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John Jackson

For the life of me, I can’t remember who taught me freshman Latin, but I know it was not Sister Francesca.  Maybe it was Sister Estelle Marie… 

But one of my indelible memories from Homeroom 111 is Sister Francesca, God bless her, watering her artificial flowers (on the windowsill facing Cooke Rd.) every morning during Msgr. Spiers' prayers/announcements.

Janie Albright (Blank)

Jim, I don't think so. I do remember his name. Who were the freshman English teachers?

James Hamilton, M. D.

Janie,

Hmmm.. Freshman English. Was Sr. Emile one of them? I also think there was perhaps a female lay teacher, or am I getting confused 🤔?

Jim 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Janie and JIm,  Mrs Campbell was my freshman year English teacher and she did leave mid-year as she was expecting her first child.  Ms. Mary Burke was hired to teach the 2nd semester.  Her family lived across the street from my family on Oakland Pk..  She eventually left Watterson when she got married, moved away and had four daughters.  She subsequently divorced and moved back into her parents home and was rehired by Watterson where she taught English and was in charge of the yearbook until she retired five years or so ago.  She lives in that same house to this day.  I also have this vague memory that at some point during that freshman year English class, there was a change in which our class was divided and merged with another class due to some disciplinary issues?.....one of Mr. Shevlin's class perhaps?  As I said, this memory is very vague.  I also have this other very vague memory that during this particular English class we were allowed to move our desks together while doing diagramming of sentences. It is curious to me that some memories from long ago are as clear as if they happened yesterday, and others seem as though they came straight from dreamland!       

David Mitchell

First,

Jack,  I think you meant Mike M., refferrng to Pompeii. 

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Second,

Mr. Shevlin's name stirs an uncomfortable memory in me. I think he was the the somewhat oddball guy in whose class we behaved terribly!  He was certainly not a very strong authority figure and we pounced on that like little wolves. Why were we so insensitive? A bit of that Damon Frison guilt churns in my stomach.

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Third;

Watching the local restaurant busisinesses getting clobbered is all around us here, as it probably is for all of you. One of our many popular local high end dining rooms is making a hell of an effort. We went from 2 to 15 restaurants in this tiny little downtown - built over the last 8 years. Over time he accumulated a long list customer's emails. He is now sending notices out to all of us each week, reminding us that they will be selling tomales ($4.00 ea.) at the door every Saturday starting at 11:30 - with all the proceeds going to his employees. And he added a vegetable and fruit stand in the parking lot. It's been a hit!  

Yesterday the lines were already forming in the parking lot at 11:30. Charlie runs a very high end little spot and normally cooks every dish himself. But this also keeps the staff busy. I love Charlie's concern for his employees and his inventiveness.  

(* Mary Ann, you and Jeff should put May River Grill on you list when this is over. Kind'a small, kind'a plain, kind'a loud - - and kind'a terriffic!)

I am mindful of restaurant people struggling all over. We have at least two chefs in our children's ranks - Tim's  son (Seattle), and John Schaeufele's son (Charleston) - maybe others. I know it isn't much, but why don't we all go buy a pickup meal this week from a local establishement.       

(Cooking has been one of my joys in life. Had our three kids in the kitchen with us since they were tiny. They all love to cook now and I have two grandkids who love to help in the kitchen. I eat better when I visit my kids than I do for myself.)

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

John, how could you forget our special study sessions with Sr. Francesca?  After the district Latin I test, she used to stalk us before school and during lunch break and make you and me study extra Latin stuff to prepare for the State test. We did some serious translating!!  If that jars your memory, here's my proof that we had Sr. Francesca:  

I really think Jim and Jeanine were in there, too, but unless they saved their report cards, I will have to concede the possibility that they may have had someone else.  
Wash your hands.  Stay home.  Be well. ❤️

Clare

John Jackson

Clare, I do dimly remember the cram sessions for the state Latin test and I remember English with Sister Michele, Algebra with Sister Norbertine, and World History with Mr. Mannion but I just don’t remember having Sr. Francesca for actual Latin class.  

