One Catholic School Alum in the Family

Today is the beginning of National Catholic Schools Week for 2025.  And Catholic schools actually played a role in my family, notwithstanding that none of my ancestors (at least as far as I know) was Catholic per se.

When my father was born, my grandmother was almost 43 years old (although she thought she was almost 42), which in 1935 was a relatively advanced age to be having a child, especially since her last children (twins) had been born 20 years previously.  She probably was not planning or expecting to become pregnant.

But pregnant she was, and she thought the sun rose and set on my father (which, I have been told, rather annoyed her first child, my father's half-sister who was 21 years older than he).  She wanted the best of everything for him, including an education.  In rural New Jersey in the 1940's, the best education you could find was at Catholic school.  And if you went to Catholic school in the 1940's, that meant you were going through catechism and essentially growing up Catholic.

So my father grew up Catholic.  He told me about the religion lessons and the nuns rapping his knuckles with rulers.  He went through confirmation (his confirmation name was Joseph).

Did he actually get the good education my grandmother wanted?  I haven't seen his school records from New Jersey, so I don't really know.  But if what my mother said about how he did in public high school in Florida was similar to his performance in Catholic school in New Jersey, maybe not.

My mother told me that my father had to take American history three times to graduate.  It wasn't that he didn't understand it, she said (and I know my father was very intelligent), but that he just didn't want to be bothered with it, and so he didn't pass the first two times.  After it was made clear to him that he had to pass the class to get the diploma, he finally did.

And here's the proof:

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Junior High School (or Middle School) Memories

It's time to think of school days for this week's challenge on Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music):

(1) Do you have memories of your junior high school (or mddle school) years?  Please share several of them.

(2) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook.  Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your blog post on this post.

Okay, here's mine!

Junior high school holds a special place in my heart because it was the first time I stayed in the same school start to finish.  I attended all three complete years — 7th, 8th, and 9th grades, 1973–1976 — at C. W. Ruckel Junior High School in Niceville, Florida.

I rode the bus to school most of the time.  It was a 10-mile trip from Villa Tasso to Niceville.  Sometimes during the winter it was too cold (dipping below freezing) or too flooded from rain (washing out the "streets") for my brother and me to walk to the bus stop.  Then my mother would drive us in, or we would go in with a neighbor if the water levels were too high for my mother's Corvair.  Water coming up through the floorboards was never a good sign.

I took advanced classes all through junior high school.  For my first year, my 6th-grade teacher registered me for them, leaving one class period for me to choose my own elective, and I continued with them for the following two years.  The advanced classes were math, English, science, history, and probably something else.  I think I took chorus all three years.  I started Spanish classes in junior high school, with Mrs. Lourdes Adams.  Mrs. Arpke was my English teacher.  (Wow, I dragged those names out of my memory!)  I did well in all of my classes.  I probably still have most of my report cards, although they're buried in storage.

I didn't socialize much, partly because of living 10 miles out of town and partly because I wasn't in any of the social cliques.  I was tall, skinny, gangly, unattractive, too smart, and still pretty new to the area.  My only friends were other students in the advanced classes.  My best friend was Eileen.  We met in 8th grade and have stayed friends since, even with each of our moves to various parts of the United States and around the world.  I just visited her last week.

I did not particiate in extracurricular school activities.  My mother often picked us up after school because she was usually in town by that point.  We might run errands with her before heading home and doing homework.

I helped my brother with sorting baseball cards every time he got a new (to him) bunch of cards.  I practiced piano at home and sewed clothing for my dolls.  I don't remember hobbies beyond that.

I participated in Girl Scouts, as a Junior Girl Scout.  At the end of 9th grade, we had a big trip to Atlanta.  The chaperone who drove the car I was in got lost in the city and freaked out because we ended up in the black section of town.  I was the only one who could read a  map, and I got us to the hotel.  We visited Underground Atlanta and Stone Mountain.  I'm sure we visited more sites than that, but those are the ones I remember.

As my 9th grade graduation present, I spent several weeks, maybe a month?, with my grandparents in southern Florida.  They lived in a retirement community, so there weren't kids of my age around.  I hung out in the sun and got sunburnt but had a great time visiting with them.  It was the first time I flew by myself.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your "Place Line"

Randy Seaver is floating a new concept tonight for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1) We're all familiar with timelines — date, location, event, etc. — for events in our lives.  This week, create a Place Line for your life, or for the life of one of your parents or grandparents — your choice!  In that Place Line, tell us the location (address if possible), inclusive dates (if possible), and events.  Consider categories such as residences, schools, churches, employment, etc.

