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My Return to St . Pascal's
Mary Trecartin Culhane - class of 1/54
This past September I returned to our "OLD STOMPING GROUNDS",
along with my brother, Bill & his wife, Fran (Foery). They were from
the class of June '51.
We were happily surprised to see the school , church & neighborhood
in such fine shape. We took a tour of the school, which is now a school
for retarded persons. The condition of the building was
"excellent" In fact, I think it was better then when we attended
school. The floors, windows, walls, etc. were "beaming" &
brightly painted. All of the rooms on the first & second floors
appeared the same except for a few more offices. Even the balcony off
rooms 8a & 8b looked the same. Remember how we thought we were
"hot stuff" to be old enough to sit there for the assemblies,
not to mention the Wed. movies? The auditorium where we performed
our great plays was exactly the way I remembered... maybe a wee bit
smaller!
The really big change was down in the basement -- the cafeteria (or
lunch room) was converted into more classrooms along with a huge
commercial kitchen area. The door & wall trims were beautifully
painted & we observed students working in the classrooms. I thought
back to when we used to line up down there in inclement weather. I could
almost "smell" the raincoats & boots, as well as the wet
paper lunch bags.
We saw both the Girls & the Boys playgrounds outside. They too
looked a little smaller then we remembered. It made us all feel so good to
see that "our" school was still being used productively &
was still "looking good".
Then we went over to the church, but the doors were locked. Luckily we
found Sister Susan at the rectory & she was so eager to show us
through the church. It is still beautiful!!!!! The altar has changed - it
is now sitting out a lot closer to the pews & of course, is turned
around.
Remember the front altars to the sides of the main one? Well, they are
no longer there. The statues from them (weren't they of Mary & St.
Joseph?) are now at the sides of the church where the confessionals used
to be. The stained glass windows along the sides are now a clear color.
Oh, I almost forgot -- the hat clips are still mounted on the pews! All of
the original wood from the altar rails were used in the new carpentry for
the altars & pulpit. The choir loft looked the same, although we
didn't go up.
Sister told us that the parish is a very active one & invited us
back to attend a service. She was amazed that we had returned to see our
school & church. We were only sorry that we hadn't brought a camera
with us so we could have brought home pictures to share with everyone. If
some day you are looking for something to do, I strongly recommend taking
a ride back to your youth. I think you will enjoy it as much as we did. We
left there saying to each other, "What a great day we
had."
To put the finishing touch on our day, we went to WHITE CASTLES, on Springfield
Blvd.-- near where The Little Sisters of the Poor convent is.
January, 2000 |