Reminiscences

presented by Jim Reising at the 10th reunion

It was the fall of 1955 that we met for the first time.  We came from all the parts and parishes of the county.  We came in from the Momence and Herscher areas on our own yellow school busses.  And those of us from Manteno had the dubious honor to ride the Victory Bus Line’s “Bluebird”.  When it ran it was often late.  Sometimes it didn’t make it at all. 

We were split that freshman year into two groups.  One went to the first classes in the basement of St. Pat’s grade school; the other took instruction on the second floor of St. Rose’s grade school. 

Who of us from St. Rose will ever forget those magic words of wisdom uttered so frequently by our math and general science wizard, Reverend Louis B(runo). Demmer:  Speech is silver; Silence is golden.  And who will forget those terrifying and memorable words from the lips of Father Grigaitis: “Now for the third time your name must come!”, and the subsequent trip to Father Beatty’s detention in St. Pat’s old high school building. 

Sports that fall were pretty outstanding even if WE didn’t contribute much.  The football team under the leadership of Ed Begnoche went 7-1. 

With the smell of burning leaves behind us and the chill of a typical northern Illinois winter firmly entrenched in our bones we went at at last to the gleaming, saucer shaped new school plopped in the center of a windswept prairie. 

Over to the west you could barely make out the new Meadowview Shopping Center.  There was a traffic light at Fifth and Levasseuer that would almost hypnotize you  when it was working and we were watching.  On the north side was a row of new houses with their grass trying to survive it’s first winter.  East, if the smoke from the Illinois Central’s steam engines wasn’t too thick you could read the lettering on the side of the Belt Route Warehouse and Storage Company.  To the south were only some trees and houses a half mile away. 

Today, the shopping center comes to the west side of the school; the north remains the same but older.  The east side has a sports complex and a bowling alley between it and the warehouse, and the steam engines are largely gone.  South is a Nazarene church and the curve of Entrance Avenue.  The school itself can still be recognized by the circular main part, but the overall size had doubled and the circular gym is no more.

While we were becoming accustomed to one way traffic around the circle and the noise, Mick Lyle’s basketball team was running up a singularly unspectacular record of 5-16.  One event that must surely be remembered by all is the look of surprise on the face of the first opposing player to dribble a ball under the dome.

That was the year we made book on how many times a certain priest would circle the gym during the lunch hour as he said his daily office.  That was the year a group of us went to Chicago to appear on television on a program hosted by Jim Lounsberry and called Bandstand Matinee.  That was our freshman year.

Sophomore year we began to settle in a bit.  The novelty of a hot lunch is a spic and span cafeteria began to pall I little as we realized that one of the orient’s staple dishes was rapidly becoming one of ours as well.  It was pretty bleak for those who didn’t care for rice.   But there was always that new hamburger place over on route 54 called McDonalds.  15 cents for a hamburger!  All we had to do was find a ride. 

That year we began to spread our wings a bit and started to join various organizations.  We had a new football coach that year, and we thought Frank Chiodo did pretty well with a 6-2 season.  Basketball began to show a marked improvement ending up 16-12 for the season under new coach Ed Bonczyk.  The team actually won the regional crown, much to the surprise of the mighty Kankakee Kays.  In the sectional we lost a heartbreaker to Bloom but they were, after all, ranked fifth statewide.  That year we were introduced to several of the new coach’s more endearing traits – hair tearing and floor pounding, among others.  And that year some of us became licensed drivers, much to the amazement of Father Demmer and ourselves and to the delight of our rideless classmates.

The Junior Achievement program began that year in Kankakee, and many of us were a part of it.  We got used to kneeling in the gym bleachers for mass.  We experimented in the chemistry lab and boiled a cat for the sake of biology.  We danced in the gym at lunchtime and peeked through the blue curtain during P.E.  During homeroom we began to be slightly bored with the ever present call of “Attention, Please….Your AttentionPlease”.  The boys were told not to sit with the girls in the bleachers – or anywhere lese, for that matter.

We were repeatedly told not to smoke in the classrooms, the johns, the library, the office, the johns, the cafeteria, the locker rooms, the johns, the labs, the shop, the johns, the boiler room, Sherwood’s office, and the johns. 

We came in from the parking lot with clothes reeking of and eyes smarting from smoke.

That was our sophomore year.

As Juniors we were sure of our position on and in the circle.  We joined clubs.  We joined the Mission Club.  The Sodality, the French Club (this one for language; we always suspected there was another), the Library Club, the Junior Red Cross, and the Y. C. S., not to mention the Band, Chorus, Press Club, S.A.A., and the Variety Club.

