Holy Trinity High School, Class of 1958

 I sent out an e-mail request for stories and pictures and I posted them here.  I started a Centennial website with more Holy Trinity History. 

Story Links

Brother John remembers Smitty the Stunt Man.

Tom Mach Remembers Brothers Fergus, Leon, James and Theophilus and mostly Ron Pietruska.

Chester remembers itching powder

Greg Lopatka remembers his 1st week at Holy Trinity 

Brother Joseph Chvala taught me 2 years of French in one year.

Jerry Hamziuk remembers Brothers Theophilus and Joseph Chavala

George Job (1960) remembers Brother Raymond

Jim Schmidt remembers Brother Charles

Chester Galiga Remembers Brother Joseph Walter the practical joker.

Carolyn Steck tells us how Holy Trinity got cheerleaders They were put on probation before they even started!

I wanted to Play Hookie

Ron Lipowski remembers Brother Fergus Burns' Gluck Box

Brother Fergus Burns' Rabbit Board

Smitty borrows a nickel

Click here to see the 50th Reunion Name Tags

Brother Vince with the 1958 Class Officers and Dates. 

Chester Lis and his wife Arlene

Chester Lis and Bob Grygiel leave with their diplomas under the watchful eye of Brother Joseph Walter.

Chester in 1956, before Brother Joseph Dudek installed face protecting bars on our helmets.

Thanks to Chester Lis for sharing these photos.  

Stories from the 50s!

I sent out the following e-mail on August 14, 2008:

Dear Class of 1958 member, As I'm looking through our yearbooks, some fond memories flash into my head.  In today's paper,  I saw a mention of Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.  I immediately thought of Brother Maurice Healy, I had him for History that year and he let us listen to that game in class.  He was from New York and he was a big Yankee fan.  He didn't know it when he turned on the radio, but he did let us share a historic memory. If you have a memory about a teacher or classmate that I could share in our program, please send it on and I'll post them here.  

I received the following from Br. John Kuhn: 

I recall that James Schmidt had the unusual talent (?) of being able to drop to his knees at the top of the stairs and then roll all of the way down...and then stand up, unhurt. He especially liked to perform this trick when there was a faculty member around who saw this and thought that James had broken his neck. And then, tah dah, James miraculously stood up, ready to take a bow. Can James still do this? Could you go to the school and have him prove it to you and record the moment on video?

Jim never went on to be a stunt man

I received the following from Tom Mach: 

* I remember Brother upgrading to tennis balls, because they improved his accuracy. G.L.

Chester Lis reminded me of this at our lunch meeting: 

Someone put itching powder in Don Pilch's football pads.  The powder kicked in when he worked up a good sweat.  Ron Sowizrol 57 chimed in with the story about "'Atomic Analgesic Balm" that was placed in someone's jock.  Chet asked if we knew where he could buy that, he said he could use it now that our age group is cursed with more aches and pains than our football coaches gave us.  

Greg Lopatka's first week at Holy Trinity 

My English education got off to a bad start in my first week of High School.  I came back from the playground on a nice fall evening and remembered that I had a composition due for Brother John in the morning.  My brother, who was a senior, asked me what I had to write about.  When I told him my composition title was, "My First Impression of  Holy Trinity", He said, "Give me a pen."  He wrote the funniest story I ever heard, so I went with it.  I copied it over of course in my own handwriting, because those Brothers of Holy Cross were sharp and always on the look out for cheats.  I turned it in and forgot all about until the following day when Brother John stepped to the front of the class, with my paper in his hand and a disgusted look on his face and said, "This gentlemen, is an example of what not to do.  It is written with a leaky speedball pen with barely legible handwriting."  He went on to read my paper, while everybody in the class, except for me and Brother John, was laughing hysterically at every sentence that my witty brother composed.  Herb started the composition with, "When I went to my locker on the first day, I had to remove a moldy old jock strap with a pencil that I later washed." (We didn't throw anything away that was still usable) The composition went on to make fun of the teachers and principal.  He talked about the disgusting food in the lunch room.  I was finished in the first week of school, everything I did was unsatisfactory, so I flunked my first year of English and had to get up every morning at 5:30, catch a bus, then transfer to another bus, so that I could be in English Summer School at St Mel High School.  40 years later, I went to a golf outing and a guy that was called cream puff when he was a little underdeveloped, freshman.  Spotted me in the parking lot, He came in from Colorado and I hadn't seen him since graduation in 1958.  He was yelling, "Moldy old Jock strap"  My brother's literary gem made a life time impression on him.  In High school, average sized guys picked on him, because they could.  I was one of the bigger freshmen, so I felt sorry for him and I was able to get those guy to leave him alone.  That turned out to be a good thing in more than one way, because I stopped growing and Bob Everett, no longer a Cream Puff graduated at 6 feet 3 inches and He was always nice to me, but he paid back some lumps to the guys that picked on him in his freshman year.  When I told this story at our 40th reunion, our former principal, Brother Joseph Walter, told me he used to get a bottle of fine brandy from the principal of St. Mel for sending him summer school students.  

