novel some years ago, author of the book, but it was a speculation that World War II, had Germany won World War II, you can never be absolutely certain that you have all the facts, right?

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Because historians don't always agree, believe me.

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If you read about any one historical event, historians have varied greatly of exactly what happened, who, what, where, when, and why, all of that varies.

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So you have to uh wind your way through that, those wickets.

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In my research of some of the groups that were terrorists of the time, I don't think they used that word about the Ku Klux Klan or the Purple Game or the Black Legion.

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But I mean, those are three of the prominent, prominent groups that existed throughout the time period.

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There were some speculated over time in research that I had.

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There was a lot of speculation and rumor that maybe there was some connection.

00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:11.759
Were you able to find that out or elaborate on that at all?

00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:24.480
Well, in the matter of the bombing in Bath, um, this was it was clearly determined uh that this was the act of one in Andrew Keogh acted completely on his own.

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Though I should say that in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, there was, you know, naturally there was remarkable confusion.

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Nobody understood what had happened.

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And it took a while for authorities to really sort out, you know, who did this, perhaps why.

00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:48.799
There was for really months after the bombing, there was uh quite significant concern and fear in the town of Bath that perhaps Keogh had accomplished.

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Uh, and one result was, and again, this is from the historical record, people who lived in that area uh were were keenly aware of and afraid that perhaps other buildings, perhaps other homes had been wired as well.

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So searches were conducted in virtually every I think most, if not all, structures, people wanted to make sure that they weren't elsewhere because they didn't know.

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It's really been determined, I think without a doubt, that he he, in this case, he acted alone.

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And let me just uh also mention that he not only blew up the school that day, uh his farm, which was just outside of the village, he wired his entire farm, every every structure, the farmhouse, the chicken coop, the barn, you know, every every structure was wired with with dynamite, and they all were blown up at virtually the within minutes of the school going up.

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He determined he wanted to blow everything, but he did act uh alone in and like many of these uh dastardly deranged individuals, he committed suicide thereafter.

00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:54.559
He did, he did, and again, this is based on the historical record.

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Although historians will differ about certain details, he returned to his farm after it had blown up and it was engulfed in flames.

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And neighbors who were you know standing around the property in awe of the spec saw him return in his truck and they didn't know what, but he did something.

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It was so smoky that he loaded something into his truck and he drove into town.

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He drove up to school within the center of town.

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There he parked right in front of the school.

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Of course, at this point, because the school had been blown up, there were, I don't know, dozens and dozens of people involved in the first efforts to remove the rubble and save what children could find.

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What he had done is he had loaded this truck up with crates of explosives.

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And he he had, it was known that he had a very contentious relationship, superintendent of schools, uh a man named Husick, uh, Emery Husick.

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As luck would have it, unfortunately, Husick happened to be crossing the the main street just as Keogh arrived, and they began talking right next to the truck.

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Now, this is where historians differ.

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Some say that that Keogh actually had some kind of trigger, some kind of button or something that was uh pre-arranged, wired in his truck that he pushed, blew himself and Emery uh Husick up, and several other bystanders.

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Others say they saw other uh witnesses say they saw him take out a gun and shoot the crates, uh fire into the crates of explosives and blow everything.

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But the result of that one incident, yes, he was killed very seriously, uh maimed, lost limbs, uh that sort of thing.

00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:38.240
This uh Keel fella, Keel himself was as a mad bomber.

00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:42.240
No, no, he was uh an active member of the community.

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On an on several occasions, he had run for local government office and he lost.

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And again, I'm speculating here, but I suspect that that rejection in part contributed to the ultimate decision to take these dire steps.

00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.639
He um, I believe that his marriage had a lot to do with it.

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Amazingly, he he was not a member, a voted uh an elected member of school board, but he at the time was their acting treasurer.

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He handled, you know, all of their money because of that.

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He had access to the school building.

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He had the keys to all the doors.