Is it possible that our Latin classes were single-sex because of the racy subject matter?  I’m thinking of the ultra-suggestive teaser at the start of Caesar’s Commentary on the Gallic Wars  “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres”.  Statements like that are akin to pouring gasoline on smoldering teenage hormones. 

Having said that, I have to admit you’ve probably backed me into a corner on the Sister Francesca issue.   Maybe it’s time I break quarantine and head out to the drug store to pick up some Prevagen.

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

I think Sister Cecily later worked at Lazaruz? Kathy W.

Michael McLeod

Now I'm sorry I brought this up since it just gave the smart kids a chance to show off their straight A's.

Seriously I really struggled in school and I likely would have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder these days. 

Don't know if anybody else does this but one of my ongoing fantasies is to go back and do it all over again as a totally ideal kid and grownup.

I am in the middle now of writing a story about how people are getting through this crazy thing. Found a lovely  story about a woman whose neighbors serenaded her -- staying six feet apart -- with a candelight procession to her front yard to sing hymns after her husband died. 

Another - this made national news - about a nurse who is living apart from his wife and children because he doesn't want to risk infecting them if he gets it.

Janie Albright (Blank)

Yes, Sr. Michelle for Freshman English! I loved her. I also loved Mr. Mannion's class. I remember we all subscribed to Newsweek a habit I continued til It went under. We had a special session daily on current events during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

David Mitchell

Can someone refresh my memory here?

Do I recall correctly that one of our printed reunion programs (maybe 15tth or 20th ??) contained some follow-up histories of a few of the faculty members? 

I seem to recall a mention of Sister Cecily in that reunion booklet. 

(We boys often made suggestive remarks behind her back about being too cute to be wearring a "habit") 

As I recall, the booklet explained that she had left the "Order", gotten married, and had several kids. And then died of cancer!  

If I have that correct, how tragic! 

I also seem to recall that little Father Van Horn (with whom I got into a nasty, raging yelling match in Junior Religion one day), also left the "Order" and married, and had a bunch of kids.

And of course I shared (on this forum about a year or two ago) my wonderful small-world story of meeting a certain Jane Gordon (Sister Frederick) at my parents block party years later. 

Michael Boulware

Hey Mike McLeod! Al Morse and I always teased each other about the lowest performing Freshmen were located in homerooms closest to Sandy's. We think they wanted us to get cught sneaking out for a shake and a burger. Al and I figured the administration could expell us and bolster the overall GPA and IQ average for our class. We never had the courage as frosh. 

I response to Dave; John Harmony Shevlin was a bright man and could have taught us a lot if we let him. He died in a fire at his home. I always felt guilty about the way we treated him.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Mark Schweickart

Dave's comments about Father Van Horne reminded me of my own (decidedly quieter) encounter with this character from our past. If you missed it, some years back I posted a piece about our senior-year religion class with Fr. Van Horne in the Class Showcase section. Scroll down past Dr. Jim's photos of the Thunderbird Jets flying in formation, and mine is the next posting. After the longer section about Father Van Horne, I also added two shorter descriptions of Father Arcuro and Father Reilly, but I used a rather tarnishing brush, so I changed their names. (In fact I am not even sure if their real names were Arcuro or Arcuri, and Reilly or O'Reilly, not that it much matters). If I was being decidedly unfair in my reminicences, let me know. Lord knows, my memory is far from razor sharp. Also, since the O'Reilly story is about comments he made in the girls' religion class, obviously this had to have come from second-hand information, so I have no way of knowing if it were true or not. But often vignettes in my memoir were fictionalized a bit. I was not a stickler for historical accuracy, and generally opted for what I thought made a good story. Nonetheless, I do think these particular vignettes about these three priests did happen the way I remember them. As I said, let me know if I am wrong about any of this. And, Dan Cody, don't try to tell me Van Horne didn't threaten to throw you out of the window. I know that I did not dream that up.