A factory summer job straightened me out:

When I was 16, my Dad got me job at the Birtman Electric Spaulding Ave. plant where we made Kenmore mixers and blenders.  10 weeks in a factory was the best education I ever received, because I went from a C student, who spend all of my spare time at Humboldt Park or Maplewood Playground playing any sport that was in season, to a B student that started reading required books and doing my assignments.  I couldn't see myself working in a factory for 52 weeks, so when I graduated, I started thinking of a way I could play ball for 4 more years.  The Chicago Teachers College had a basketball team and a baseball team, so I applied and took the test.  The Guidance Counselor looked at my test results and suggested that I look for a job, because she gave me a 100 to 1 chance of graduating college with my English skills.  My Math scores were good, but English would do me in.  I thought about getting a job, but I had flash backs to my summer at Birtman Electric and said, "I'll take those odds, sign me up."  I had one thing going for me, I was dating Carole, the women I married 3 years later, and She was an English wizard. Remember, there was no spell check in those days, and I was always the first guy out in the spelling bee.  I misspelled the word even if I knew it, so I could go to my seat with the other goof balls and make funny sounds with my arm pit.  When I was in College, I tried hard to get passing grades, so that I could play on the Basketball and Baseball teams.  Carole was my savior, because I could hand her a sheet of scribbled misspelled notes and she would type a beautiful double spaced masterpiece. When I became a teacher, I had a good understanding of underachieving students, since I was one of the best. 

To read more of my memories, go to: My Oden Days Page.

So sorry to hear that Brother Joseph passed away.  I remember when he came to Holy Trinity.  I was in my sophomore year and he became my French teacher and he expected us to know 2 years of French when we finished his class.  The problem was that most us knew very little French after one year with Brother Leonard.  Us slackers were able to get a passing grade from Brother Leonard if we built a model of something related to France. An Eiffel tower would get you a A and an Arc De Triomphe would get you a B. So I spent more time building a model than I did learning French.  Brother Joseph was appalled at our French proficiency when he took over, so he had us going to school on Saturdays so that we could learn first year French.  I cursed my brother every Saturday when my alarm went off.  Herb was an upper class-man when I entered Holy Trinity and he just finished 2 years of Latin with Brother Theophilus,* so he advised me to take French because his friends got passing grades by building models.  

Merci beaucoup Brother Joseph for your dedication. 

Brother Joseph Chvala, C.S.C.

Resident of Dujarie

Passed away February 11, 2018

 

* My Brother sent the following correction:

Bro Theophilus taught General Science. He had no knowledge of science. He told us they use Helium instead of Hydrogen because Helium was lighter. It’s actually twice as heavy. He knew a lot of misinformation. Painful class. 

Jerry Hamziuk sent the following memory:

I recall we were in our annual retreat and after Mass went back to our Home Rooms for meditation.  Brother Theophlius was our Home Room Teacher and had given us religious magazines to read.  We sat in the room alphabetically so George Idzikowski was behind me.  Brother notice the smile and giggle of George and quietly came up behind us and asked George what he was reading.  He was caught and Brother took his magazine away.   Afterwards I asked why he was upset and took the magazine and he replied that  he had a copy of the magazine “Who’s Who In Burlesque” on top of the magazine he was given.

 On another occasion some of us decided to have some fun in a Religion class taught by Brother Chavala.  He had a habit of teaching/standing in front of his desk.  After he got started some of us began looking at the floor/baseboard and staring as if a mouse was there.  We moved our eyes from left to right and then looking at the side of the room for the “imaginary mouse”.  I remember him casually folding the book he had and going back behind his desk to subtly “check out” what we were looking at.

At that the gig was up and I remember we all were asked to get back to the business of learning Religion.

 

Many more like Clem Prusko nailing me with a right hand in boxing during gym ending any ambitions I had to become a boxer.

