<p>Here's a treat from the 1984 April Fools issue of the Review. I just found this overthe weekend at my parent's home. No grade sheets, mid term papers, text books or other memorabilia mond you, THIS I kept. I'll try to scan a few other articles and tidbits as time permits. Sorry for the large size... trying to post the photo as well separately. If you knew Roy Mills this will likely be the way you remember him:</p> <p><img width="650" height="343" src="/uploads/Mills pops text.jpg" alt="" class="" /></p>
<p>yo... rob... too big.. i've had success right clicking in your edit mode, then properties, then adjust the pixels to taste. This looks to good not to be able to read it all. I wish I had know this guy!</p>
FR TOM has announced beer kegs are going to be allowed on campus starting in September; however, all beer must be purchased through the Business Office
SISTER MICHELLE AND SISTER MARY PAT are scheduled to be slated against one another for the opening bout of the SVC 10th annual Mud Wrestling Match. Chocolate pudding will be substituted for mud. All spectators are invited for free desserts afterwards.
MARY ROMANISH of the "Shack" has been accused of plotting a coup to topple the heirarchy of the imperial establishment. She has been sentenced to death by cheeseburgers.
(Anyone remember Mary? - we'd kid around with her tall prices and short portions she was a tough cookie but a great friend to students, she zipped around campus in that faded red Maverick and when it wouldn't start we'd push it backward out of her parking spot and aim downhill. She was a master at catching it in gear then away she went!)
<p>And here, Rob, are a group of Bearcats and Review staff. Some of those on the staff would produce the 1984 April Fool issue. THe work was carried out in the Archabbey Press building at the bottom of the hill across Fraser Purchase Road. Frank Lamendola was the guy who ran the press. Included in the group are members of the infamous "Uncouth", some of whom might actually have turned out to be model citizens. They came to the rescue of the editors by folding 800 copies of the Review when Frank's folding maching broke down.</p> <p><img class="" height="230" width="400" alt="" src="/uploads/review staff(1).jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
Other courses for the fall semester and there instructors (from '84 april fool ish):
Inept Refereeing - Joe Mendola 1001 Joke with a bus - Hap Baby oil and its many uses - Sister Anna How to survive a barroom brawl - Team teaching by Uncouth Erotic Literature - Sister Mary Catherine Pinochle and pool for survival - Mr. Roy Mills Etiquette and leather - Sister Paulette
<p>I came across an old copy of the Saint Vincent Magazine from 1983. On page six is a piece written by a 1957 alum. Here's a couple quotes from it. Some really great stuff about what SVC meant. The alum is Wallace Mulligan, M.D. If he is still with us, hope he won't mind my quoting his words.</p> <p><em>1982. Twenty-five years later we had returned to Saint Vincent and searched for something familiar in the campus, the priests, each other. WE found the ancient Greek truism still in evidence.</em></p> <p><em>...there was a bonding, independent of our religious vagaries, beyond that alleged affection of old grads. Perhaps it was the humor. But more important, there was the respect we had for each other. We had always regarded a lot of things with disdain, but without rancor, then as now. And, as then, we genuinely liked and cared for each other. To find that affection still present when we had lived for years with a unique set of ethical values (always seemingly at variance with society) was a relief.</em></p> <p><em>In the best sense of the word, we were men who had retained the affection for each other, the disdain for all that was, and is, plastic. So it went, after twenty-five years or social convolution, personal adventure, that reuiniting, that reaffirming of all that was good in ourselves, in each other. None of us are great financial success nor social crusaders, nor intellectual giants. Be we got together and found that we liked, even loved each other, that we were okay. And somehow, that was all that was important.</em></p> <p>I make this call to all posters. Keep participating in this thread, and the thread Allow me to Raise My Glass. If you have old Reviews, old Yearbooks, old issues of the Magazine, share some stuff with us, by stuff I mean those things, people, events, humor that had made SVC what it is, what it was.</p>
<p>Right on, ubermensch, and thanks for reproducing those words.</p> <p>Okay. The scene in top floor, Alfred Hall. Old Father Jerome takes us up there to the museum. He's got a chipmunk in one hand, his key in the other. He opens the door. Just to the left is a cage containing an aged rattlesnake without much poison left. I think the snake's name was Albert. Jerome tosses in the terrified chipmunk. Albert takes no notice. "He's so old he doesn't move too quick," Jerome says. "He also has to bite the chipmunk a couple of times because his venom isn't what it used to be."</p> <p>Eventually, Albert does make a move. Goodbye chipmunk. I think Albert eventually died.</p> <p>But Albert wasn't the only attraction. The room was big and it contained the College museum, down to a piece of bread preserved from one of Wimmer's meals! Lots of antiques, Nazi paraphernalia. Against one war was a massively heavy, working condition, World War I Austrian machine gun. We knew it was illegal as hell. In a case was the bat Babe Ruth used when he hit is last homers with the Braves against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. It was certified genuine. How it ever got into the museum, I never knew, unless Jerome who used to coach the baseball team had a connection. Does anyone know?</p> <p>But, most astonishing of all were these big flat trays that had probably the world's most extensive South American butterfly collection. I wonder what happened to it.</p> <p>Anyway, I heard all the stuff up there got auctioned. This is how I remember Father Jerome.</p> <p><img class="" height="194" width="173" alt="" src="/uploads/jerome.jpg" /></p>
<p>mw says in the thread "Yearbook 1969,1970, 1971, 1972" that the years could be reconstructed from the photos of John Troha and others. There is also another way... the issues of the Review which have to be stored somewhere on campus. I have a number of issues from back in the day... maybe others have as well. Here's a start, anyway. From December 1967, a special issue on the Vietnam War. and campus protests. Take note of a young Chuck Manoli.</p> <p><img class="" height="219" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/manoli(1).jpg" /><img class="" height="141" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/group(2).jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
Ok hit the bricks I have a couple old reviews laying about. Here's a letter from a Seton Hill Co-ed (December 8, 1967) concerning the annual panty raid of that year. "Dearest editor:
Congratulations to the dauntless heroes of our brother school.Their recent panty raid was conducted with an air of courtesy which I had thought non-existant at SVC. It was surprising to see such a swarm of guys walking our halls, actually knocking on doors before entering, and asking nicely, "Could you please give me a souvenier?" and "Pardon me, but could you spare this?" Such amenities, no girl could help but feel, should be rewarded. Their bashful, polite manner was so touching, and their shy, blushing smiles had to evoke a tenderness in us.
