Picture book
“At St E’s high school
-St E’s Haiku
We talked, laughed and also cried
Each day was a gift”
Welcome to the online Yearbook of the St Elizabeth High School, class of 1974. We were too apathetic to organize a yearbook in 1974 and now trying to make up for it 50 years later. Never too late – or is it?
What we Loved
- Tender Maid Donuts and Danny’s Donuts in that order.
- Hanging out smoking at the beginning of the day, lunch and end of school time and in-between any classes if possible.
- When it was lunchtime. -RC
- Getting a visit from charismatic priests
- The small class size – JM
- That you knew everybody, grades ahead & behind. – JM
- I loved the wide variety of extracurricular activities we had available. I was in the Black Pin theater group, chess club, computer club, debate, golf, photography. There was also basketball, baseball, cheerleading, newspaper, choir? Music? – GG
- I liked how much free time we had as seniors. I liked hanging out before school on warm days. – GG
- I loved that Monsignor would let us out early on good weather days. -JC
- I loved hanging out with friends. -SB
- I also liked the basketball games. My brothers, Tim and Thom, were on the team and it was sometimes very exciting. I was on the girl’s team because my friend, Joanne Herald, was on it but I was not a good player and the JV team that I was on for one year had a poor record: we lost one game 4-3…
– SB
What we Hated
- Going to daily Mass.
- Getting embarrassed by something someone said.
- Being called on to answer in class when not paying attention – RC
- Being a klutz at team sports – GG
- That we almost NEVER got snow days. Damn Father Crowley & his chains for the buses.
-JM - I hated school in general – I very frequently used to wake up in the morning and insist that I was ill and couldn’t go. My mom was wise to my tricks, of course. It was really about lack of confidence and anxiety but I didn’t find out about all of that until much later. – SB
“She was a youngish nun, somewhere in her twenties or thirties, but with her haunted expression and feeble gait she appeared both elderly and infantile. This was her first year at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow, the one Catholic parish in Cloverdale, Pennsylvania, and here she was, isolated in the old school building with twenty-eight sixth graders.”
Excerpt from ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow’ by Terri Campion
- Knee length skirts – NO WAY
- Tender Maid donuts – YES, great for smoking etc.
- Cars – ask your parents
- Basketball games – YES
- Bill Greens – not much happening there
- Downtown – fer sure. Three Rivers the best!
- Southland Shopping Centre – sigh, should have been more than it was, but it was all we had.
- Slag dump – smelly, but visually exciting
- Streets run road – Strange, had a certain mysterious charm coupled with back woods Pennsylvania/Appalachia
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
–Kurt Vonnegut
“On Career Day in high school, you don’t walk around looking for the cartoon guy.”
– Gary Larson
Lessons learned (the Hard Way)
From Jessica Montgomery
Don't roll your eyes when a teacher is yelling at you
"Leslie & I were in Mrs. Taylor's class & she used to have square dancing one day a week or something. Leslie & I got called up & she was yelling at us about something. She turned around to quiet the class. Leslie & I looked at each other doing the giant eye roll/sigh. Just then she turns around & catches us. "I could just slap your faces!"
(Totally ruined square dancing for me after that)."
St Elizabeth Parish
The Church
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Bonum negas esse divitias, praeposìtum esse dicis? Haeret in salebra. Quo tandem modo? Comprehensum, quod cognitum non habet? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Nihil opus est exemplis hoc facere longius.
Sit sane ista voluptas. Haec igitur Epicuri non probo, inquam. Hoc enim constituto in philosophia constituta sunt omnia. Sed residamus, inquit, si placet. Ecce aliud simile dissimile. Haec et tu ita posuisti, et verba vestra sunt.
The building of the bell tower.
The School
The oldest part of St. Elizabeth School, opened in 1943, faced Grove Place and was a dark, two-story brick building with large windows facing the street. As I remember, the interior was painted a moldy-green color. The principal’s office was on the second floor at the far end of the building – there was a smaller entrance to that part of the school, right off Irwin Drive, that lead straight to the principal’s office. I think we had two principals during our school years, Sr. Virginia and Sr. Theodore. I steered clear of both of them as much as possible. Read more
Faculty
Everyone who ever went to school has stories about teachers, aka, the Faculty. I think our faculty from a small Catholic school has better stories. Ours consisted of nuns and lay people, men & women. After all, it was a different time. read more
Albums 1974
Peace and Love
“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.”
Excerpt from ‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott