Venture into the Gaffney basement
By Jake Boyle

  Of the many wonders of New Trier High School, the Gaffney basement is possibly the least wonderful. The only thing that sparks wonder and amazement in students is the mere existence of the Gaffney basement. But this dark, damp room just underneath the Gaffney lobby exists.
  “I’ve never been down there, but I’m told there is nothing there,” junior Peter Litin said.
  “You know when you go to a museum and they have different things roped off?” junior Hannah Oley said. “Well, that’s the Gaffney basement, but if you take out all the interesting things and add boxes and a couch.”
  Take the stairs that would lead up to the Gaffney balcony, but go down instead and you’ll come in contact with a room that you never knew existed. The tiled floors look shockingly similar to the ones you see around school, except they’re not as well lit.
  A red couch which has seen better days rests sorrowfully against a wall in the back of the room. One thinks of a tomb or a mortuary when walking into the Gaffney basement.
  The basement also isn’t exactly the most comfortable place in the school. “It’s really hot down there,” junior Mike Levy said.
  But there is more to the Gaffney basement than just its scenery.
  “The basement is used primarily for the music and theater departments,” junior theater student Anne Rugirello said.
  But there is even more to the Gaffney basement beyond being a storage place for performing arts. It seems that when students can’t explain the purpose of something or are bored by them they’ll make up their own fantasies to make a boring place seem more interesting.
  “It’s so scary down there,” junior Greg Sokol said.
  “Yea,” junior Joe Shook said, agreeing “there are ghosts down there, I’ve seen them.”
  What is the Gaffney basement really? It’s just a place underneath the Gaffney to store equipment for various performances in the Gaffney and elsewhere in the school. And no, it’s not haunted.