That year nicknames began to appear and be used in earnest.  There were the commonplace like Betty Crocker, Eagle, Rock, Bullet, Dago, Dixie, Wild Bill, Terrible Tom, Sleepy, Mort, Louie, and Elwyn.  There were also nicknames for which there was good reason:  Sabu, Knobby, Duck, Dwarf, Fritz, Dukey, Beaky, Teepee, Moose, Monk, Tiny, O.B., and Potsy.  Then there were the names which, unless you knew the story, had no apparent reason: El But, Swee Pea, Cathouse, Squirrel, Morse, Khaki, Elmo, Duals, Ubangi, Looper, Voop, Chick, and Witch.

Junior sports were simply spectacular, no other description is possible.  Football, under a now confident Chiodo, went unbeaten and untied.  And Ed Bonczyk’s netters were undefeated until a vengeful Kankakee snapped the streak during their Holiday Tournament.  That was the year Dewey Kilbride caused near heart attacks in the Bradley gym during their Holiday Tournament with a great display of nerve and free throw skill that won the match.  The record was 23-6, being defeated by the hated Boilermakers in the regional.

That year the boys (presumable having found out that girls were different) began to exhibit a marked distaste for the blue skirt, white blouse, and blue sweater the distaff side was forced to wear.  This was, of course, nothing new to the ladies, who loathed them even before they had to wear them.

That year we remember Marvin and Shock Movie Theater parties, radio WJJD, the CYO after any game, the living rosary, and Steve Mathews’ portrayal of a drunken St. Patrick in the traditional parade (or was it Steve Mathews’ drunken portrayal of St. Patrick?).

We also remember a Hamm’s beer bottle in the statue’s hand on the front lawn of the school – and the priest who blessed it!

And that was the year two of us wore Bermuda shorts to school.

We went to the boat docks at night for entertainment.

We gave the seniors a memorable prom and called it Tropicana.  Some of us remember it for what came after than from the prom itself.  One might go so far as to say it set the stage for the next year’s senior picnic.

We were big on the Pat-O-Gram and nearly drove Sister Edgar buggy with our antics.

That was our junior year.

And then it was upon us.  The big year.  The senior year.  The last year.  THE YEAR.

We had made it.  We had it made.  If we walked a little taller that year, it was because we knew we were now the big cheeses.  WE were now the examples to which the lower classes would look  and emulate.  (Fortunately no underclasspersons were present at the class meetings when no one said a word and the boys sat on one side and the girls on the other and we all glared at one another.

Our sports year began with the gridders ending with a good 7-1 season.  The hoop division did pretty well too, ending 20-5, winning the regional and almost the sectional, being defeated by huge Thornton.

It seemed as if the year went by too quickly.  There was the gigantic task of, for the first time (and possibly the last) presenting the senior class play in the gym.  There was no stage, so we built one.  There were no lights, so we jury-rigged some.  There was no sound system, so we did without.  But we did it.  We were a very inventive class when we needed to be.

And then there were those last days.  Some say glorious, some say not.  The senior picnic.  The LAST senior picnic.  The honors day assembly with most of the class not present, and then the last walk, and we were out.

In the ten years that have passed, we have gone our varied ways.  We are employed by: IBM, Ball State University, Allison Division of General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Swift and Company, Lowe Seed Company, Johnson Motors division of Outboard Marine Corp, Bowling Green University, Rudy’s Markets, Cardosi Oil Co., Forest View High School, George D. Roper Corp., Imperial International Learning Corp., American United Life Insurance Co., Turk Furniture Co., City National Bank, Curl Up and Dye beauty Salon, Mobil Chemical Co., Avon, General Mills, Adame Tile and Marble, A. O. Smith Corp., Thom McAnn, U. S. Army, Manteno State Hospital, Encyclopedia Brittanica, Weyerhauser Co., Central Michigan University, and U. S. Department of Defense.

Our occupations are many and diverse: Nurse, Elementary Teacher, Professional Soldier, Systems Engineer, Director of Personnel Section Chief (Mathematical Sciences), Welder, High School Teacher, Boiler Operator, Bookkeeper, Comptometer Operator, Budget Analyst, Dean of Students, Grocery Checker, Manager Trainee, Easter Seals Center Teacher, Private Secretary, Marathon Oil Products Jobber, Social Science Teacher, Service Representative, Beauty Culturist, Audio Engineer, Life Insurance Representative, Local Businessman, Banker, Model, Secretary, Avon Representative, Product Manager, Auditor, X-Ray Technician, Farmer, Studio Photo Painter, Clerk, Pharmacist, Policeman, Inventory Planner, Reference Editor, Field Accountant, Tool and Die Maker, Western Union Operator, Social Worker, Assistant Manager, Manager, Assistant Professor of Secondary and Higher Education, Babysitter, Dog Groomer, Labor Relations Representative, Overseas Teacher, Truck Driver, and very many Mothers and Housewives. 

And so our reminiscences must end.  At the next reunion, many of us will be at a different station in life.  I hope all of us will still have the interest that has given us this wonderful turnout.