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Michael Boulware

Bob, 

What a wonderful response! It takes a special person to recognize the teachers that helped you recognize your special talents.You are great.

Mike Boulware

Janie Albright (Blank)

Although we live far apart I feel real kinship with our special class. I am glad for this forum and all of you reading it. I know you don't all jump in often, some not at all, but hope everyone is enjoying this ongoing journey down memory lane.  

Joseph D. McCarthy

Not to steal your thunder Larry, but the poor relatives from the Saint Christopher (now known as the something else) class which gradduated 55 Years ago this year, also had a very short graduation pamphlet.  I am attempting to include a scan of the cover.

Robert Berkemer

Mike,  Having been a teacher like you (and many others from our class) it gives you some real insight to what was done for each of us when we were in school. ;-)

Joe, Hope we get to see the rest of the yearbook and any others that might exist from the other Catholic grade schools.

David Mitchell

Larry, Bob, and Joe,

I went to OLP. Remember, we were that little "between-the-gaps" parish used to fill in the space between venerable old I.C. and the new habitat for the breeding of a superior race up at St. Mike's. We couldn't afford a real church, let alone a "mimeograph" machine. We spent all our money on the game cards and those big number tumblers for the Bingo games Father Foley ran almost every night (or so it seemed).  

I think they tried to "sub out" the work to a team of one million monkeys with typewriters - but never got any copy that was ledgible.   

We did manage a graduation photo however, but I think the tin-type process they used must have faded by now. A good thing really - some of us had to go into the witness protection program after that photo - (or at least, should have)

You kids down at I.C. were priveledged in many ways, not least of which was to have Bob, Larry, and a few other such talents in your class. 

----------------

......now that I think about this, maybe we DID have some talent. Kevin Ryan could run faster than a speeding bullet, and Kieth Groff could play the piano. And of course Theresa Zeyen and John Jackson could probaly have explained the Theory of Relativity by the third grade. And Tommy Cennamo and I could both toss a rock from the corner of the playground through a car windshield, waiting at the light at Dominion and High. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mary Ann Nolan (Thomas)

Bob, I wish we had been better friends at Watterson. You have a wonderful way with words. We did have some very talented people in our class. Love having your facebook friendship.

Dave, I remember Father Foley not kindly. He scared me to death. I remember the first thing when I started OLP in the 8th grade. Father Foley  came into our classroom and picked up Tommy Cennamo and threw him across the room. 

Michael McLeod

Anyone familiar with the writings of Father Richard Rohr? I just spent a weekend retreat led by him. Powerful, progressive; I'd call him a mystic. He has some very astute observations about the development of Christianity and Catholicism. 

I've noticed we don't bring up politics at all, which is a good thing I think, and religion comes up infrequently here - which is probably also a good thing and absolutely fine by me since I'm agnostic at best. But I did want to put in a plug for Rohr for those who are still seeking, and I am also curious if anyone else has come across him and how widely known he might be to those of you who are more devout than I.  I actually wrote a story about him -- I had totally forgot it until this non-sectarian retreat came up -- when I was writing for the Cincinnati Enquirer in the mid 80s and he was leading a lay community called New Jerusalem in which lay people took on some of the duties of nuns and priests, which was a radical notion at the time.

Robert Berkemer

Dear Mary Ann.... I also wish we had been friends in High School but since you and I are both "talkers"...... if we had had the time to get to know each other and all the kids in our class, along with some in other classes, as well as we would have liked, then it would have taken you and I till we were 22 or 23 years old to get out of there... ;-) I LOVED my four years at Watterson. I hated to graduate and was depressed when it ended. I feel like it was the happiest time of my life and yet I have friends who hated their time there including my younger brother. I do remember you well though.... I have the image of you in the halls somewhere, with some other girls.... all in deep and intense conversation.. ;-)  

David Mitchell

Jim,

The first OLP church was a quanset hut down toward High Street on the north side of the property. But I don't think bands could have performed there becasue it was small and had pews filling the church. As you all know, we then built the school and the new "church" (such as it was) to be just temporary before the "real" church was built and convert that big square building to a gymnasium - which it finaly became, but not until many years had passed (separte story later). I remember that "middle period" big sqaure building to be the single most tasteless and ugly church I have ever been in.

Mary Ann, 

Yes, Father Foley could be a really violent and scarey person couldn't he? I recall one time in the cafeteria (where we were not allowed to talk during lunch) when he walked up behind a laughing Frank Beales and swatted him with an open hand so hard Frank's head bounced up from hitting the table with blood running from his nose and mouth. His rants in the classroom used to scare the bejeesus out of me. And some of his rants from the pulpit drove my father (and several other parishioners) to theats of retaliation and angry calls to the Bishop. (I'll share a story about him insulting my mother some other time - it did NOT go well for him).   