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So for him to come for months before this happened, he had the ability to come and go from the school at any hour of the day because unlocked doors.

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And no one would question his coming in.

00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:36.639
One can only presume, I mean, the amount of dynamite that he put into the building, it was in the hundreds of pounds and it was distributed all over this large building.

00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:44.159
It must have taken him weeks at the least, and I I would not be surprised if it was months, for him to actually set this up.

00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:48.080
So this was not, this certainly was not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

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This was something that very slowly and methodically he planned out.

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The authorities were really impressed with how carefully and how neatly he wired everything up because fortunately not everything went up so they could examine the unexploded dynamite and the wiring and so forth.

00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:15.919
And they were really impressed with how well he did the job, said there was some reference in my research to Keyhoe being motivated in part by some dispute over property.

00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:16.960
That that too.

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And you know, I don't want to place uh I don't want to create sort of a hierarchy hierarchy of grievances, but I think that one of the truly central aspects of his decision to take this to take this action had to do with money.

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If you look at his family history, going back to his childhood, his father, uh Keogh was uh raised uh down in Tecumseh, down south of uh Ann Arbor.

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His father was a man who was vehemently opposed to taxation.

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It was clear from statements that Andrew Keogh made as a resident in Bath that he was very opposed to taxation.

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And it's true that um the school in Bath was called the Bath Consolidated School, had been built merely five years before the bombing in 1902.

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I can't remember the exact figure, but hard to believe this substantial brick building cost something under$40,000.

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In those days, that amount of money placed a significant financial burden on a bath that made a significant decision to invest in their future in their children by building this school.

00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:23.360
But the result, of course, was that expense had to be distributed through increase of taxes.

00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:26.799
And Keo is vehemently opposed to the increase of taxes.

00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:32.320
Secondly, the farm that he and his wife, Nellie, lived on, her maiden name was Price.

00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:38.799
The Price family, she was raised in the Price family, was a uh a well-regarded family that, you know, long history.

00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:45.759
The arrangement was that when she and Andrew, they bought the Price farm from her sister who lived down in Lansing.

00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:54.879
And I believe that he had great resentment for the fact that he was paying a mortgage that allowing the sisters to live in what he thought was the lap of luxury in Lansing.

00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:59.519
So there was there were two aspects to the financial aspect element.

00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.840
One was that he was paying uh town taxes that were grossly elevated.

00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:09.200
And two, I think he resented the fact that he was basically supporting all of the sisters of his wife.

00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:12.559
So the financial circumstances clearly contributed.

00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.960
I believe there were 38 children and six adults.

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I think there was a total of eventually 45 deaths, a direct result of the bombing.

00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:25.599
I believe one of the deaths occurred quite a bit later.

00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:34.559
Somebody survived a lot of and we don't know how many were injured, assuming that you know that's something that in what I've read, and I tried to read a great deal about this event.

00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:45.039
No one has been able to actually calculate that they they were in the dozens, and as I said before, some of them were very severe, horrible pictures of children in hospital traction.

00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:49.279
It it was not just bruises and cuts, some of them were seriously, seriously.

00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:54.480
Grew up with physical scars and emotional yes.

00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:56.480
Well, let me give you one example of how.

00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:19.119
So they spent their time grieving by cleaning up to a large degree, yes.

00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:27.839
One of the other things that is clear is that the level of curiosity on the part of the public outside of the town actually was a great hindrance.

00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:38.480
First hours after the bombing, uh, the stream of cars that came through Bath just to see what had happened caused real problems in getting injured in and out, implies in unnecessary equipment.

00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:42.079
The police had to really try to control this traffic.

00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.440
People weren't accustomed to traffic in the 1920s, I can imagine.

00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:55.200
But they they for days, uh days and even weeks, really, after the bombing, uh, the flow of traffic through the little town of Bath was sort of an unending stream.

00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:05.279
There were descriptions of uh people coming in and walking up to the houses, the homes of victims, children, and people would come up and just look in the windows.