Two weeks ago, I would have responded to the famous, "cold, frigid and barren" with "crude, gross and drunk." But the recent escapades have accomplished what taunting words did not. We can feel a warmth, a desire for more social relationships with our dear boys at SVC. We're proud of them. The marked maturity with which they effected their immature but exciting feat shows great promise.
What does it matter if your administration and faculty are enraged, if attempts to bring closer academic ties have been set back? The girls themselves love you more than ever.
(Editor's note: The author requested that her name remain anonymous.)
In your picture of Chuck Manoli, is that Bill Rosenthal with him? Bill went on to manage local operations in Bobby Kennedy's campaign in Oregon (lost, but Kennedy carried this region) and in San Francisco/CA primary (won,killed).
<p>Dear Jimmy,</p> <p>That certainly looks like Bill Rosenthal. Bill was my classmate, an earnest and early champion at SVC of civil rights and opponent to the Vietnam War. He helped organize the week on communism mentioned on another thread here. Bill went on a Latrobe radio station to publicize the events. It was a call-in show, and I remember two callers. One said that he was a blind man and God had given him speical insight into these matters. We'd all go to hell if we had these people on campus. Another said in classic Western Pa speech: "Is there any way we can nip this thing in the bud." The local John Birchers and their Young American for Freedom allies on campus picketed, I believe out on Rt. 30. Bill, if you're out there, I hope you are well. I regret that I wasn't more than a tepid ally in the struggles of the times. I hope I have made up for that since.</p> <p>Another classmate was a fervent YAFer. He may have been one of the pickets. I remember him picketing on campus when Pete Seeger came to play. We were in a play together. I played the vice cop Blick in Saroyan's The Time of Your Life. After a Saturday performance I hitchhiked to Greensburg to have a steak at a place I think was called Frankie's. I ordered the steak from old Frankie. I sat down with a beer to wait for my food when my conservative buddy came in with his family, who had come to campus to see the play. My friend and his family invited me to eat with them. Bill (his name was Bill too) said that his dad would pay. I joined them. The father sized me up (he looked as I remember it a lot like Lumpy Rutherford's dad on Leave it to Beaver) and said to his son, "Is he [me] with us or against us?" I don't remember what Bill said, but I soon excused myself, went back to the kitchen and told Frankie to put a pizza on for me too! Bill, I hope you've changed your ways, but whether you have or not, I hope you have ahd a happy life.</p>
<p>Michael Yates and Jimmy:</p> <p>Those were the days when both sides of the coin were allowed to voice their views at SVC. The Seeger protests (they thought he was a Communist - along with Bob Dylan and most poets of the world) were led, as I recall, by someone from the Latrobe Bulletin. Mark Van Doren was on campus in 1967, and they left him pretty much alone.</p> <p>Speaking of Saroyan's Time of Your Life, here's a thing or two.</p> <p><img class="" height="264" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/time of your life one.jpg" /><img class="" height="198" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/time of your life two.jpg" /><img class="" height="154" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/time or your life three.jpg" /></p> <p> </p>
thanks for the pictures, and what a kick for you to make me remember that one.
"The Time of Your Life" was just a great production. And, very complicated to stage. At the beginning, I remember Fr. Tom had somebody, I cannot remember who but he had a great voice, read the short preface to the play about the meaning and value of 'the time of your life" the phrase. Normally, no one includes that reading in the play, but Tom did and it worked. Also, I cannot remember the name of the guy who played the lead -- he is the one on the far left of your photos -- but he was really perfect for the part. You could really understand why this play and Saroyan was so celebrated when it was first produced on Broadway.
Is SVC ever producing plays like The Time of Your Life or The Crucible anymore??