  *Jim Schmidt told me at the Golf Outing that a punch from Lou Zielinski had a similar effect on him. G.L

Thanks Jerry, that reminded me of a George Idzikowski story.  I went to St. Mark grade school with George, Jim Schmidt, Phil Tazbier and Ron Bristen.  I had a fight on the playground with George in 7th or 8th grade. The Nun looked the other way and let us settle it. Later she told me that she didn't interfere, because I looked like I was doing OK and George needed a beating.  

I also have a Brother Joseph Chvala story.  I invited him to the reunion by "snail mail" with the following letter:

Dear Brother,

            I graduated from Holy Trinity in 1958.  We are having our 50th reunion on September 21, 2008 and we would like to have you attend as our guest. (see attached sheet) Just call or e-mail me if you can attend and I'll have a spot for you.

            I remember you vividly, because you made me and some of my classmates learn 2 years of French in 1 year.  You had us going to school on Saturdays to catch up.  My brother, who was a senior at the time, told me to take French, because I could get a C from Brother Leonard without much work.  At that time, all I wanted to do was play ball.  (Football, Basketball and Baseball)  I needed at least a C to stay eligible, so I took his advice and took Freshman French and got a C, when I built a nice model of a Guillotine for Brother Leonard's collection of French items.  When you showed up, you were shocked that some of your 2nd year French Students didn't know much French, so you made us catch up.  Thanks for that, I understood your efforts after I graduated and became a Chicago Public School Teacher in 1962.  I retired after teaching elementary school for 39 years.  I have been married for 46 years and we have 4 children, 8 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter.

Visit my website for more information at: http:/www.lopatka.net/

 

I hope you can make it. Maybe you can catch a ride from one of the following brothers who are planning to attend:

Brother Roy Smith, Brother Robert Filmore

Brother John Kuhn, Brother Raymond Papenfuss

Sincerely,

 Gregory F. Lopatka

From: George Job

I was in the class of 1960, but I will share two about Brother Raymond for you. 

 

First was  Wolfgang Werfel, the author.  We were discussing Werfel in his class and Brother Ray, very young then, found the name humorous and suggested it must have inspired people to call out "Hey, Werfel."  Several of us turned to each other and said "Hey, Pappenfuss" a bit too loud.  We got Jug for our irreverence, which we thought pretty funny.

 

Brother Raymond viewed films at the Crown Theater on the southwest corner of Division and Ashland in what evidently were the last days of the theater.  He told us that it was hard to tell if the crunching sound under his feet was popcorn or roaches. 

  

Jim Schmidt gave me this one at the Holy Trinity Golf Outing:

A month or so into our freshman year, Our Prefect of Discipline, Brother Charles, call Jim over and said, "What is your name son?" Jim told him and Brother Charles replied, "Your really good, or really sneaky, because I don't know you." Jim didn't know what to say, so he said nothing.  We had a nice turn out of 1958 grads at the reunion.  I had Bob Mulsoff in my 4 some, while Chester Lis and his wife were passing out goodies at the sign up and collecting money at the close of the Silent Auction.  Chester Galiga took a lot of abuse for being the drink guy.  At most golf outings they have a pretty girl making the rounds with a cooler full of beer.  Jim Schmidt and Walt Welninski played early 4 somes, but they showed up at the Mutiny to share a beverage.  I was disappointed that all of the guys that wrote that they love to golf didn't show up. Click here for Golf Outing Pictures

When "Smitty" was asked about his stunt man antics that Brother John wrote about, he admitted that it was all true, in fact he once jumped out of a moving car and did his roll, just for laughs.

Chester Galiga gave me this Brother Joseph Walter* memory at the Holy Trinity Golf Outing:   

Chester wondered out the smoking area when he was in his Junior year. Our Principal, Brother Joseph Walter called Chester over and offered him a cigarette. Seniors were allowed to smoke out there, but Juniors needed a note from their parents if they wanted to smoke, so Chester turned down the unusual offer.  He was afraid that if he took the smoke, he might be headed for a smack with Brother Charles' paddle.  Our Principal insisted that he light up and promised that he would not be punished.  Chester reluctantly took the cigarette and lit it up.  When he took a drag, the cigarette exploded in his face.  Brother Joseph Walter and all of the seniors had a good laugh.

*Brother Joseph Walter just passed away on June 19, 2008, He will be missed.