00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.000
They wanted to see the family of the victim.

00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:11.279
Now, did this create resentment among some of the locals?

00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:14.880
I no doubt that as time went by slowly that diminished.

00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:18.880
But the the initial response was that this was an extraordinary event.

00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:21.440
It was unlike anything in those days.

00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:25.359
Bombing a public school was just not something people found imagined.

00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:27.440
Well, it's still hard to imagine.

00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:37.599
Well, it is, I I know, but unfortunately, we have such so many incidents now that if we hear about such it's not like, oh that my God, I never thought that would happen.

00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:38.079
Truly.

00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.640
Now, uh there was sort of a a a code of silence that enveloped.

00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:47.440
Yes, they are extremely reticent uh when it comes to the bombing.

00:20:47.680 --> 00:21:09.039
My sincere hope is that uh any of them who are familiar with my book and read my book realize that it is written in uh it is intended uh to be an honest that describe and understand what but yes, there there's been a a a reticence and a reluctance to uh express in a public way their feelings about this event, even now, generations later.

00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:13.440
Let me give you uh tell you one thing that occurred several years ago.

00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:25.920
While I was writing the book, there's a uh a journalist and writer down in Bill Cast who wrote on a couple of occasions, wrote about the fact that I was writing this book and it was published in uh a magazine.

00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:32.000
Uh, after the first time he wrote about this, I got a long email from a couple who live in baths now.

00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:42.640
Um, but they told me that um they were retired, and one or both of them, the wife at least, had for a good portion of her career as a teacher taught in the school bath system.

00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:59.759
And what really stuck with me is they she said that even now, decades after the event of the bombing, the the school receives uh threats and they particularly tend to increase as they approach the annual anniversary in May of the action.

00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:05.279
Uh there's still people out there who think uh they can send an email or make a phone call, get a rise.

00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:09.119
If you go to the the current school and like so many schools, it's in lockdown.

00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.480
You have to inform them in advance the doors are locked, they in.

00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:15.279
I've done that, I've been met at the door and walked through.

00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:18.799
You can't simply walk into You've wrote eleven eleven books, I believe.

00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:19.359
I think so.

00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:21.279
I believed the last time I counted, yeah.

00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:24.240
About all manner of stuff, interesting stuff.

00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:25.599
Uh I hope so.

00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:34.000
A book of this nature, as it would be for me as a trial lawyer, a criminal prosecutor in many horrific, horrific cases.

00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:40.480
Uh, you walk away a little dinged from each one and definitely are profoundly emotionally affected.

00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:46.960
How is writing this book about this story and getting into it the degree that you have, how is it affected?

00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.119
And I mean, I don't know that it's good or bad.

00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:52.160
I mean, I just I'm just asking for yourself to psychology.

00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:59.039
Well, quite frankly, if I stopped writing this book or any of my books, then I might need to seek some professional help.

00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:04.640
Uh, I for me, uh, I find writing to be extremely therapeutic.

00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:10.079
As much as I love a walk on the beach, you know, Lake Superior is right down the hill from my house.

00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:14.240
It's a little cold down there right now, but still, I love to walk walk the beach yesterday.

00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:24.160
Writing is uh like like painting, drawing, uh, I think these are outlets that for certain people I find it necessary.

00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.279
It helps me maintain a certain certain equilibrium.

00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:36.640
Writing fiction, now, you know, here in this case, the the main character in my this story is told from multiple points of view, which not all, but many of my books.

00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:43.359
I can't say that each and every character whose point of view I can tell part of the story from is a representation of me.

00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:44.799
I'm not trying to do that.

00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:48.640
You know, the main character in this story is a very elderly woman, B.

00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:51.519
Turcott, who's recalling her childhood.

00:23:51.680 --> 00:24:03.119
Um, she's about as far away from me uh in so many ways, and yet using her as a vehicle, I in some ways could tap into my own childhood.