David Mitchell

Mark,

My recollection of Fr. Arccuri is a bit vague except that that he was a weird guy. 

But Father O'Reilly is a realy unpleasent memory - not from any Religion class, but from Junior (or maybe senior?) History (or was it P.O.D.?)

I spoke of this before on the Forum. Tess (Warrick) McKeon and I sat together in the front row, center - right under his podium, and had to put up with the strong smell of alcohol on his breath, along with his unshaved, unbottoned roman colllar - and his very condescending demeanor.

Tess and I both disagreed with his opinions - OFTEN - and let him know it - OFTEN!

He would stop, roll his eyes at us, and take our question, then go on. It was kind of a running battle with him at all times.

I heard he got assigned to St. Joseph's in Circleville. God only knows what they did to deserve him!

p.s.

I should point out - My yelling match with Fr.Van Horn ended with the class bell, and the two of us walking down the hallway together, arm in arm, laughing together.

Rita Del Corso (Cenname)

Mary Margaret, I loved seeing the band!  Thank you so much for posting that.  Lifted me up!  I hope everyone is staying in and staying safe.  

David Mitchell

Wow! Rita! 

Set yourself down and stay a spell !

David Mitchell

John Prine just went on to his rest after a battle with the Corona virus. 

He wrote one of my all-time favorite songs - Angels From Montgomery

R.I.P.  John Prine

(with all due respect, Bonnie Raitt, John Denver, and a few others give it better tone, so here he is with Bonnie - years ago.  He had lately become a diminished old man with a strange butch haircut)

"Just give me one thing that I can hold onto"

Michael McLeod

  I had no idea he was such a devout believer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0EiV423j0M

Daniel Cody

Mark I remember it well.  If you will recall it invoved VanHorn aka Bugsy from his Camp St Joseph counselor days.  You surreptitiously  asked me about the identity of an odor permenting our area.  You said it smelled like male reproductive fluid. I merely asked how you knew what it smelled like.  Laughter ensued and Van Horn demanded an explanation as to our outburst.  He approached the inquiry like a Dominican friar in Spain.  He then made the threat to cast me from the senior wing windows.  You will also recall that I didn't give you up.  Truly a senior year classic.

Sheila McCarthy (Gardner)

Dave: John Prine ... diminished old man? With all due respect, I don't think so ... from today's obituary in the New York Times: 

"In 2019, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and his album “Tree of Forgiveness” was nominated for a Grammy, for best Americana album. It was his 19th album and his first of original material in more than a decade. Mr. Prine went on tour in 2018 to promote “Tree of Forgiveness,” and after a two-night stand at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville — known there as the mother church of country music — Margaret Renkl, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, wrote, under the headline “American Oracle”: “The mother church of country music, where the seats are scratched-up pews and the windows are stained glass, is the place where the new John Prine — older now, scarred by cancer surgeries, his voice deeper and full of gravel — is most clearly still the old John Prine: mischievous, delighting in tomfoolery, but also worried about the world.”

I might point out, at 73, he is only a year or two older than we are, If this is "diminished," bring it on!  

David Mitchell

Sheila,

Thanks for pointing out my misleading choice of adjectives. I was referring to his physical health and matured appearance - so different from the days when he first recorded that song. 

Added later; POP QUIZ - anybody remember who Bonnie Raitt's (famous) dad was?

James Hamilton, M. D.

Most individuals have been maintaining the correct Social Distancing recommendations.

But there are always those who refuse to do so.

Jim

Timothy Lavelle

"There's nothing like a little tomato soup to sooth the soul.

Even if it's cold.

Over ice.

With a celery stalk.

And vodka."

David Mitchell

Jim,

Do you think maybe they thougth it was "cloven" virus?