Graduates Remember St. Clement 40 Years Later

St. Clement Grade School Reunion

On Saturday August 7 nearly 100 alumni and their spouses attended the first reunion for the elementary school classes of 1968, 1969 and 1970 at the St. Clement Church Hall on Madison Avenue. Even though the school itself closed a few years ago, these baby boomers showed they still have some of the same school spirit they had over 40 years ago. The event was organized by myself, Tom Fahey, of Lakewood; Dennis Dancak of Fairview Park; Nancy McMurtrey of North Ridgeville; and John McNally of Bay Village.

The school closed in 2005 and records were hard to come by. We relied on an old tattered yearbook and memory to come up with a list of potential attendees.  The women were particularly hard to track down as many of them had changed their names in marriage. Plus the number of Thomas Gallaghers, Tim Hogans and James Watsons there are in the just the state of Ohio made it a real challenge. FaceBook was a real help.  Word of mouth spread and the turnout was gratifying. There were probably another fifty people who were unable to attend but sent their best wishes.

People from as far away as Virginia, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin attended. The attraction for everyone was to see people they hadn’t seen in years, some we hadn’t seen since we graduated over 40 years ago. Of course the topics of conversations ranged from what we have been doing in the past four decades to how our retirement plans have taken a beating in this recession. Photos of children and grandchildren were passed around. Most of the talk, though, centered on the childhood that we shared - the city co-championship CYO football team, sneaking a smoke behind Oscar’s Barbershop, and king of the hill battles fought on the snow piles in the playground during the winter. And the teachers - lay men and women, nuns and priests who taught us, and the things we tried to do to get over on them.

People who hadn’t seen each other in ages felt as comfortable as they did when they were kids. One person said that when we were young and in school during the 1960s we hadn’t developed the facades that we learned in our teen years, working life, marriage and parenthood. That night we were the same children that once trudged to the school at the corner of Madison and Lincoln. We knew we all came from the same place and that was all that mattered.

As the night ended Mary Ellen Fitzgerald, the first girl I ever kissed, asked me to dance. We rocked to Neil Diamond’s Kentucky Woman. At the end of the song she knelt down in front of my wheelchair and gave me a kiss. I glanced at my wife, who smiled, not at me, but at the little boy I was way back then.

The afternoon of the reunion I wrote the following poem.

When We Were Kids

By Tom Fahey

  When we were kids - we all dressed up for mass -

and we left feeling holy - still smelling the incense.

When we were little kids - the mass was said in mysterious Latin -

and we looked at the back of the priest.

When we were older kids - they spoke in English -

the priest facing us - staring at our sinful souls.

On Saturdays we would shuffle off to church -

and enter the little room - slightly bigger than a casket -

that smelled of Murphy’s Oil Soap - and adult transgressions -

saying the words “Bless me father for I have sinned…” -

and proceed to tell God’s messenger of all the misdeeds that a 10 year old can commit.

When we were kids - we were taught by nuns - who wore black and white -

who saw the world in black and white - who terrified us and made us learn -

or suffer the consequences of hell and damnation.

They would punish us with a ruler - and a paddle - and a twist of the ear.

But often when we got home our parent’s punishments were worse.

When we were kids - we road our bikes through Lakewood - and the valley - and beyond.

Exploring our world - running through back yards -

picking fruit from trees - left over from when our city was an orchard.

We played in the playgrounds - on the swings - on the slides  -and on the monkey bars.

We played ball at the school playgrounds - pick up games -and CYO.

Our parents rarely came to the games like we do today.

We were left to our own devices and inventions much of the time -and we made up creative games -

like “off the wall” - “buck buck” - and “king of the hill”.

We were sort of like the kids in the Peanuts cartoon - without an adult in sight.

When we were kids - born as we were in the middle of the baby boom.

Our fathers - with memories of World War II  and the Great Depression.

Our older brothers and cousins and neighbors - went off to a place called Vietnam.

And we watched it nightly on TV - with Cronkite and LBJ  - giving us the count -

them 97 dead - us 12 dead - and yet we still lost.

When we were kids - television went from black and white to color.

And we watched Disney - and Martin Luther King - and a man on the moon -

and Jim Brown - and The Beatles - and we were amazed!

When we were kids - we heard Sister Madonna’s voice -

Telling us that John F Kennedy had been shot -

a few minutes later that he had died - and they dismissed us to go home -

and we shuffled back to our parents - who were sad - and had to explain to us -

why our leader - a fellow Catholic - had been taken from us.

And years later - his brother also was murdered.

And there were no answers.

We seemed like innocents in a time that has lost its way.

When we were kids - we had such dreams of greatness - and wonderful deeds -

of being more than what we were - of going past our own existence -

of achievements - and daring - and maybe even fame.

Most of those dreams - as most dreams do - faded away to wishes.

We moved on to the craziness of the teenage years - the striving of our careers.

Many of us raised families - and see the dreams of our children.

And we root for them so!

Today we are older and grayer - some are balder and fatter.

I might be a little wiser - but I don’t know for sure -

what I knew then for sure- when we were kids.

I know I am happy to be still alive -

with a spark of the spunk that I had back then.

With family and friends that I am there for -

and who are there for me.

Tonight is a night for us to look back -

and remember -

and wonder.

When we were kids - we were really something!