A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

As I've mentioned, I was the high school yearbook photographer at my high school, St Joseph Academy, 1968-1969. These photos were mostly, though not all, taken early in the school year and I've assembled the photos I took of the various classes in session.

A typical morning would begin with a rush of bodies racing for the lockers.

…and then racing to make it to class on time.

Or, if you timed it right, you could avoid the crowd, arrive to class last, and make an entrance!

Here we have most of the senior class waiting for the rest: Caroline Poli, John Palmes, Billy Langston, Mike Masters, (I'm not sure about the girl in front of), Carl Carcaba, Dennis Petty, Steve Grofenhurst in back, Bobby MacAloon talking to Pam Pritchard, and Charlie Hartley.

This would be Coach Drozd's Mechanical Drawing class. I'm not sure who's on the left, but there's Dave McDonald next to him, Susan Stanton, Coach Drozd, and Louie Mariani.

The photo was marked Sister Phillip Joseph's History Class. I have no idea what the topic was but it certainly seems to have generated a wide range of reactions. This was the senior class. We see the faces of Janet Andreu, Danny Guidi, Jenny Horty, Janice Triay, Charlie Thomas, Gail Leonardi, Susan Stanton, and Sister Philip Joseph.

Her juniors seemed more relaxed. I recognize Ben Fleming in back and Jack Cowen in front.

Sister Teresa Carmel was the librarian, shown here with Carl Carcaba, Steve Grofenhurst, and Joe Oliveros.

This is one of the Juniors' classes, I believe.

This was supposed to be a gag photo, but I no longer remember the gag. Was the candy supposed to have been confiscated? Or was it intended as a reward? I have no idea. Came out cool, though.

This is Mrs. Shultz' English I class, so those must be freshmen.

After 50 minutes the bell would ring and we would have 10 minutes to go to the bathroom, perhaps change books at the locker, and make it to the next class.

Here's Sister St. Charles teaching Religion I, so again these are probably freshmen. I recognize Duane Tully back there!

Here's Religion II, so these would be sophomores. Sister St. Charles taught all these religion classes, so you'd think she'd be an expert. But when anyone asked a question she couldn't answer, like, Why does it say Adam is the first man when his son Cain goes to another country to marry and become a metalworker?, Sister St. Charles would half-close her eyes and intone as if in ecstasy, It can't be known! as if that were proof of something wonderful.

Ah, the notes say Sister Mary Herbert taught seniors Religion IV. Here we have her with Nancy Alexander, Charlie Thomas, Janet Andreu, Pam Pritchard, Louie Mariani, Veronica Bell, Dave McDonald, Susan Stanton, Frank Cyr, Gail Leonardi, Faye Norton, Karen Estrada, Mary Steinberg (who I eventually married), Jenny Horty, and Mike Masters bottom right.

This is Sister Juliana's Spanish I class. They only offered Spanish I and II, so this should be mostly juniors, though there was some options for when one took Spanish, if one took it at all; it wasn't required.

This is actually an older photo taken with my own crappy camera, before Mr. Jackson loaned me one of his for the yearbook photos. Anyway, that's Sister Denise, who taught math and even succeeded in drilling some of the principles into my head.

This is Sister Francis Joseph. Looking back I am aghast at how cruel we kids were to her. She doesn't even look that old in this picture, but to us at the time we thought instead of years her age was in eons. She was called Mullet behind her back, after the fish. (The hairstyle had not yet become a thing.) She never did a thing to deserve such treatment. Kids can be so cruel.

What she taught was business math, and served as the students' guidance counselor. I have to admit, she wasn't able to provide much guidance. I wanted to study to become a film director. I know now the best advice would have been to attend a film school in California, maybe even UCLA. However, she recommended I take English classes in junior college. And then what?

A beatific smile. It can't be known!

A teacher of note was the former Sister Concepta. She had been Sister Concepta for the previous three years, but by the time I became a senior, she had apparently realized that might not have been the best choice of names. So this year she became Sister Marie. This is a biology class, with a mix of juniors and seniors.

And here's her chemistry class. She did love teaching science! And she managed to get the concept of electron shells across to me, which couldn't have been easy.

And here she is having a heart-to-heart talk (about hearts, since it's a biology class, ha ha) with Pam Pritchard.

And here she is with an English class. Yes, she taught science and English.

Although I liked Sister Marie a lot, we did have one bit of a kerfuffle. The assignment was to write an essay about something true that had happened to us in our lives. I wrote about the time in Vermont when I was ten, when my mom and I had to hike into the woods to remove dead leaves from the spring our water came from. I told it in a funny way, but it was 100% accurate.

However, Sister Marie didn't believe me, and gave me an F on the essay. I actually had to drag my mom to school to attest to my honesty. As a Catholic boy who had been told my entire life that honesty was everything, to be accused of lying when I hadn't was nothing short of humiliating. Well, that was 55 years ago and I'm still pissed. But I also became a published author, so I guess I got in the last word.

After a morning full of classes, we broke for lunch. One day each week, we seniors could go off-campus during our lunch break. Since some of us (including myself) could drive and have access to a car at least one day a week, we usually went to an actual restaurant, like Joe's Diner on US 1.

Sister Paulinus taught Physical Science. I didn't take the course so I have no idea how that differed from the Physics Sister Marie taught.

Another of Sister Philip Joseph's History classes, this one US History being taught to juniors.

And this is World History with (I think) sophomores.

Thank goodness I never took typing! Yes, as a programmer and author I've made my living typing, which I learned to do by hunt-and-peck, which I did very fast. Of course, by now I've learned where the darned keys are. But the good thing is, I never learned proper touch typing which, we have since learned, leads to carpal tunnel syndrome.

The kids all seemed to enjoy typing class, though. It was held in the building across the street from the main campus, above the kindergarten. So I didn't have many occasions to go there. But when I did, the students always seemed to like being there.

And I have no clue who taught typing. It doesn't look like she was there when I took the photos.

Finally, another shot of Louie looking studious while Charlie walks around. This seems to be taken during a lull in class, or perhaps after the lecture was over and we were waiting for the bell.