(2) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

Place lines, huh?  Well, let's see where this goes.

Residences

• Well, I could copy them all again, but since I created a list of my residences for a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post a mere four years ago, I figure I'll put a link to that post:  Janice's residences through August 31, 2017.

• As I mentioned at the end of that post, the total was 27 residences, and I was about to move to my 28th.  That's where I still am, 1009 NE 196th Avenue in Gresham, Oregon, as of September 1, 2017.  I plan to stay here another 20 years or so.

Schools

• Hey, what do you know?  In February 2017, for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Randy had us write about all the places we went to school!  So here's a link to that post:  Janice's schools from 1967–2000.  I have not added any formal education to my list since that time.

Churches

Well, this is a really short list.

• While my family lived in Pomona, I occasionally used to go to church with the Lamey family, who lived across the street.  I think it was an Episcopalian church, but don't hold me to that, and I have no idea what the address could have been.  This would have been in late 1970 and early 1971.

• When we moved to Niceville, Florida, I went regularly (at least for a while, probably 1973 to maybe 1974) to the First Baptist Church (now the First Baptist Church on Bayshore), 622 Bayshore Drive, which was across the street from my grandfather's house.  We probably went there because that's where Grandpa went.  I remember the church had a bus that went around town and picked people up; I boarded in the trailer park where we were living.  I had perfect attendance on the bus (don't remember how long that took) and earned a personalized King James Bible.  Not long after that I stopped going, not because my goal had been to earn the Bible, but because I just couldn't take that much organized religion.

And that's it for me and churches.  I have never attended a synagogue on a regular basis; I think I've been to services two or three times in my life (and one of those was in Paris, France).  I never saw my mother in a synagogue, but I went to Midnight Mass with her more than once while we lived in Niceville, at what was probably the only Catholic church there at the time.

Employment

• Another great coincidence!  For Labor Day a few years ago, I created a list of the jobs I have held, and that post is right here.  I have nothing to add to the list since leaving BART as a train operator.

===

I don't have as many actual addresses as Randy does.  As usual, I am impressed with the amount of detail Randy remembers about years past, while I am lagging behind quite a bit in that department.  But I did find it amusing that I had already created three of the lists he suggested for tonight's post.  And now I have collated that information together so one of my relatives can learn where I lived, was educated, and worked.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: How Did You Get to School?

I am revisiting my childhood for this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver:

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music, please!):

(1)  How did you get to your school(s) through high school?

(2) Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.

It's obvious from Randy's comment about having gone to three schools (only three!) that his family didn't move around as much as mine did (there's a reason my mother earned the nickname "the wandering Jew").  Let me see how many I can recall . . . .

I don't really remember how I traveled to elementary school, or actually how many schools I attended during the years my family lived in California.  We left in March 1971 while I was in 3rd grade.  I know I was at Rorimer Elementary in 1st grade; that is in La Puente.  When we moved to Pomona I'm sure I went to a different school, so that's at least two.  I think I went by bus when I lived in Pomona.  Maybe my mother drove me (and my sister?) to Rorimer, or maybe my sister's mother did?  I guess I should ask my sister about that to see what she remembers.  But there may have been a school between Rorimer and Pomona.

In Australia I attended two elementary schools:  Daceyville Public School for the 4th grade (which I was in for only the second half of the school year) and Woollahra Demonstration School for the 5th grade.  I remember my mother driving me to Woollahra, because she complained about it, but there may have been a bus to Daceyville.

When my family returned to the United States, we moved to Niceville, Florida.  I had three months of the 6th grade, at James E. Plew Elementary School.  (And for those who are counting, that makes at least five elementary schools I attended.)  I rode the bus to school there.

I remember telling my mother that whether she moved or not, I wanted to go to the same school for all my years of junior high school and high school and not have to be the "new kid" in school.  I actually managed to accomplish that.  I rode the bus to school at C. W. Ruckel Junior High School and Niceville Senior High School, even after we moved 10 miles from Niceville out to Villa Tasso.  We moved while I was still in junior high school.  The school bus picked us up in Villa Tasso on County Line Road, because Niceville is in Okaloosa County and Villa Tasso is in Walton County, just over the county line.

When there was really bad rain, however, my mother sometimes drove us to school from Villa Tasso, because we didn't have paved roads, and they often flooded in the rain, so we couldn't safely walk to the bus stop.  And if the temperature was below zero (which does happen in the Florida panhandle) she might drive us also.  Sometimes she just drove us to the bus stop, though.