I remember a bifocal joke that Brother Joseph Walter told us way back in 1958 when we didn't know what bifocals were.  It goes like this:

A guy came into the room and his pants were all wet.  When he was asked to explain, he blamed it on his new bifocal glasses.  He said, "I went to the men's room to relieve myself and when I looked down, I saw 2 penises, so I put one away."  He didn't get a big laugh right away, because the guys that understood the joke, were cautious like Chester was.  After he explained how bifocal glasses can cause double vision, he got a few giggles. 

 

Little Did You Know:  1954 was the re-start of the Cheerleaders for Holy Trinity.

Attending my first High School football game was quite an experience.  No cheers, and no enthusiasm for the team, turned out to be very depressing.  After all, my father graduated from Holy Trinity and my brother is attending Holy Trinity.  I had to do something.  I decided cheerleading was the answer.

 So, two of us walked over to the Holy Trinity office to meet with the Principal.  (Can you imagine my ignorance of that request?  Only a Freshman mentality…)  We were told Holy Trinity had a bad experience in the past with cheerleaders and, therefore, never again.  Brother Joseph Walter was pretty firm on this.  With a little tap dance and fast talk (also agreeing to say the Rosary to change his mind…hummm – threw that in for good luck), we got a smirk from both Brother Walter and Brother Charles, who was asked to join this conversation.  They agreed to put the girls on probation for the rest of the football season.  Our enthusiasm and determination did show that season.  Even the crowd started to react, to some degree, whether we won or lost (mostly lost). 

Recruiting girls from Holy Family Academy to cheer was not a problem.  After all, new to the High School scene and the opportunity to mix with the boys across the street, why not.?

We earned those heavy sweaters for the basketball season.  My Mom sewed all the skirts (which, by the way, had to pass muster), and individually made our own pompons.  We met regularly creating all our routines, and gathering up the school cheers as we went along.  Some of our routines are still being used by today’s cheerleaders, I’m happy to say.

 So you see, 1954 was the beginning of something good.  To-date, cheerleading has since continued on in the school.  Hip Hip Hooray!

 Carolyn Steck  (Topper's Sister) 

Go Tigers!

*My Mom graduated from Holy Family Academy (HFA) in 1932, she told me they called it the Hot Flappers Association. G.L.

 

One year later, Carolyn and her recruits  were in our year book!  They must have made a Novena!  Carolyn (3rd from the left) and Lana (5th from the Left) will be at our 50th Reunion.  Those skirts were pretty short, I can almost see a knee.

Chester Lis sent this newspaper picture.   I gave Chesters Lis and Galiga a sneak preview of our Reunion Power Point Presentation at our August lunch outing.

There were days when I felt like skipping school, but I never had the guts to do that because I knew I would get caught and the punishment was not worth a day off.  I tried to fake an illness some days, but my Mom insisted that you have a fever over 100.  My brother taught me to rub the thermometer so that the friction would get the mercury to expand and give a false reading.  I never was able to pull that off.  

I usually walked to school, I never knew how far it was until I Googled it.  50 years later, I found out it is 1.8 miles from Rockwell Street and North Ave. to Holy Trinity.  I walked east on North then southeast on Milwaukee Ave.  As I got close to Division Street, I could see the sky line of the Chicago calling me to keep going straight and skip school.  I never did, I always turned left on Division and went to school.  Then one day when we had no school, I got up early like it was a school day, I walked toward school and when I got to Division Street, I kept walking toward the Loop.  (about 5 miles) I walked around like a small town hick looking at the tall buildings.  I went to Woolworths and had a BLT, a chocolate malt and a Banana Split for $1.14.  I took the subway home and got home and went over to Humboldt Park and played baseball near the Kosciuszko Monument.

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time! And you didn't pay for air and, you got trading stamps too! 

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box!