-- for Pete Seeger, I sat in the FRONT ROW for that concert, and it was terrific. The guy who led the YAF protests at SVC spent a lot of time telling us we could not eat Polish Ham, because we would be aiding international communism. It reminded me of the anti-liquor song about not eating fruitcake because it contains rum. We had a lot of Poles in my class, I don't recall many or actually any marxists among them, but some of them loved their Polish meats notwithstanding. Way back then I thought Seeger was one of the old guys from the '40's & '50's, but today he is still alive and kicking. I saw him at a conservation rally about 4 years ago, and told him how much I enjoyed his performance at SVC, and how inspiring he was to so many of us. He said 'inspiring?? Then, why aren't you in jail !"
I think Eldon Kennedy brought Seeger to St Vincent.
<p>I think the actor's name mentioned by Jimmy is Tom Cordaro.</p> <p>Here is an amusing story about Pete Seeger. In 2001 and 2002 I was living in Manhattan and working for Monthly Review magazine (I still do but I don't live in the city now). Harry Magdoff, the late editor, was a good friend of Pete's, Seeger having attended seminars in Harry's home. Pete sent us a review of a book titled Granny D, about a 90-year old woman who walked across the US to promote campaign finance reform. The review was awful, consisting of a brief opening paragraph, four or five pages of quotes from the book and a closing paragraph. We wanted Pete in the magazine but we needed a real review. So I agreed to edit Pete's review. This meant I had to get and read the book first. I did this and wrote a review, using all of what Pete wrote plus as many of the quotes as I could. We sent the review to Pete by snail mail since he doesn't do email. We had to wait a bit for his reply; he doesn't come to town to get his mail every day. He wrote and said that my review had ruined the spirit of the book. I was infuriated, and I asked at our next editorial meeting what Pete would say if I came on stage with his band and played my instrument as poorly as he had written the review. In the end we used the review as he had originally written it, over my protest. I have found that no matter their democratic impulses, people who are famous have a certain arrogance. Goes with the territory I guess. I doubt even Mother Theresa was as humble as she seemed to be. </p> <p>I really enjoyed Seeger's concert at SVC and admire his life.</p>
<p>Mike Yates and Jimmy: up above, six days ago, i posted a couple pix from the SVC Review 1967 special issue on the Vietnam War. I believe Mike asked if on person in a picture with Manoli was Rosenthal. Inside the issue is another guy I don't recall. It looks like Alan Lange (left background, English Dept) and George Dixon (right background, English Department) outside Kennedy Hall. He is holding a neat sign. Somewhere I recall a picture of some protestors against the protestors. I might have it in another issue or in my yearbook. Anyway, who is this, and I think I am right about Lange and Dixon.</p> <p><img class="" height="306" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/Untitled-1(2).jpg" /></p>
<p>Okay, Mike and Jimmy... here are two pix of townspeople protesting the Communism colloguium that Rosendahl and Tarker, Manoli and the history boys brought to campus. Maynard Brennan OSB participated.</p> <p><img class="" height="169" width="150" alt="" src="/uploads/commie one(1).jpg" /><img class="" height="175" width="150" alt="" src="/uploads/commie two.jpg" /></p> <p>It was a study week on Communism. Apparently there were some from the area who didn't approve of students studying communism. The principal participants were Aptheker, Luce, Quade, Kiraly, Brennan, Tarka, Rosendahl, a well-balanced panel if there ever was one.</p> <p>But that year of 1967 was phenomenal altogether! I don't remember participating in everything but we had Stokely Carmichael (I remember at least the he wore a T-shirt with Malcom X's picture on it), Stanley Kaufman, Vance Packard, James Farmer, Fr. Pete O'Reilly, Saul Alinsky, Gerald Ford. There was a study week on Negritude, New Christy Minstrels. There was also a YAF student group on campus, I think.</p>
Sorry, HitTheBricks, I seem to recognize the face but can't remember the name. The background pictures are too small for me to recognize anybody, although I think I'd recognize Dixon if I could see him. I think you are right in correcting the spelling of "Rosendahl."
There was also a Study week of Jazz.
Saul Alinsky presentation was several clicks of energy above what you would normally see, even back then. Two or three young and sincere -- I'd say 'godly' -- monks got in a back and forth with him on the issue of self-interest as a motivation vs. pure, unselfless good will. Alinsky, saying everything is self-interest, even aiding the poor in Africa. the young priests believed in Goodness. I was rooting for the priests, but never forgot Alinsky's points on organization.
What the presentation was really about, though, was the inevitable failure of "movements" vs "organization" in pressing for social or political change. He was saying the anti-war 'movement' or civil rights 'movement' insofar as they lacked the kind of radical labor-union type 'organized' strategy and structure would fail. Alinsky's uncompromising assertions were right in the teeth of the widespread delight in the nature of what cultural change Movements were perceived as bringing to America. Woodstock and the full flowering of the Youth Culture may have been still to come, but this was certainly a high water mark. Women's Movement and ERA still down the road. I don't know if Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy or Malcolm X were dead yet when alinsky was here, but I don't think so.
Hilary Clinton heavily influenced when young by Alinsky, BTW.
YAF was small at St Vincent (I think the Yaffers in my high school outnumbered them 3 to 1), but a confident and cocky group. In retrospect, YAF and American conservatives functioned more as Alinski was trying to get the Left to function.
