Social Networking circa 1952

Posted on 06/03/2011 by Grumpa Joe

SOCK HOPS

Many wonderful new worlds opened up to me in high school.  It seemed like every time we listened to the announcements during home room class a new activity was born. This time it was the “sock hop.”

My social life was never lacking because of all my friends around the block.  In grammar school we stuck to each other like glue.  We hung together, we danced, we played games, we laughed and told each other our deepest feelings.  When high school entered our lives, it all changed.  We were still friends but our common interests were gone.  All of us were developing new ones.  We had new activities to attend. Now, we met our high school friends at these activities rather than take our grammar school buddies with us.  The school frowned on bringing boys from a different school to a Mendel social function. It was okay to sell them a ticket to a ball game but not to a dance. In a way, attending high school was like belonging to an exclusive club which was members only.

Up until that time, I had never heard the term ‘sock hop” before, but my new buddies, who were already in the know, told me I had to go because it was a great place to meet girls.  I could have taken a date to a sock hop, many boys did.  I was too afraid of girls to do that.  Even though I danced a lot with the girls of Avalon, this was different.  These girls were strangers and I’d have to talk to them.  It wasn’t easy for me to come up to a stranger and begin a conversation.  My mom was great at it. She made friends with people in an instant.  Dad was quiet. He had to force himself to meet new people all the time on his insurance job.

The sock hop was always on a Friday night. They began in mid-fall during football season, and continued through the basketball season. Many times they were right after the pep rally, and bon fire. They were simple dance socials organized for the purpose of getting the boys to meet girls and vice versa.  We always had a live band of high school kids who played the latest music.  At least one band member was a student at Mendel. We had to take our shoes off to dance on the sacred basketball floor; that’s why it was a ‘sock hop’.

There were a number of Catholic schools In the Roseland area. Saint Louis Academy was one of them.  Saint Louis was an all girl’s school located on State near 115 Street, and about a mile from Mendel.  The priest in charge advertised our event at all the neighborhood girl’s schools.  The word always got out, and there was always a good crowd at these dances.

Homecoming Dance, Not a Sock Hop, 1956

 

In my first year, I attended as many hops as I could.  Each time, I met a buddy and we stood on the sidelines drinking a coke, eyeballing the girls dancing by themselves.  We poked each other when a particular girl peaked our interest, and dared each other to ask her to dance.  I always thought the girls were too good for me, or too pretty. I never believed a pretty one would ever accept my offer to dance. The girls all seemed so old and mature. Most times it took me all evening to build up enough nerve to ask a special girl to dance. Then, when I finally made my move, another guy asked her just before me.

It was easier to talk to someone if you were dancing a slow dance than if you did a jitterbug.  That limited the number of chances I had to meet someone.  Since most guys could dance slow, but not fast, the competition was fierce.  (It just occurred to me as I am writing this that I was a good dancer, and loved to jitterbug. I should have taken advantage of that skill to meet the girls.  Duh!!  Not too dense, it’s only taken me fifty-eight years to figure that one out!)

The dance ended at 10 p.m., then everyone went their own way.  Many parents waited outside in cars to pick up their daughters.  A few older boys drove home from school, but most of us took the streetcar home.

In that first year that I attended the sock hops, I never developed enough nerve to ask a girl for a date after the hop.  I finally got enough nerve to begin asking girls to dance, but never had the nerve to go past “see you at the next sock hop” when it came to furthering a relationship.

Every time I attended a sock hop I took a step away from Avalon and a step further from my friends on the block. My freshman year at Mendel was my ‘breaking away’ experience.  We were all growing up and expanding our horizons, but desperately holding on to each other at the same time.

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Chasing Basketballs and Sweaty Towels

Posted on 04/03/2011 by Grumpa Joe
Basketball article stub icon

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BASKETBALL

High school was loaded with activities.  Everyday there were announcements about new ones.  One day, it was about basketball and decided to check it out.  I never played basketball formally.  None of the kids I knew owned a basket ball.  The playground at OLH didn’t have a backboard or a hoop.  One kid did nail a bushel basket that he cut the bottom out of to a telephone pole.  There was no backboard at all.  He used to shoot baskets that way.  It  was my only contact with basketball at that point.

The Mendel gym was on the second floor of the west wing.  It was short and the roof trusses were low to the floor.  Anyone trying to take a long shot had a good chance of hitting a truss with the ball.  Mr. DiGiovanni, a short and stocky man with a full head of back hair combed straight back coached the team.  His voice was soft and calm except when he was shouting directions to the players.

The day I went to tryout the team was there practicing.  I was amazed at how tall they were.  I hadn’t started growing yet and was very short.  Mr. D was nice to me and let me down gently, but he offered me the position of team manager.  I accepted immediately because I wanted to be part of the team.  The job involved keeping the equipment organized and ready.  I had to make sure a dozen balls were ready for practice and properly inflated. There were a bunch of sweaty white towels to handle too.