Until now, I have never thought about whether we were actually in the residence area for Niceville schools once we moved to Villa Tasso.  We must have been, because the bus came out there.  And really, we were so far away from everything else in Walton County that it wouldn't have been practical for Walton to bus us anywhere.  I guess the counties worked out something.

Wordless Wednesday

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Where Did You Go to School?

This week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge is one of those rare few when I have more information than Randy:

For this week's mission (should you decide to accept it), I want you to:

(1)  Michael John Neill started an interesting Facebook meme:  When and where did you go to school?  

(2)  Tell us in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a status line on Facebook or a stream post on Google Plus.  Be sure to leave a link to your post in Comments on this post.

• September 1967 (I believe) to 1969 or possibly 1970:  I attended Rorimer Elementary School in La Puente, California.  I don't really remember anything about the school other than the name.

• 1969 or 1970–March 1971:  From La Puente my family moved to Pomona, California, so I'm sure I changed schools.  I have no idea what the name of the school was or what grade I was in.  I think we took a bus to school there.  I know I was in the 3rd grade when we left and moved to Australia, in March 1971.

• April to late November or early December 1971:  4th grade at Daceyville Public School in Daceyville, New South Wales, near Sydney.  I remember I learned to play the recorder while at Daceyville, and I think I did some stage plays. I learned to tie a Windsor knot, because a tie was part of the school uniform.  My mother might have driven me, my brother, and my sister to school.  This is also the school I was attending when my mother had to come in person to sign a document stating that it was ok for me to take a school period to study during the religion time slot.  My mother told me I refused to go to church classes.

• About February to late November or early December, 1972:  For the 1972 academic year, I was in 5th grade at Woollahra Demonstration School in Woollahra, also near Sydney. This was a school for advanced students, all taking advanced classes. I remember my embroidery/needlwork class, which I really enjoyed. I remember the school uniforms, particularly my sports uniform, which was very different from my everyday one; we had sports once a week.  I still have a stencil for drawing a map of Australia that I got from class.  My mother drove me to school and picked me up.

• March–June 1973:  My family returned to the United States in March 1973, and I went into the 6th grade from April to June 1973 at James E. Plew Elementary School, in lovely Niceville, Florida.  My teacher's name was Mr. Rich, and I ended up explaining one of the class textbooks to him.  He took it upon himself to register me for 7th grade, signing me up for all the advanced classes.  He did let me pick my own elective.  I took a schoolbus to and from school.

• September 1973–(probably) June 1979:  I actually attended junior high school, C. W. Ruckel Junior High School, and senior high school, Niceville Senior High School, both in Niceville, with no moving out of the area, and finishing all three years at each.  While I was in junior high school, I announced to my mother that it was ok if she wanted to move again, but I was going to finish a school for once in my life.  Lucky for me, my mother did not move.  If she had, I might have ended up living at my grandfather's house, or maybe my aunt's.  I think I took a bus to get to Ruckel, and most of the time I took the bus to go to high school.  If the (unpaved) streets in Villa Tasso had flooded or it was a below-zero morning (yes, we had those on the Panhandle), my mother would drive me to school.

• September 1979–about November 1988:  After graduating high school, I moved back to California to go to the University of Southern California.  My degree was a Bachelor of Arts with a French major, Russian and Spanish minors.  After graduation, I continued to take classes on a a part-time basis through 1988.  I lived near campus.  I usually rode my bicycle to and from campus.

• 1987 or 1988:  While I was going to USC part-time, I also took two semesters of tailoring classes at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College.  I don't remember exactly when, but it was probably in 1987 or 1988.

• September 1989 to about 1992:  I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and started taking American Sign Lauguage, music, computer, and creative writing classes at Vista College (now reincarnated as Berkeley City College) in Berkeley.  I used to drive to and from my ASL classes, and parking was always terrible, even at night, because Vista was in the middle of downtown Berkeley.  The creative writing classes I took were held on the UC Berkeley campus, also a horrible place to have to look for parking.  (Vista was in a small building without a lot of rooms or capacity).

• About 1992 to 1993:  I took orchestral performance and class voice at Laney Community College.  More horrible parking at a downtown location.

• About 1993 to 2000:  I discovered someone was teaching millinery at College of Alameda and took her class for seven years.

I think that covers everything.  All of that and only one degree!