We all should have taken american conservatives more seriously, but at the time they seemed as if the Tide was against them, and America would never go that way again. We believed in the inevitability of Progress, and so did many of our Professors. Was that a conceit? Or had we just not seen the world from the other side of Arlington?
I remember Aptheker clearly at the Study week. I think I was in the car taking him to or from the airport -- he was tenured at Brooklyn College I seem to recall. Anyway, Aptheker, unlike us, DID take the new conservatives seriously. He spent nearly the entire time in the car ranting about William F. Buckley. Buckley, it seemed, had just disparaged Aptheker's daughter in print. Aptheker raved to us "Buckley isn't worth a patch on my daughter; he wouldn't even deserve to pare her toenails!" Whew. Abinader or Rosendahl were describing Aptheker as "the Chief Theoretician of the American Communist Party" but he was mostly an aggrieved dad on that trip. It had never occurred to me anyone would even WANT to pare anybody else's toenails. . . But the Aptheker emphasis during his presentation on the historic support by his Party for Black Civil Rights did have something to it, even if you were to question motivations, in the light of J. Edgar Hoover's attacks on Martin Luther King. All in all it is hard to imagine this Week Study on Communism could have had a better perspective, I mean academic perspective, than what Rosendahl and Abinader achieved. No one was being converted to Communism at those sessions, or anything else, but the context was being examined with more openness than most of us had ever experienced in our previous education, wherever we came from.
Yes, there were protests, and namecalling from outsiders. Even though I had nothing to do with these successful weeks, later I heard that the Latrobe newpaper editor was putting it about that I was an outside communist infiltrator, 15 years older than I looked. I wonder what they were saying about Rosendahl, Abinader and Brennan, or Joe Lihota.
It really is astonishing what Rosendahl and Abinader and their hordes of volunteers did with the Assembly Committee. It seemed as if one of the counterintuitive benefits of SVC was that, although it was open to many things, it was hell-and-gone off the beaten track, and pretty small. If you wanted to have any of what was sweeping the nation at the time at the school, from arts to thinkers to performers, somebody had to find a way to bring them to Latrobe. Some of the concerts were amazing -- especially the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Sly and the Family Stone. These bands were absolutely at their best, but wondered how the hell they ever wound up in Latrobe -- Eldon Kennedy brought them. I remember John Abinader brought the big pop groups -- Ray Charles and Dionne Warwick. Somehow he fixed the sound system so it sounded great in the gym. Warwick was the only real "star" at the time, and people came from all over to hear her, and packed the place. She was the complete La Grande Dame, but also was noneplussed about singing in a town and college she had never heard of. WHAT A LOOK as she gazed at all those white faces beneath her !
Part of what was great about SVC was the great energy from all that flowed through it. I had friends from high school at much fancier schools, some in much larger schools, some in renowned schools, and they were used to things all around them, but seemed to miss most of it, they told me. At St. Vincent, it seemed almost everybody went to almost everything. Students had to make it happen, and that doubled the energy, because these amazing talents among students were being developed right in front of your eyes by people that, anywhere else, might never had had an opportunity to do the things they did. Somehow, St Vincent benefitted by both being remote and funky, and being in the thick of it, all at the same time.
Sorry about the pix identifications, too long ago.
<p>Jimmy:</p> <p>That <strong>is</strong> Al Lange and George Dixon in the photo. You must have been around for George's film series, and, as I remember, Eldon had a major hand in it. I remember the night of Strawberry Statement, one of the first films that used words to that time uncommon in film, together with the contemporary appellations for the police. Add to that "A Man and a Woman," "Wild Strawberries," and "Rashomon," among others.</p> <p>The Communist seminar was the semester before I arrived, I believe. I came in January 1968 with Stubbs.</p> <p>"Stop the World" made for a different Convocation.</p> <p>1968 was the year of Music Man. Pat Carney (Mrs. Joe Reilly - both still active in campus and summer theater activities)... others in the cast were Greg Thornton and Steve Dobi (a picture or two below). The shady character playing cards has to be Ryan Cutrona.</p> <p>I spoke with Ron Tranquilla the other evening. We both agreed that the 1968 (I begin in my time) to 1974 SVC bunch was one of our best, largely for the reasons you state in your last paragraph immediately above. Sadly, there are no yearbooks for 1969, 1970, 1972. Either I or someone else mentioned that in another submission here. There were also no DVDs, no computers, no Internet, no email, no cell phones, no text messaging. We all had to "bring it on." And you're right, everybody went to everything.</p> <p>"Too long ago..." You make a good point - I am looking at the 1968 yearbook (The Tower), and it suffers for lack of ID's in many of the photos - frustrating to an aging memory to sure. But here are some of the names I can put to the faces that carry no identification. Some were seniors in 1968, others freshmen, sophomores, juniors.