Graduation St. Phillips and James

Well here are the pictures.  My eight grade graduation from SS Philip & James Canal Fulton, Ohio with our parish priest Father Maurer who was our pastor for 36 years.  Also shown are pictures of various May Queen crownings held at the church every year.  Seems so long ago. Graduation from grade school was 1955. calculated to be 55 years ago.   Well this is the 68th year soon to change to 69 on October 1.  Scary thats one year from 70.  I guess my next entry will be about the high school years at Northwest as my family could not afford to send us to Catholic high school.  hope you enjoy the photos

Schooldays

well i have been trying to remember some more of the school days events.  some of the members of my class were Judy Burger. Louise Seifert Martha Blank Annette Schalmo Gary Heather Bob Mcfarland Ray Yurick Gary Stephan and the others i can mention when i find our graduation picture.
Every May was the Crowning of the May Queen and the stature of the Blessed Mother.  Asenior girl from the parish was named May Queen and  it was a formal event.   I think i have a pic of that also  I will have to go thru the box of pictures and see what i can find. 
We were taught how to sqaure dance by the nuns also.  Promenade and Dotsie Do  IMAGINE THAT
 I remember we had to play softball at recess and lunchtime in the school yard.  How i hated that as i couldnt hit the ball for the life of me.  No one wanted me on their team because i was so bad at sports. Except for one time i was up at the plate and i connected to the ball and it went flying.  Everyone was hollering run run run the bases for a home run.  Well i started running and it was then that everyone noticed that the Pitcher who  was Sister Mary St Joan had been knocked to the ground by my fly ball and the wind completely knocked out of her.  Om my god i guess you go to hell for almost killing a nun. 
That was the end of my softball games. I never played again.

grade school days

it has been a while since i posted so here we go.  i will talk about my grade shool years at St Philip and James.  we had three classrooms first and second grade were together, third fourth and fifth grades together and sixth seventh and eighth were together.  At that time we had 4 nuns from the Notre Dame Sisters whose motherhouse was in Cleveland. We had Sister Mary Ewaldo, Sister Mary Leoncia and Sister Mary ST Joan.
Sister Joan turned out to be our teacher for all eight grades of school.  Each year that we entered the next room for the higher grades so did Sister Joan thus she was our teacher for all eight grades of shool as SPJ.  there were 10  students in each of our classes and I believe that somewhere I have my eigth grade graduaion photo of our class taken with Father Maurer who was our pastor for 36 years untill his death.  That lengith of time is unheard of today in the church.  I will try to locate the photo and publish it at a later date. My family lived right across the street from the school as did some of the other students so we rarely got in trouble as all the nuns had to do was walk across the street to talk to your parents.  At that time the fee for attending SPG was $25.00 which was called you book bill, today the tuition is close to $2000  Quite a difference.  We attended mass every day before schoolas this was a requirement. The school is much different today of course but i remember our lunch room was in the basement with no windows and was often referred to as the dungeon.  The fourth nun mentioned above was the housekeeper a sweet little german woman who  spoke very little english.  The nuns would often in the spring and summer walked up and down their sidewalk praying their evening prayers or the rosary.  In those days nuns wore the traditional habits of their order. our class graduated in 1955 from SPJ and most of us went to Northwest High School only one or two attended Central Catholic High School as it was too expensive for most of the families at that time and there was no transportation to the school located in canton ohio.  i guess this is enough for this evening and will try to continue some tomorrow.

well two weeks have passed since i wrote anything  charlie was in the hospital with pnuemonia and other complications and is now home recovering.  he had to give up summer classes as it will take a little while for him to get back to  normal   a minor setback but he will be back in school in september.  i had some time off from work to spend with him  he has slept a lot but thats ok.  i went down to amish country to pick up the school bag we had made for him and stopped at Winesburg Meats and bought a few things  I used to take my mother their all the time when she was alive.  Nothingmuch has changed at the meat market still the same family running the business and the same employees.  Quite a record since my mother has been gone for 20 years this august. tomorrow i return to work for two d ays then off on saturday and work the 4th of july. will get back to the earlier times on the next posting   i am surprised that 40 people have viewed this already.

well it is saturday evening and so many memories come back about this sad sad day 56 yrs ago. charlie is still not feeling well and i am concerned that something  bad may happen to him  i am just not into posting much this eve

we are one day closer to the 13th and i will be attending mass this sunday just like i did 56 years ago. charlie has not been feeling all that great and has spent a lot of time sleeping  he is concerned with school starting monday  not in the mood to write much tonight

well i am going to jump ahead a bit here  this week june 13th is the 56th anniversary of my sister Theresa's death.  it hardly seems that it has been that long.  She was killed in a tragic traffic accident on 6 13 1954 the da y before my mother's birthday and anniversary.  I remember so well that sunday morning i woke up went downstairs and my mom and dad were dressed for the 10 oclock mass.  it was very unusual as my dad never went to mass ever so i decided i was going.  they tried to discourage me but i went against their judgement.  we lived across the street from the nuns convent and as i crossed to go the church Sister Joan came out and asked me how Theresa was and i replied that she was still sleeping.  It was her way of knowing that i did not know about the accident.  I went into the church and sat in the third row where all the students were expected to sit and Mass started.  After the reading of the gospel i heard Father Maurer say we would pray for the repose of the sould of Threresa Koenig and he started the traditional Our father, hail ma ry and glory be.  I wasnt sure what he had said and i was confused as to why we were saying prayers for the dead.

After Mass i crossed the street back to the house and when i walked in my mother was crying and many of the church members had come across the street to offer their sympathy.  I remember exactly my mother saying she always felt sorry for the mothers that this had happened too but she never expected it to happen to her.  She was devastated to say the least.  I remember how the neighbors brought food immediately and as Theresa's husband was in the Navy and stationed overseas it took a week to get him home.

my mother took us boys to the funeral home for a private viewing of my sister and for us we were so young it was our first experience with death.  It has always had a lasting impression on me.  I remember the funeral mass as i went up and sang with the choir.  When the mass was over i came down and stood with my parents as we walked to her gravesite behind the church.  The funeral luncheon was held in the basement of the church and i remember so many people crying. Including Mr Colopy the father of my sisters maid of honor at her wedding  She had only been married for 7 months.

I remember the day after the funeral my mother asked my to go over to the gravesite to make sure that the
funeral director and gathered all the cards from the enourmous amount of flowers that had been sent. I remember the grave was piled high with flowers and the casket spray of yellow roses my mother picked out.
I was twelve years old and turned 13 on 10 1 54.

i remember that before the funeral our class had committed to a cleveland indians ballgame and my mother insisted i go even tho i didnt want to.  Father Maurer accompanied us on that trip and he made a point to sit with me and made sure i was ok.  He was our paster for 36 years at St. Philip and James and was always a kind and generous man.  He also is buried on our church cemetery.

This sunday 6 13 10 i am having a mass read for Theresa as this year all falls on the days as it did 56 years ago and so many memories come flashing back this week.  We never heard from any of the families of the boys who hit her car broadside and i wonder today if any are still alive and if they even remember the tragic night in 1954.  I miss Theresa the most as i often wonder what her llife would have been as this year on November the second she would have been 76 years old.  She was 7 years older than me.  So if anyone reads this it is perhaps one of the darkest periods of my 68 years.  There are some other things to write about this time but will save it for its proper space in my blog