Mike M.

I have only brushed the surface of some of Rohr's writings so it would be unfair to reply at lenght. I suspect some of it may be too liberl for my thinking, but some of it seems spot on about Catholic dependence on Orthodoxy versus real world human practice (what my ultra-Catholic, but free thinking father used to call the "Vatican Control Syndrome"). I'll leave it alone there.

But I must ask if you have heard about the the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac who used to stay up all night wondering if there really was a "Dog"?

Bob,

Loved your thoughts. You have hit on something really curious and touching. I once heard a priest explain that God has "wired us for desire". A desire (among other things) to be accepted, and loved. To do that, we have to be connected. And we were all really connected in a very sensitive part of ur lives in high school. We all seem to have many memories connected to this time. Your memories - like mine - are of wonderful times (mostly). I loved those days at Watterson, but I have often felt sorry for those who didn't. (my two oldest kids hated it - and beleive me, that was painful). Could it be that "50 years" and this wonderful "forum" have allowed us to open up to this "desire" in our hearts in a way that offers a bit of comfort to the "weary traveler"?  Thanks Bob (and all of you), and thanks (again) Janie. For letting me - all of us - get re-connected. 

GIMME an E ! 

David Mitchell

p.s. I wonder if any of you have a similar expereince to mine at these reunions?

Every time I come to a reunion, I meet some one of you that I really did not know well, or hang with back then, and you turn out to be one heck of an interesting person. And I go home wondering how I missed this person back in school? 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Joseph Gentilini

I have so enjoyed reading all the responses on this website.  Thanks so much to Janie and others for doing this!

I am so glad I went to the 50th anniversary.  In high school I was so shy and insecure that I kept to myself for the most part. Emotionally, I felt that I was still in high school and so did not go to any of the reunions.  What a mistake.

Many of you have talked about coming from IC.  I came from St. Agatha. Good education, although I did not like some of the teachers there.  I have a few painful memories with one of them especially.  Anyway, that was years ago. One of the sisters that I really did like was my 7th grade teacher, Sister Anna Mary.  I kept in touch with that sister, especially after 1966 when I was in a car accident and had a traumatic head injury.  She was in Kentucky then. 

I had been (have been) going on retreats every year or so at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani about an hour from Louisville.  On my way, I would look Sister Anna Mary up and have breakfast with her at the convent.  She would introduce me to all the sisters.  Anyway, she was a sweet woman.  After her death, the sisters sent me her rosary and scapular.  I have her rosary in my car and often take it out and pray with it while I am driving (yes, probably not so go on being a safe driver). 

Bob mentioned about the English teacher he had and couldn't remember her name.  Could it be Sister Raymunda?

Dave mentioned seeing Hidden Figures.  Leo and I also saw  this. Powerful.  NOt only were these women not honored for the work they did for NASA, but also becdause they were black. The 'colored' bathroom was in another building than the one they were working in.  They had to cross parking lots to go to the 'colored' bathroom and this often meant in the rain, etc.

We have also seen Moonlight and Fences and La La Land, and a few others.  All good.

David Mitchell

Joe,

The world is a tiny place! Back in the late forties or early fifties my dad used to go on retreats every year to Gethsemane after he came home from WW2. He would drive there with several Medical "buddies" - Dr Joe Hughes (his best friend from medical school - grandfather of current state representative Jimmy Hughes) and Joe's partner in practice and younger brother, Dr. Tom Hughes - who's daughter I later married. But the most interesting part about those retreats was that Dad became good friends with a young monk there who was becoming a world famous spiritual lecturer and writer - Thomas Merton (author of "Seven Story Mountain", among others). They corresponded for a long time after those few years of retreat visits but finally had a falling out over the Vietnam War. Dad was deeply saddened by Merrton's tragic and untimely death in Bangkok. Dad claimed that Merton was responsible for restoring his faith, and lifting him out of a deep depression that he had fallen into after coming home from the war years in China and the Pacific.   

And didn't we all used to say our family rosary while driving in the car? One year we were coming home from our cottage on Lake Erie with Mom, one of my older sisters, and a friend (Mr. John Crawford - with a bunch of kids our age at St. Michael's). It was the end of the year and we were towing the boat home for the winter. My sister and I hated the boat. After three summers it had become such a pain in the ass to maintain and use that we wished dad would sell it.    