The sessions lasted from 4 to 6 p.m.  By the time I put everything away and caught the streetcar home, it was seven o’clock.  During the practice I sat on the sidelines and did homework.  I learned a lot about basketball that year because Mr. D was always teaching fundamentals.  Today, when I watch NBA games, I see violations of the basic rules at every game. NBA players are a big offenders of the palming rule.  Palming is holding and rolling  the ball over from underneath while dribbling.  Dribbling is supposed to be done by the pushing on top of the ball.  Palming allows the player to carry the ball in between dribbles. Palming goes in tandem with another NBA violation; walking.

I learned strategy, too, like zone defense and man to man, or a pick.  It was fascinating.  I can’t play the game, but I could probably coach it.

I went with the team to all games and kept the equipment, uniforms and towels straight at host gyms. I usually rode with Mr. D in his old Plymouth. During the games, I kept stats. It was important for the coach to know who scored baskets and free throws. He analyzed the stats during and after every game. If a player missed free throws Coach made him practice 50-100 throws. I would stand under the basket and return the ball to him.

Near Christmas break I got the flu and couldn’t go to school so I missed the instructions for what goes on with the team during the time off at Christmas.  Throughout the holiday season I kept thinking I should check with Mr. D to see if I should be doing something.  I didn’t even know if they practiced or not.

After the break, when school started again, I showed up for practice.  Mr. D really let me know how upset he was with me.  The team played in a tournament during the holidays and they practiced too.  I missed all of the fun of going to the games and let the team down.  I never missed another practice or game after that.

One thing I learned about athletes during that season is that they are aloof.  Although they were friends among themselves, I never became part of their clique.  I did become a part of the coach’s life though, and the priests who ran the sports program.

I finished out the season and earned my letter in basketball even though I didn’t play on the team.  I never received the award in person because I didn’t make the award banquet in the fall of the sophomore year. That is another story.

I loved being manager and I loved the sport.  I looked forward to the next season as manager provided that I didn’t make one of the other sports teams, like football.

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Rec Hall

Posted on 03/03/2011 by Grumpa Joe
A 1910 Pullman car which served as the Denver ...

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REC HALL

One nice thing about Mendel was the campus layout and the buildings.  The school was formerly the Pullman Technical School.  The area of Roseland where it is located is very near the Pullman neighborhood and the Pullman factory.  Pullman, the man, believed in providing his employees with everything they needed.  The result was an entire community built around the factory.  Block after block of row houses were rented by people working for the Pullman Car Company.  He also built the school for his employee’s children.  The school specialized in the trades that were required to build the railroad sleeper cars that Pullman sold.

The Augustinian Fathers bought the old Pullman Tech and turned it into Mendel Catholic High School for boys.

The main building was flanked by a wing on each side; one east, the other west.  Behind the main building was smaller brick structure that formerly housed the auto shop.  Mendel didn’t need or want an auto shop so it was used as the recreation center.

All the students went to the rec center at lunch time.  It was set up with tables and chairs for eating.  A vendor set up a kitchen to sell hamburgers, hot dogs, and fries.  I was surprised to see how many boys bought their lunch.  I was also surprised to see so many boys smoking.  The rec hall was the only building on campus where smoking was allowed.

At lunch time the center provided music from the juke box and ping-pong tables for those who wanted to play.

After school hours the building was home to many clubs.  One of the most popular clubs was the radio club.  Kids who joined the radio club learned how a radio worked by building one from simple parts.  They also learned about ham radio.  This club was probably the most popular at the school.  Many of the boys who were in the club graduated, and then started careers in radio or communications.  One of my classmates ran WTTW, Channel 11 in it’s early days.  Recently, I met a man on a Folks on Spokes bike ride who graduated after me who is a ham radio operator.  He helps the bike club with communications on the Easter Ride.  He got his start in radio in the Mendel Radio Club.

I remember a single song from the juke box paying in the rec room.  It was very popular and was played over, and over, and over every day.  The singer is Patti Page, the title of the song is “How Much is That Doggie in the Window”.

The rec room was a popular spot but was replaced within the next year by a new cafeteria.  Two projects began during that first year, 1952-53.  One was the gymnasium/cafeteria; the other was the chapel/monastery.  The monastery was to become a major part of my life in the following year.

The gym was really necessary.  After seeing the gyms at the other schools, ours was really fourth class.  The new one would allow teams to come to play on our campus.

The Monastery was needed to free up class room space in the east wing.  The priests and brothers all lived in the upper floors of the east wing above the wood shop.

The new building went up fast and the following year when the gym, monastery and chapel opened, the school improved tremendously.  However, another 400 kids arrived also.  The old rec hall lost its flavor once the new cafeteria opened.