00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:11.839
There's certain responses, certain emotions, certain thoughts that she has that are recorded in the story, in some way come up out of my own experience.

00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:13.359
This book was written in what year?

00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:15.759
Well, uh boy, I'd have to go back.

00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:18.640
I would say I probably worked on this book for four or five years.

00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:20.319
I tend to take my time.

00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:25.279
I also will put something aside for a considerable period of time and then pick it up again.

00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:29.839
So if I say I work on a book for four or five years, that doesn't mean it's continuous.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.680
I often will work on a book for a year or two, then stop and I'll work on something else, and then I'll come back.

00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:46.160
Uh, I'm a strong believer that the time away from a book is as really as uh productive, as instructive as when you're actively working on it.

00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:50.640
I think your subconscious uh really continue to turn the material over.

00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:59.680
And when you finally go back to looking at that manuscript, that unfinished manuscript, you see it with new eyes if you haven't read it months or even more than a year later.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.359
So, right off the top of my head, I would say four to five years.

00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:08.079
Uh, the response, well, it's it's uh so far it's been quite good.

00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:12.079
Well, first of all, as I said, a lot of people don't even know that this happened.

00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:15.839
Most of the people who do are natives of or have lived in Michigan for a long time.

00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:21.680
Very unfortunately, when you mention the town of Bath, there are certain people in Michigan who immediately say, Oh, yes, that's the town where the bombing is.

00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:26.000
Uh so far, you know, you know, you never know how people are going to respond to your book.

00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:35.599
And if people don't like your book and they tell you you, I I hope I have a thick enough skin to say, I accept that, you know, I appreciate your your your telling me so and and leave it at that.

00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:47.279
For the most part, people who have read the book and gotten in touch with it thought that it was well worth again because of the nature of the story that they seem to very moving to sort of go through what these characters are terrible.

00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.720
Well, the city of Bath obviously has never been the same uh or recovered eventually.

00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:54.400
I don't think that they ever will.

00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:57.279
Um, not completely, and nor should they.

00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:05.200
If you go to Bath today, it's still a small town, of course, with modern you know, conveniences.

00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:12.799
Back in 1927, the 10 miles between Bath and the capital of Lancy was uh seemed a far greater distance.

00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:22.480
Downtown Bath in those days was uh the the number of stores uh and services available in Bath were far more than you have today.

00:26:22.640 --> 00:26:27.119
Today, Bath is you know a small community right outside of the city.

00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:31.920
You could get on I-69 and in a matter of minutes in downtown Lansing.

00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:40.240
So if you walk through the village of Bath, uh the downtown section is not as nearly as vibrant, quite frankly, as it it was back then.

00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:47.759
If you were to go to where the school was, the school was on a knoll on the main street overlooking the village.

00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:58.319
What they've done is um after the bombing, they first they they did build a school right on the original, uh, which some years ago, I don't know when, but they that building eventually torn down.

00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:03.119
The current public school in Bath is just across the street, sort of downhill.

00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:07.359
The knoll where the bombing took place is a park, which I think is very appropriate.

00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:18.480
When you go to the park, the one surviving aspect of school's structure was there was this really attractive and large cupola on the roof, which survived the bombing.

00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:21.839
And that is the centerpiece uh in the park.

00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:27.680
And if you look at the cover of my book, that that cupola that is based on a photograph of that structure.

00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:42.880
And there's also a very large rock, stands five or six feet high and equally around, and it has a big bronze plaque on it that has the names of all those who so it's it's a memorial, that site, and uh very tastefully and quietly and appropriately.

00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:44.079
I appreciate your time.

00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:48.799
I wanted to uh uh mention that your book was published by Michigan State University Press.

00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:54.000
So if our listeners want to get a copy of this book, then go to M Press or your website.

00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:54.880
Yes, thank you.

00:27:55.039 --> 00:27:57.039
And uh if so, thank you for your time.

00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:58.480
I appreciate it.