So we are driving home and Dad (as usual) starts falling asleep at the wheel. We pull over somewhere north of Bucyrus and Mr. Crawford takes the wheel. Unexperienced as John was, he takes us over a railroad track too fast and the boat bounces hard on the trailer and causes a flat tire and damage from the trailor to the bottom of the boat. We pull over to assess the damage and realize we have to leave the boat on the side of the road for the night so Dad can get Jeanie and I and Mom home. He and Mr. Crawford would come back the next day and figure out how to get the damn thing home. So back to the rosary. Dad always gave a "special intention" for each decade of the rosary, but when we got to the fifth decade, he would always say "your own private intention". Jeannie and I leaned over to each other in the back seat and whispered to each other, "Let's pray that somebody steals the boat".  

Deborah Alexander (Rogers)

Joe and Tim,

I remember our days at St. Agatha well and fondly.  In our day there were many nuns teaching us, and some were definitely better than others.  I remember our 7th grade teacher, Sr. Peter Claver, who was a huge woman, 6 feet tall and built like a fullback.  She used to hit us with the Geography book if we were caught talking in class.  One time she hit John Roach on the side of his head so hard his desk tipped over, and she also broke the collarbone of one of our classmates  (can't remember who) by hitting them on the top of the shoulder with the edge of the Geography book!  Do either of you remember this?  Can you imagine that being tolerated today?  But back then, there were no repercussions!  How times have changed! 

I think one of our best teachers was our 6th grade lay teacher, Miss Clifford.  She was the kindest, sweetest soul, and one I adored.  She eventually went to the convent, and believe it or not, it made me entertain thoughts of doing the same.  But only for a moment!  I did become a teacher, I think, because of her influence. 

I want to join the others in thanking Janie for this forum.  It is so great hearing all the stories, and remembering our highschool, and gradeschool days, which were the best of our lives.  I wish our grandchildren could live in such an innocent time as we did.  Keep the stories coming, and Tim, don't sign any book contracts without talking to me first! 

Debbie

Janie Albright (Blank)

I'm very happy that so many enjoy this forum. I have no ulterior motives, Jim, but I totally agree that over the course of the last 50 years we have all matured and changed. Of course we still have those we were great friends with in grade school and high school but I for one feel I have so many "new" friends I've made through the reunions and the website. There is no way we could ever know 250+ classmates well so it's nice to be able to get to know them now and find we have so many shared interests and memories even if we never said a word to each other in the halls. I appreciate all the thanks you give me but I thank everyone of you for your participation to make this forum work. 

Mark Schweickart

Jim,

Marcia Spanner did have an older brother (his name escapes me, it might have been Gary) who played in a rock band (whose name also escapes me). I don't know about him playing in a quonsut hut, but I did see his band perform once at a battle of the bands type concert. They were pretty good, knocking out a rendition of the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction (as in I can't get no).  To be honest, at the time, I didn't really connect with the song, but I remember standing next to Marcia who thought both the song and her brother's band were great, so I naturally concurred. (We were not on a date, darn, we just both happened to be there.) One thing I am sure of is that I certainly missed the point of the song's rather crude final verse about rockstar groupies and menstrual cycles. I wonder if Gary(?) knew what they were singing about.

When I'm ridin' round the world
And I'm doin' this and I'm signin' that
And I'm tryin' to make some girl, who tells me
Baby, better come back maybe next week
Can't you see I'm on a losing streak
I can't get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey
That's what I say, I can't get no, I can't get no
I can't get no satisfaction, no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction

David Mitchell

Dear Doctor Jim, 

Your point about the brain's process of development is well taken. Unfortunatly, it has not had a corresponding effect on my golf score. In fact, I believe it has regressed. Can you please prescribe something for my condition?    

Yours old foursome partner,

"Slice" Mitchell

Lawrence Foster

Jim and Dave,

Yes, Marcia's older brother was Gary.  And the band was  "The Mauraders" and the were damn good!  Dave, the Satisfaction song was one of their best but the one I liked most and was likely as popular with the kids at the dances was "Hang on Sloopy" originally done by the McCoys, I think.  This was before it became a staple of the OSU band. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Joseph Gentilini

David, my family always said the rosary when we were on vacation, everyday.  Mom started it and we had no place to go or do except join in the prayers.  David, you dod was my allergist (I think so anyway) and I don't r emember much about him except that he later talked about having 'tears in praying'. 

Deborah, the sweetest teacher for me was Sister Anna Mary who taught 7th grade.  I kept in touch with her all my life until her death in 1991. When she died, the congregation sent me her rosary -- nice. 

Sister Peter Claver taught me how to be an altar bod - that was fine.  However, I once touched her habit on the playground and she told me never to do that again as her habit was holy -oops! 