</p> <p>Bob Merrill, Ryan, Jude Dippold, Eldon Kennedy, John Abinader, Ron Firment, Larry Doperak, Paul Duffer, Pete Hutchinson, Bill Isler, Joe Lihota, Greg Stock, Jim Tobin, Salim Merali, Joe James, Fred Mullane, John Troha, John Carosella, Don Orlando, Peter Blair, Fred Biasini, John Ruskiewicz, Jim Temple, Mark Ruppel, Paul Grazda, Ramon Martin, Ray Bianchini, Mike Conlon, Bill Baughman, Glenn Steimer, Owen Grumbling, Peter Blair, Jim Balakier, Tony Collaianne, Joe Katarski, Bill Snyder, John Jennings, Jim Pepper, Chris Holland, John Kennedy, Greg Thornton, Greg Torres, Tom Gilooly, and many I remember but can't name.</p> <p>Kennedy Hall steps were the standard meeting place, so was the Shack with its glazed, ceramic-tiled walls. Richard Karp, who taught music on campus and who directed the Pittsburgh Opera called the place the "World's Largest Urinal." The library steps were also a great meeting place. Today those steps have been obfuscated by progress, but the experience of coming out of the library of an evening and seeing that vista was special to a lot of people at the College.</p> <p> I remember sitting with Eldon on Kennedy steps watching them tear down the building that stood between Alfred Hall and Kennedy Hall. It was connected to an ambulatory from Placid Hall. That was the event of the month. Melvin Platz is there today.</p> <p>On another occasion (I'll never forget this) - it was dusk, nice color in the sky, I was getting into my car when I noticed Owen Grumbling sitting on one of the walls on the Kennedy Hall entrance. He was staring off into the distance toward the Ridge, not moving, just staring. I figured something was bothering him so I walked over and sat down beside him. "What's up, Owen?" He turned and said, "They shot some kids at Kent State today." It was the first time I heard that it had happened. We were quiet for a while, just staring together at the Ridge. Then he told me the details.</p> <p>Here are some pics. If you can't help, someone else can.</p> <p>The first one is easy -</p> <p>Greg Thornton and Mary Monaghan in the Music Man. The guy playing cards has to be Ryan Cutrona. The third looks like Eldon Kennedy, but maybe not.</p> <p><img class="" height="185" width="150" alt="" src="/uploads/greg.jpg" /><img class="" height="162" width="150" alt="" src="/uploads/ryan.jpg" /><img class="" height="141" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/Eldon.jpg" /></p> <p> </p>
I remember Jude Dippold and Pete Hutchinson from when they were freshmen and I was a senior. It was in the twilight of Rules, that six-week period in which we oriented the frosh Animal-House style, complete with beanies and morning room inspections. About eight years ago at a reunion, Hutchinson introduced me to some people as the "SOB who made me wear one boot from a pair and another freshman the other." He also recalled being forced with all other freshmen to stand in front of Kennedy Hall and chant "Women! Women! Women!" as busses from Seton Hill pulled up for a mixer. Regarding the boot caper, I still say he has me confused with Tom Monaghan ('66) because of the red hair.
<p>Dick, Birddog, and everyone,</p> <p>I hated rules. I thought that they were ridiculous and detrimental to doing well in classes, with 6 AM bed inspections. We could get the morning inspection cut short if we went to mass. Those of us who didn't go to church had to run around Boniface Wimmer's statue. But whatis interesting is how being tormented often makes one want to be a tormentor (see for reference any good source on how torturers are trained). So I joined the Rules Committee my sophomore year and gave the new class a hard time. Not too much of one though, and when we later debated ending Rules I joined in the afirmative. What I really hated was how upperclassmen would treat any freshman perceived as weak or effeminate (we were all guys back then). One poor fellow was literally harassed out of college during Rules. So good riddance to it.</p> <p>Birddog mentions Tom Monaghan. I played baseball at SVC with Tom. In 1966, I think, we played Pitt late in the season. I think Pitt already had an NCAA bid or was expecting one.; they had a very good team. They came up to Latrobe figuring to get an easy win. They didn't pitch their best hurler, however, and we made a game of it. We had the late Joe Smith (class of '68) throwing for us and he could play. The game was tied late and I came to bat. I hit a pathetic little blooper between the pitcher, first baseman, and second baseman. All three lunged for it, but it eluded them all and I had a scratch single. Coach Canterna (Dodo, I still think fondly of you. I taught one of coach's sons years later) called a bunt. The pitcher fielded and I was out by tenty feet, but the throw went to center field and I got in safe. Pitt then put in their ace pitcher. Later I heard a scout say that his fast ball didn't move enough, but I saw him warm up from my perch on second base and let me say that each fast ball moved about three feet! Anyeay, I got to third, I don't remeber how, and my buddy Corky Masters got me home on a sacrifice fly ( or single I don't remember). We held on to win by one run. Pitt sure was demoralized by that loss to a lowly NAIA school. Alas, SVC dropped baseball after that season. Started it up again many years later.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
I remember the game vividly! I also remember beng up on the parking area outside Kennedy as the Pitt team headed for the locker room. A classmate, Pete Dornenburg, who died tragically in Knoxville, Tennessee, when a ladies' gun went off in her purse when she dropped it at a dry cleaner, called out "Next time, bring the varsity!" The Pitt pitcher had to be restrained.
As for rules, they were interesting to say the least. I was on the committee as a senior and tried to be more laid back while some guys pulled toe jam inspections and other nonsense. Looking back, I think it could be tough on some kids who were trying to adjust and possibly battling homesickness. Some rules committee guys acted more as mentors, while some thought they were Marine drill sergeants. The latter was not good for any kid struggling to get his bearings.
