The title of this narrative is a variation of a line spoken by Al Pacino’s character, Michael Corleone, in the movie Godfather III. It’s a line many people feel, when they think they’re done with something, but find themselves back at it, for whatever reason or circumstance.

Some of the times that quote carries disappointment because we really do want something to be over, but sometimes it can be a happy time, because as much as we think we may want something to be over, we loved it so much while doing it, we welcome going back and doing it again. A little while back, the latter of these two scenarios played out allowing me to revisit something very meaningful to me, though I hated to admit it while it was happening years ago.

A few weeks ago, a week after the first full week of hot summer weather, Sally and I, along with friends Sam and Christine, headed to the Lakewood Rod & Gun Club for dinner and an evening of great conversation and friendship. It turned out to be much more than that.

Sam and I are graduates of St. James Parochial School formerly located on Prospect St. on Jamestown’s south side. Sam graduated a few years ahead of me, but, as a school, we shared many of the same parochial vicars, teachers, school staff, and fellow students. Attending Parochial School was bitter-sweet, as many of us didn’t get to go to the same school as our neighborhood friends who attended public school, and there were some things not offered at Parochial Schools, that were available at public schools in Jamestown. Offerings like sports (though we did have Football and Basketball teams), and music opportunities (band, orchestra, and choir groups) weren’t possible in Parochial School budgets back in our days then, so we didn’t get those chances at St. James and SSPP in Jamestown. So, for some of us, we wanted to be able to go to public school to be able to be with our neighborhood pals, and get to play more sports and maybe get involved with some of the music choices available at Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln Junior High Schools back in the days of our youth. But that was only a part of the story.

What Parochial School did offer us was a huge extended family, not only in our grade levels, but in the entire school. First, if we went to Parochial School, so did our siblings, so we knew their classmates and friends and they knew ours too, and if other kids in other classes didn’t have siblings in other classes, we still all felt like a family no matter what grade level any of us were in.

So in other words, we came away from Parochial School with a huge roster of friends with the same memories, common experiences, school traditions and even recollections of “Toe, Knee, Chest Nut” in gym class and of what homemade meals were served on which days by our wonderful cafeteria ladies, Mrs. Rix, Mrs. Foti, Mrs. Cusimano, and Mrs. Alette.

On that recent Friday night at the R&G, our meals were served by the niece of one of Sam’s St. James classmates. She is also the daughter of one of both Sam and my schoolmates from St. James. That started a huge trip down memory lane talking about Monsignor Cologioia, the Passion Play, Father Welker, all the Sister Marys, and so many more things we remembered. After the meeting with our server and St. James connections, we looked over and a table close to us, another of our St. James family members (great seeing you, Mary Ann) was sitting down, and we couldn’t help but go over and say hi, whereby another trip to “nostalgiaville” left the docks resulting in a whole series of “Do you remember” questions and flashbacks. We also saw two sisters (Roseanne and Kathy), much younger than Sam and me, who later attended St. James, with whom Sally and I did a lot of fundraisers and activities when our children had the same type of experiences when attending Holy Family School many years after our time at St. James.

After dinner, we moved into the cocktail lounge (a.k.a. the bar) and it seemed like we ran into more people from our days at St. James School and Church, and other friends, many common to both Sam and me, some we haven’t seen for a long time, so we spent a lot of time hand shaking, hugging, patting backs, and sharing many old stories with lots of new laughter.

Much of the evening fun, though, was a result of our great memories from our Parochial School and church days and the lifelong friends we made with people in our classes, our siblings’ classes, and the entire school, a school at times we really didn’t want to attend. In these times, when thinking those days were long gone, those St. James people and memories keep pulling us back in. I think we’re all glad we attended that school and can still cherish those memories today.

Thanks and much appreciation to Sally and Christine for allowing us to walk down another Road of Remembrance and laugh until our sides hurt.

Who says you can’t go back? Friday, June 2nd of this year, (and what seems like anytime we see St. James alums) we said/say we definitely could, and did/do, go back!