My Dad bought a 1956 Buick Century.  After 10 months of washing and simonizing that car, I finally got to take it out on a date.  The car was so big, I asked 2 of my friends to make it a triple date!  We had my date and me in the front and 2 couples in the back.  We went dancing at the Melody Mill, where Resurrection Annie was seen many times.  She was a ghost that would dance the night away with some poor sap, then jump out of his car on the way home and disappear into Resurrection Cemetery.  We went to a Drive In restaurant after the dance and we had the Radio playing some WLS Top 40 hits with the head lights on and the engine off, to save gas and protect the environment from that giant V-8.  We ate and sang until it was time to get home and avoid my Mom's wrath. You guessed it, I ran the battery down and the car would not start.  It had a Dino Flow automatic transmission, so we would have had to push it (in our suits and ties) to about 30 MPH, that was not an option, so I made the dreaded call to my home, where my Mom picked it up on the first ring, She would have answered sooner, but her hands were wrapped in the Rosary Beads.  She was probably expecting a call from the police with some tragic news, so when she heard my voice, she was relieved and reassured that the Rosary still works, but she was still mad at Dad for letting me take the car out of the garage that night, so She let him have it, She yelled to wake up my Dad, "Go get your car!" My dad figured that I must have wrapped it around a pole, so he was relieved when I told him it was only a dead battery.  He got the keys to Uncle Frank's Nash Rambler (That is the one that was banned from Dive in Movies, because the seats folded down to make a bed) When My Dad arrived at the Drive in Restaurant with jumper cables, He was not in the bad mood that I expected, He was joking around with my friends and giving me a lesson about car battery care.  I knew that day, what I always suspected that my Dad was a saint!

This is the Western Avenue station of the Humboldt Park El. This is the way we got around town. El trains (elevated trains) like this shook our house every 20 minutes, because the Humboldt Park line was only a few houses away.  It was noisy, but we got used to it.  Sort of like that apartment in the movie The Blues Brothers, but not as bad.  We could get to the "Loop" or Wrigley Field in 25 minutes.

Remember when we played Solitaire with cards?

Here are some pages from the Power Point Presentation that will be shown at the Reunion.

The arrows point to the guys that we will see at the reunion

When the period was nearly over, Brother Fergus finally got around to telling us what to do with our Gluck Box.  He told us to take it with us when we go fishing and when the the fish aren't biting, grab the string and throw the Gluck Box into the lake.  We quickly asked as the bell rang, "What does it do?" He said it goes Gluck, Gluck, Gluck as it sinks to the bottom.  Nobody questioned him about the density of a plywood board with 81 holes in it.  It would surely be less than the density of water (1 gram/cubic centimeter) and therefore make a splash and then float.  The Gluck Box should have been named the Splash Box. Bob Grygiel sent in the following version of the Gluck Box, which makes more sense than the one that I dug out of my 68 year old brain. This one will sink, so if you plan to make one, use his version. Bro Fergus had a wry sense of humor. His story of the Gluck Box goes like this. He asked the class does any one know what a Gluck Box is? Nobody raised their hands. So he proceeds to explain. A gluck box needs to be built. You build this box of wood any dimensions you choose. You next take a drill and create as many holes in the box as you choose. Nothing yet. Lastly you drop this box into water and listen very carefully. As it begins to sink you hear, gluck gluck gluck gluck. The class looked at him then looked around the class. Blank faces then snickers from everyone. Stuck in my mind and had used it every time to tell my new class this joke. Same response Duh.*   Bob Grygiel  *Bob was an elementary school teacher for 35 years in the Homewood School System. The Gluck Box lives on in the brains of his former students.   Brother Fergus used the same technique for teaching us how to make a Rabbit Board.  He let us beg for a few months, then finally gave us the lesson in great detail sometime before the first snowfall.

That Rabbit Board reminded me of a Camp Story. 

In the late 70s, I worked at a Chicago Public Schools camp for inner city kids.  I was sitting near the dinning hall waiting for the high school counselors to bring their campers to dinner.  There were a lot of ground squirrels that the kids liked to chase.  On this occasion, there were a dozen 11 year old boys in hot pursuit of one of the little rodents.  They had him surrounded and as they closed in on him he disappeared into a hole.  One of the boys was so angry, that he got on his knees and yelled into the hole, "Yo Mama!" I called the boy over and had a little heart to heart talk with him.  I always preached the "Golden Rule" so I told him, That little squirrel is probably down there crying his eyes out and telling his friend, "That boy was talking about my Mama." the boy told me he was sorry as I stifled a laugh.   Jim Schmidt told me the following story at the reunion: Jim and I were good friends since grade school, so He needed a loan one day when he brought a date to my neighborhood theater.  The Queen Theater was only a half a block from my house and the admission was 14 cents on week days.  The Crystal Theater was  just 2 blocks west of the Queen but it was very fancy and they charged 25 cents.  You wouldn't impress a date by taking her the the Queen, so Jim took his date to the upscale theater, only to find he was a nickel short when he got there.  He walked over to my house and asked me if he could borrow a nickel.  He tells me I gave him a quarter.  I don't remember that, but Jim swears it is a true story and he never forgot that.

Click here to See my Son's 57 Chevy