I think the time George Dixon really did shine with the film series was when he was a student. He was a senior as I recall, and the chairman of the Arts committee.
He was also supposed to be one of the political brain trust for John Degnan.
Those were all eath shaking films, and stunning to see if you were not used to seeing anything but pop American films.
I would swear that I have those two pics in one of my yearbooks. I'll have to do a search. Rules could be humiliating, but at some point freshmen started to unite. At that point, upperlcassmen had best be alert when going the the rest room later at night.
<p>A worthy question, Hillgirl (I assume you are of the SHC 70s years?)... I knew both Eldon and Ron (I was a history major though). Maybe the Bwana or Tranquilla can clear up the mystery. I kind of lean toward Kennedy, since Ron never appeared in an informal pose without a pipe stuck between his teeth.</p> <p>Here's the mystery man again next to tranq...</p> <p><img class="" height="141" width="200" alt="" src="/uploads/Eldon(2).jpg" /><img class="" height="112" width="100" alt="" src="/uploads/ron(1).jpg" /></p>
The photo of Tranquilla reminds me of English comps that we took in the spring of senior year. Lou Rastovac and I took a break from studying in the library on a Friday night (the ONLY Friday library time ever) and sat on the old ledge where the main entrance used to be. We proceeded to release pent-up tension by doing rebel yells that echoed over the campus. The next morning, we reported to Alfred Hall for the written part of comps, aka the "Five-Hour Hard-on." (Apologies to the sensitive, but that's what it was called. Who needed Viagra?)
Passing that qualified one for the two-three prof panel who administered the oral part. As I timidly made my way through the oral, Phil Tama would respond to my lame speculations with remarks that seemed to carry a tone of "Well, of course, you dunderhead." Somehow, we survived, and recently I did battle on an online forum with some neanderthal who thinks that anyone with a B.A. never really had to work for his degree and if teaching, should make at least 30% less than math/science people. Oh, well.
<p>We always thought that the English majors were among the smartest guys on campus. Mike Creagan, who was accepted at both the Iowa University's famous writers' program and at medical school. He became an MD and just had his first book of poetry published. Jim Regan, with whom I played baseball, became a well-known poet and head of the writers' program at USC. John Tarka, now head of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. George Dixon, who I met in Hawaii several years ago. He and his partner were running a bibiographic service that had them traveling to all sorts of exotic places collecting original documents for libraries. Lots of others.</p> <p>Lou Rastovac ws one of my upperclassmen mentors when I was a freshman. I rmember the day Kennedy was assassinated, he said to me, "well, it's happened before and will probably happen again."</p> <p>Phil Tama was my sophomore year English teacher. I remember reading all the classics of US realist fiction. He brought in a special sports coat (he had a lot of them) the day he read from The Great Gatsby. Pink I believe! Tama wrote his MA thesis on Carl Van Vechten, a writer and photographer, chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance and freind of Gertrude Stein. We heard a lot about Carl that year. Stein too.</p>
<p>I would also add that a sound liberal arts education helps in science, tech, and engineering. <p>When I was admitted to the graduate computer science program at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, I often wondered why such a place would bother with me and my B.Sc. from a liberal arts school. At the time anyway, RPI was so focused on engineering that it didn't even have a full-blown English department. What would they think of someone with "Principles of Literature" and "Soviet Government and Politics" on his transcripts alongside "Operating Systems Concepts" and "Database Theory and Practice"? <p>The RPI CS department, it turned out, was very keen on bringing aboard students from smaller liberal arts schools like SVC, Hendrix, and Birmingham Southern (along with grads from some of the big dogs like Stanford and Princeton). The admissions committee understood the value of a well-rounded education. Oddly enough, they didn't take in too many undergrads from RPI itself (go figure). <p>Specialization is for insects, not people.
Your last comment says it all! MichaelYates, English majors the smartest guys on campus? The ones you named were luminaries, but you never met me. Then again, maybe you did--the guy who could play Lennie Small in a production of Of Mice and Men.
As for Phil Tama, he was quite a character. I may have posted this before, but it's worth repeating. Tama and fellow English prof Peter Desy were involved in moving one of them from one apartment to another. They had stopped at the corner where Bede Hall used to be--and the former home of the gazebo. I forget whose car was hauling a stake-type trailer loaded with belongings, but as I walked by, I remarked to someone loudly enough for them to hear, "Well, looks like the Okies are headin' west." Tama about choked laughing and I think flipped me off.
Eldon Kennedy? I'd bet a lot of money that picture is not Eldon.
I had Phil Tama at 8:00 AM. Most everybody who dragged themselves minutes before from bed to the class were barely awake, and the Pure Force of Tama was like something right out of 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail' or 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.' (except, of course, at the time the only thing Hunter Thompson had written was a rather timid book on the Hell's Angels, with the Angels kicking the Hell out of Thompson in the end ) But back to Tama. He would enact, right before our very eyes, explosive fantasies about whatever nightmare he had or daymare he was living. I remember once he pretended he was up against an outraged Fr. Omar, then dean of students. In his enactment, Tama acted out his counterattack, grabbing up some huge jousting spear and then charging across the room as if pining Fr. Omar to the wall. When Tama plunged, his glasses (he had these hip glasses Michael Caine had just made famous in the anti-hero Harry Palmer spy movies) went flying, smashing into the wall. Yes, broken. Without a beat missing, Tama works the broken glasses right into his physical and epic narrative of his struggle against the Forces of Father Omar and all things Organizational.
