I’ve often reminisced here, and in social settings, about my Catholic School experiences at St. James School. Some you’ve heard from me before, some of these are new. Since there’s no formal reunion this year, I thought I’d sponsor a reunion courtesy of the Voice from the Bullpen. A lot will be repeated people/events discussed previously in this forum, but then, each St. James reunion has the same memories shared by all who attended the school and reunions.

Some history … St. James Parochial School was part of St. James Parish, established in 1910 with masses offered in a purchased wood frame house on Victoria Avenue, in Jamestown. In 1912, the Sisters of Mercy arrived and began teaching school in that same building. In 1915, a new stone church was built and in 1918 the sisters moved classes to the basement of that new church. The school remained there until a new school opened at 10 Prospect St. in 1953 where it operated until its closing in 1977.

I came from a family where four of us went to St. James School, my sister, Sandy, and brother, Lou, attended school in the church basement for a few years before moving to the new school. My brother, Tom, attended the Prospect St. school until the termination of the Junior High grades. He then transferred to SS Peter and Paul School to finish his K-9 Catholic Education. I was lucky. I spent my entire K-9 Catholic Education in one building at 10 Prospect St. I confiscated a brick from that building when it was torn down, and a Walgreens was built in the place holding many memories for so many of us who attended school there. That brick is part of our living room (A.K.A. our Memorabilia Room) decor. I cherish it very much.

Catholic School gave those of us who experienced it, cherished remembrances, though when we attended, some may have felt that we were being cheated by our parents making us go there. Not meaning that in a bad way, but many of our neighborhood friends went to public school, and we, my siblings and me, grew up on the Northside of Jamestown and went to Catholic School on the Southside, so it was tough for us to be able to share school activity and/or complaints with our neighborhood friends. Also, there were more music and sports opportunities in public school than Catholic Schools, so we felt kind of cheated there too. We did have football and basketball for boys, and cheerleading for girls, but there was no track, band, orchestra or chorus (as it is today in Middle/High Schools). We did Holiday and Mass singing, but did it as our music class. It wasn’t a group above and beyond the music program as is/was in public schools. So there were many who attended Catholic Schools who didn’t hate going there, but sometimes looked at what public school kids had that we didn’t have. We didn’t realize fully what a wonderful experience it was until years after we left our Catholic School and moved on to public High School and the real world.

Catholic School offered us spiritual families, away from our immediate families. For the better part of 10 years, we were in the same class with the same kids. In my class, the only times we were split was in Kindergarten (some went to Morning K, some went to Afternoon K), and there were two second grade classes, I believe. If memory serves me correctly, the rest of the years we were one group until 34 of us graduated from ninth grade in 1968.

During our time spent at St. James, We experienced many things that public school kids did not, but again, we didn’t realize how special these things were until we were long removed from Catholic School. Each day opened with a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the singing of America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee). In First Grade we began prepping for First Confession, which we’d experience just before First Holy Communion in Early May of Second Grade. Each First Communion Class would be responsible for the in-church May Crowning of the Blessed Mother, honoring Mary, the Mother of Jesus by placing a crown of flowers on the head of Her statue and placing flowers and a rosary around the base of that statue, singing hymns and songs written in honor of Mary. Each classroom also had a statue of Mary in their classroom, which each class was responsible for adorning in the same way as the First Communion class did in church. I remember the wonderful scent of lilacs as many of us who had lilac bushes on our property would bring them in to adorn the statue of Mary and adding some beauty and scent to Sister’s or our lay teacher’s desk.

You can’t sit down with anyone from St. James and not share lunch memories, starting with the cafeteria ladies who prepared homemade meals each day, most of my years for a quarter. Dad would save old camera film cans which would fit ten quarters and he’d leave them on his dresser and it was our responsibility to make sure we grabbed our lunch money before we left for school. [Until they thought we were responsible enough to not forget it, Mom would tie the quarter in the corner of our hanky (YES…HANKY!) and put it in our pocket to make sure we had it.]

The meals were delicious, the cooks/servers stern, but motherly. In my tenure Mrs. Rix, Cusimano, Foti and Alette did the cooking and serving, making their entire area of the school smell like every student’s mother’s kitchen. Mrs. Rix and Cusimano handled the breakfast crowd during Lent as most of us went to morning Mass (some of us as altar servers), and because we couldn’t have breakfast before communion, we’d get to buy breakfast after church. (Servers got to eat free.) Mrs. Rix handled the Hot Chocolate and Mrs. Cusimano put the bread through the Industrial Sized toaster and then literally painted it, (with a paint brush,) with about gobs of melted butter. If you dunked your toast in your cocoa, the film of butter would settle on top. Great memories.

We have memories of our custodians (in my days it was Mr. Trippy, then Mr. Rizzuto) making sure we stayed on the four/five by four/five foot mats taking off our boots and rubbers before walking across any of the floors. Those men would do anything for us though.

We have memories of Tony Miliotto and his gym warmup routine of “Tony Chestnut” (Toe-Knee-Chest-Nut) before going outside to Fenton Park, or the school parking lot (weather permitting), or doing something in the gym. After Coach Miliotto left, Mr. Crucilla took over and doubled as a cafeteria monitor, who loved to tap you on one shoulder and when you turned that way, he’d swipe a French fry over your other shoulder.

Other great memories included those wooden PA boxes for communications to and from the office, Polio Vaccination Day (the sugar cube in the little paper cup), Allen Park Picnic (Skippy Cups), setting up and taking down those wooden chairs whenever there was going to be a program in the gym/auditorium, Mass in the gym while the new church was being built, The Lenten Poor Box for Pagan Children, The Passion Play, Holy Thursday Adorations, Christmas Midnight Mass (Master, Incense, Boat, Acolytes, Torches, the Red Cassocks and Capes), The Mysteries of the Rosary, Confirmation (seventh grade), and of course, none of us will ever forget, The Baltimore Catechism. (I still have mine.)

Great times, Great memories, but best of all was the family atmosphere of the whole school. We didn’t just make friends and “family” relationships with the kids in our class, we had school older and younger “brothers” and “sisters” in every grade and class. Older watched out for younger, younger relied on older for protection and guidance.

To this day, at high school reunions, it seems there’s always a gathering in one corner with St. James Friends and “Family” rehashing much of what’s been presented today, and on Facebook, where someone from our St. James family is often posting pictures of days at St. James, not to mention there’s a Facebook page of People Who went to St. James in Jamestown.

I know kids (now adults) who attended SS Peter and Paul School feel the same and have the same kinds of memories. We all feel we got quality academic educations along with spiritual educations and experiences as well. We made friends for life and realize now (and appreciate) what our parents did for us making us attend Catholic School. Happy Reunion, Friends!