While I got along well with my  fourth grade teacher, Sister Mary Aquinata (we called her TWA - trouble with aquinata), she was hard of some of our classmates.  She would ask the class to laugh at one student who didn't read well outloud.  He hated reading all of his life because of her.  She gave me poor marks on my penmanship and I noticed that Roberta Hall (classmate) never got her papers back.  She had a very stylistic handwriting and so I copied her style and never goe my papers back after that. 

The most difficult sister for me was Sister Maureen Francis.  Once we were all in the gym (both 8th graqde classes) with her.  Don't know what she was teaching, but one girl in front of me dropped her green barrette.  I picked it up and gave it back to her.  SMF saw me, told me to take the barrette back and bring it up to the front of the cless.  She put that damn thing in my hair and I had to wear it for the entire day.  I was humiliated!

Mark Schweickart

Jim,

That song was Just Dropped In by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. I remember it well because in 1968 I was working in an indepepndent record store located in the back corner of the Kresges store downtown, and we constantly played any of the records available from the paper-sleeved 45s on the wall-mounted stacks (as opposed to albums that were sealed in plastic). It was primarily a soul shop, but the manager would tolerate a few of the non-Motown songs that came along if they piqued his interest, and this was one of them that did.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Sheila McCarthy (Gardner)

Deborah, Joe:

Debbie: Was Miss Clifford sister to Jane Clifford? Can't remember... and Joe, I suffered through Sister Mary Aquinata as well, She terrified me. God help you if your forgot your homework or left your lunch box in the hallway. I can remember my mother walking to school from our house near Lane Shopping Center to bring me my forgotten homework to spare me the wrath of Aquinata..

David Mitchell

I have been wondering when we were going to get around to the important stuff in our teenage years - music.

I have been thinking of posing the question for some time now; Was our music in high school better than the music of our grade school years? Oh my, hard to beat those 6th grade dances in Kathy Shanahan's basement.   

Before high school we had the Doo-Wop sound and lots of other great stuff. Consider: The Twist, The Drifters, The Shirelles, The Marvelettes (Please Mr. Postman), Neil Sedaka ("I'm Livin' Right Next Door to an Angel"), Gene Chandler ("The Duke of Earl"), my personal all-time favorites, Phil and Don Everly (it doesn't get much better than "All I have to do is Dream"), Conway Twitty ("It's Only Make Believe") and of course "The King". Do you remember where you were when you first saw Elvis on TV? 

And of course after 1962 we had Motown, The Chiffons, The Four Tops, The Temptations, (and BTW, you were "either, or" - I was a Four Tops guy myself - "Reach Out!" ) The Supremes, The Beach Boys - and perhaps our class song by the Righteous Brothers - "You've Lost That Lovin" Feeling". And of course, how could I forget ---- The Beatles!

I remember sitting in the back corner of Mr. Chevlin's(?) English class with a tiny transistor radio (with volume waaaaay down) listening to WCOL daily top ten count-down and the Beatles had six of the top ten - every day for weeks!  Could I name all six now -- uhh, I dunno?

I dare you all to pick which was the better music - grade school or high school years? So I have done a great deal of research on You Tube (at least 20 minutes anyway) and come up with some all time best songs. Those getting honorable mention include the following:

1961 "Earth Angel" - The Penguins  (with the right girl you can almost get to heaven with this song)

1963 "It's My Party" -  Leslie Gore  (you go girl!)  

1965 "California Girls" - The Beach Boys  (rock on !)

1957 "Little Darlin" - The Diamonds  (wow, it doesn't get much better than these guys)

1963 "I Want to Hold Your Hand" - George, Paul, John, and Ringo (we may never see their likes again)

1965 "Be My Baby" - The Ronettes  (love this one - hard to beat) 

1961 "Angel Baby" -  Rosie and the Originals  (close to perfection)

1956 "In the Still of the Night" - The Five Satins (I can just hear them now) 

1965 "Ebb Tide" - The Righteous Brothers (or 1956 by Frank Chacksfield / or 1954 The Platters)

1960 "A Thousand Stars in the Sky" - Kathy Young and the Innocents (to be young and innocent again) 

1959 "The Sea of Love" - Phil Phillips  ("Doo   you   remember,,,,,,,,,    gives me goosebumps!) 

1958 "Maybe" - The Chantelles (this one came damn close)

And my number one pick - a very difficult choice: 

No, not Louie Louie, not Alley Oop (oop, boop oop), and not Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini either.

Its that all time classic, that heart pounding, intellectually stimulating ballad by Johnny Preston

"Running Bear"  (1960)      

 ** Just thinking about Little White Dove almost brings tears to my eyes - well,,, almost !

(Darn, been trying to upload the video from You Tube and it simply wont work -  sorry.)