Believe it or not, in someway Tama was illustrating some point about whatever we were studying. Or at least, it started that way until he had totally awakened the entire class.
Nobody missed his class, even at 8:00 AM. To this day I doubt his interpretation of Wallace Stevens' poems, but on the other hand I have never forgotten any of those poems.
<p>Jimmy and Thor:</p> <p>One of you must remember the Fig Pucker Party convention on Kennedy Hall steps when Salim Merali ran for SGA president. That had to be between 1968 and 1972. Salim just sent me a movie of that event from the UK. It's fairly in bad shape, but one can recognize Chuck McGeever speaking on behalf of the candidate. Halfway through, here comes Stubbs carrying his books as was his wont in the crook of his arm. Following him is Joe Ryer. Jim Meny pulls by in his yellow Triumph and stops in front of the Kenney Hall steps (now Carey Center). If I know how to post the film here, I would. The film was probably made by someone in Dixon's film class on one of those super eight cameras. No camcorders in those days.</p> <p>Salim's platform was this: Dismantle the Sauerkraut tower, brick by careful brick, and then rebuild it somewhere else on the campus. This was supposed to create jobs.</p> <p>I'd forgotten all about that day until Salim sent the film. I hadn't even heard from him for thirty years or more. Does anyone else remember that day?</p>
Does anyone remember the name of the kid from Thailand who wore a beret with a red star and a Mao pin? I think he wanted to foment a revolution when he got home. I suspected that the Thai military would pick him up as he got off of the plane. The years were 1968-1972.
<p>Hi Dick -- <p>Hmm. When you say "film", what format are you describing? <p>I would think somebody at either SVC or SHU would be able to transcribe the raw footage to some digital format like QuickTime. From there you could have a lot of fun editing it. (If you happen to have a lot of spare time anyway.)<br> <p>(I've done this myself, converting VHS to DVD using consumer-grade software. Sony was right, VHS stinks.) <p>Anyway, there are bound to be quite a few video professionals in the G'burg area who could help as well. Hey, get an estimate; if it's pricey, maybe we can all chip in on this.
<p>Herr Doktor Kant and Dan:</p> <p>First, that was Panya Panurak. He was a student of Chuck McGeever's. The last I saw of Panya was a discussion class Charlie held in the recesses of the South Greensburg Tavern. His fatigue jacket always looked a little bulgy. Charlie always asked him if he was carrying grenades in the pockets.</p> <p>As for the film, Salim will send it along from England. It looks like he just videoed it off of a screen with a camcorder.</p> <p>Some of the other guys from foreign lands in those days were Salim, Ramon Bagatatsing, Navarro, Bassem Najar, Mamduh El Attrache. I have photos of these guys somewhere. When I have a chance, I''ll post them.</p> <p> </p>
Dick, congratulations on your books. The experiences of area vets in WW2 needed told. So many of their children and grandchildren are oblivious about their service records. I'm not surprised that you delivered such readable work . You were at the top of that core group of Profs. who challenged and inspired us during those transformational years. Thanks for the effort. You and your associates were directly responsible for our career paths and maybe more importantly , the manner in which we conducted ourselves within our professions. It made all the difference.
<p>In response to Immanuel Kant's query concerning Panya Panurach, a query hitherto but briefly answered above. The following was discovered after a brief search into the "archives."</p> <p>Panya was from (get ready) Nakonstrtiammarach, Thailand. He majored in Economics, and he liked Speech and English. It was Chuck McGeever's Speech class, in fact, that met in the lower chamber of the South Greensburg Cafe. He was not impressed with the American two-party system because it made American students less concerned with potential third or fourth parties in the United States. Panya would complain that he couldn't use his Chinese or Thai in the States, but being fluent in French and English made his studies easier! He spent evenings working out on a heavy punching bag in the college weight room . <em>This information has been made available through the courtesy of St. Vincent Magazine, Spring, 1969.</em></p> <p>May I present Panya Panurach (in conventional attire), an interesting fellow, as those who had the pleasure of knowing him can vouch.</p> <p><img class="" height="330" alt="" width="200" src="/uploads/Panya Panurach.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
I remember Salim but his run for SGA stirs only a vague memory. It would be great to see that film as a window back to that time, in particular seeing those mentioned by Dick passing by in their everyday SVC lives.
I also remember Panya and his fashion/political statement and, of course, Joe James
I was a RA Junior year (1970-71) on first Aurelius. If I remember correctly all the rooms were singles and it was referred to as the UN because many international students lived there - although I can't remember any names.