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Pep Rally

Posted on 02/03/2011 by Grumpa Joe

PEP RALLY


After a couple of weeks of getting acclimated to the school, the announcements during home room began to include social items.  One of the first I can remember is the announcement for the Friday night pep rally and bon fire.  Wow! All of that in one night!  The big game against St. Rita was on Saturday.  Mendel was run by the Augustinian Order of priests, and so was St. Rita.  A lot of the brothers and priests were betting on the outcome of the game.  Most of the priests that taught at Mendel had been re-assigned from Rita.

I never head of a pep rally before so I asked Mom if I could go out after supper to the rally and come home late.  Surprisingly, she said yes.  Perhaps my brother Bill had paved the way by going to activities like that at Leo.  He turned out okay, so why not let Jun do the same?

After an early supper, I took the streetcar back to school.  I was an old pro at this now.  The rally began on the field behind the school where a giant pile of wood was stacked into a teepee shape.  The pile was at least twelve feet high.

A sophomore came out with a Mendel sweater, white pants, white shoes, and a big megaphone.  He led us in a series of cheers.  I should say, he taught us the cheers.  He told us he would lead us in the same cheers during the game tomorrow.  After the cheering, Coach Mills gave us his talk. He was followed by Father Seary, the Principal. He could have been a stand up comedian he was so funny.  All of them spoke positively, and left us wanting to go to the game.  I always felt pumped after a pep rally.

Finally, when the rally part was over, the bonfire was lit and we watched the wood burn down to the ground.  The next day we lost our game to St. Rita.

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In Over My Head

Posted on 02/03/2011 by Grumpa Joe

IN OVER MY HEAD

I visited Mendel High School once before I signed up. They held an open house in the winter.  Mom and I took the tour and got to know the place, or so I thought.

On my first day, entering the main hallway, was very exciting.  All of a sudden I didn’t know where anything was.  The letter I got said to report to room 103 for home room.  “Where is room 103”, I asked myself.  I climbed the stairs up to the main floor. There were people everywhere but no one to help.  I walked the main floor looking for 103 but couldn’t find it.  I finally broke down and asked.  By this time my heart was pounding fast because it was getting closer to the 9:00 a.m. start time.  A loud bell rang and then shut off.  That scared me.  The bustle of activity in the halls was even faster now.

Room 103 was on the ground floor downstairs.  Whew!  I got into the room with a minute to spare.

The bell ruled my life at Mendel.  The idea of a bell ringing to let us know a class was over or beginning was totally new to me.  Getting up from your desk at the bell seemed disrespectful to the teacher.  AT OLH we stayed in the same seat all day, we got up when Sister told us to.  We would never think of getting up and walking out on her because the time was up.

My home room meant that it was the very first class of the day, and that is when the teacher took the roll call. My home room teacher was Mr. Mills;  he was also the football coach.

Another strange new practice was the ‘announcements’.  When the principal or a school leader wanted to talk to us, he’d turn on the public address system.  Each room had a speaker and we listened to the announcements during our home room session.   Once roll call and announcements were completed, Mr. Mills started teaching General Science.  This subject fascinated me because it covered all of the practical things in life, like water seeking it’s own level.  I’d learn much later that General Science was basic physics.  Physics is the foundation of engineering.

It always seemed like we just got started in General Science when the bell rang and class was over.  The next class was Algebra, taught by Mr. Magee, the assistant football coach.  He came to our room to teach the class.  I never heard of algebra before and wondered what it would be.  Once he started, I loved it.  The whole idea of algebra was fascinating.

Being in a Catholic school meant we always had a class in religion, which, for the first time in my life, was taught by a lay person.

After lunch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I had woodshop for two hours with Father Hennessy.  There was also English and something called Social Science.  Of all the classes, I hated English and Social Science the most.  What do they have to do with being an engineer? The question haunted me.  Yet, in looking back over my years as an engineer, those two subjects were an integral part of my life and work.  So many times during school, both high school and college, I would ask myself the question “What does this subject have to do with engineering?”  The answer was always ‘nothing’.  The simple truth is that subjects like Social Science, Art Appreciation, Philosophy and Religion may not directly be a part of engineering, but they are a huge part of life. Knowing about many things makes me a better person all over.  I didn’t believe it or understand it back then.  I did know that I wouldn’t graduate with the credits.

Credit is another concept that was new to me.  In grammar school, everyone learned the same things, but in high school the kids in a home room could be learning along four different tracks.  At Mendel, it was Pre-engineering, Scientific, Business or General.  All of the curricula were preparing the student for college, but each one had slightly different subjects to learn.  Each subject carried credit hours and to graduate I needed a certain number of credit hours completed successfully.  Credits made it easier for the school and student to know how close one was to graduation.  Oops, the bell just rang; it’s time to go to the next class!

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