<p>Then Thor the Hammer, prepare to open memory portals - Mamduh El-Attrache and Salim Merali in the last photo, bottom left, my house, ca. 19 70. Salim and I correspond on a regular basis, Ramon Bagatsing (pioneer Camerata singer) and I exchange notes every now and again... Mamduh is my doctor. Wierd... I've taught his nieces and nephews and his son. Jim Holder passed away some time ago. I haven't heard from Joe James in years.</p> <p><img class="" height="211" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/albino.jpg" /><img class="" height="214" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/bagatsing.jpg" /><img class="" style="width: 129px; height: 212px" height="187" alt="" width="125" src="/uploads/holder.jpg" /><img class="" style="width: 214px; height: 212px" height="140" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/joe james.jpg" /></p> <p><img class="" height="168" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/navarro.jpg" /><img class="" height="227" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/quabazardf(1).jpg" /><img class="" height="217" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/salim.jpg" /><img class="" height="154" alt="" width="150" src="/uploads/sami.jpg" /></p> <p><img class="" height="135" alt="" width="200" src="/uploads/salim mamduh tiff.jpg" /></p> <p> </p>
OK, I have been asked to add some anecdotes to this thread--ones I posted in other places. Whoever you are, you asked for it. I will do some cutting and pasting, but for now, chew on this.
I am in a lav on the second floor of Gerard in the 1963-64 year. A Harrisburg dude, Dazzlin' Don, is sitting on the vanity--or whatever in hell you call the thing in a MEN'S dorm--after having been out all Saturday helping Jack the "Tumor" paint a bar in Latrobe. "Tumor" got his nickname because he grew a beer gut that would rival a half keg of Yuengling. Well, Dazzlin' Don is crocked but insists on going out that night with "Tumor" and the guys. My roommate Lou is shaving Don while I hold him up to prevent him from falling off the vanity. All he kept repeating was "That f... Tumor--he sure can drink." Mind you, this was in the days of the double-edge Gilette blades, which could cut you to ribbons even when sober and totally skilled. How we managed to get Don ready for the evening is a mystery--and with no blood loss.
Apparently, "Tumor" had managed to consume a case of Rolling Rock in a day's time painting the bar. Ye gods, in today's PC age, I could be banished to some remote island for telling this story!
I may be Class of 1965, but Animal House was set in November of 1962, my sophomore year. I remember those narrow ties, the short-cropped hair, and the Niedermeyer types. Then there was a classmate named Jack, who eventually acquired the name "Tumor" due to the beer waistline that he developed. He walked into the GRE test in the gym carrying a four-foot high inflated Calvert gin display bottle from one of the local pubs--this after waving playfully then flipping off some townie girls as they drove past the front steps of what was then Kennedy Hall. Tumor was our version of Bluto.
NEVER let older alums tell you that they spent all their time in the library.
<p>Bearcats:</p> <p>Thanks for these stories and remembrances. Some of them are almost twice as old as I am, but they make me wish I was on campus back then. Keep the stories and rembrances coming. They are a source of serious and comic relief for us who are here today... also a source of inspiration!!</p>
<p>Thor and DanC..</p> <p>Dick mentioned the Salim Merali/Figpucker video that Salim made back in 1971. I also received a video and did some calls checking the background. Apparently, the film was made around the time George Dixon gave out some 8mm cameras for his class to work with. It was around SGA election time, and Chuck McGeever, English prof, and Mike Farley came up with the idea of doing this spoof. Chuck is plain to see, standing up on the steps of Kennedy Hall with Salim. I almost started to cry when I saw Stubbsie walking down past the Library. Joe Ryer is in the video as well. I was told that the driver of the yellow triumph (there was only one yellow triumph on campus) is Jim Meny. It's hard to recognize anyone else. Joe Schmitt, as I recall, was the photographer. Like most campus denizens between 1969-1973 my memory is about as good as anybody's. Anyway, here is the infamous Figpucker Convention video of 1971, now appearing on You Tube... maybe others out there can provide more information and ids. The vidow is typical 8mm but it looks like it was photographed off a wall with a camcorder.</p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oSKeekGz_8">www.youtube.com/watch</a></p>
I happened across this discussion today. The person, in front of Kennedy, holding the sign, who could not be identified, I believe is Norm Mihm. Also, it was interesting to see the photos of our foreign students. Of course, we know that Jim Holder is now deceased. Jim was one of the first two guys I met on campus when I arrived early in August of 1966. The other one was was the redoubtable Sal Romano.
The last that I had heard about Hassan Ali Quabazard was that he had been involved in some trouble in Kuwait concerning the Kuwaiti national oil tanker company and was having some negative legal problems.
<p>xexpat, thanks. If you say it's Mihm, then it's Mihm. You are right about Hassan. Bagatsing writes often, as does Salim. Salim is the one who sent the video (above). He's a successful lawyer in London, married, and with a son who is also a lawyer. Mamduh El Attrache, believe it or not, is my doctor today. If I count right, I taught his son and most of his nieces and nephews over the years. I think they all spoke three or four languages. Mamduh could recite scores of French Symbolist poems by heart. It was truly a League of Nations.</p> <p>Joe James stayed in the area for a number of years (Johnstown?) and he used to keep in touch. I haven't heard from in in years.</p>
<p>That Figpucker video is a little hard to follow. I guess camcorders were science fiction back then. But anyway, the campus looks really different... there's a building across from the now Carey Center that isn't there now. And there's no Melvin Platz. Bede(?) hall looks twice as long as it does today. Things seem to have been a little wilder back then. I can't imagine such a thing like the Figpuckers Convention to take place today. Borrrrrrr-ing!!!</p>