Our Times, Issue 40

I am happy to be sending another newsletter as the Holiday Season of 2009 arrives. This salutation paragraph is used to send Thanksgiving and Christmas greetings and best wishes from everyone to everyone. May God Bless Us All, and those we love.

In our times, county fairs were held in late summer, before the start of the new school year, which back then, was after Labor Day. I happened to see that this year’s Bureau County Fair was held August 26-30. This year, classes started at LP on August 17 ... more than a week before the fair. Summer is shorter these days. I always attended one day of the Bureau County Fair, with two or three high school friends. By the time of the fair, I had spent several weeks working on uncles’ farms in Neponset (Bureau County), and had made arrangements with some Neponset girls (my aunts were inclined to have a birthday party for me, and would invite neighboring farmer’s daughters) to rendezvous at the fair. The farm girls were intrigued to meet city (La Salle!) boys. I never attended the La Salle County Fair ... any girl I would have met there would already know me and my buddies. And, no Ottawa girl would consider that a La Salle boy was from the city.

Later in this issue I mention a picture showing four generations of a family of pharmacists. Family owned drugstores have become a thing of the past, and not a good sign of the times. One of my early memories is going to the Higgin’s drug store in my little home town of Neponset to get a "green river" or cherry coke, made at the fountain counter in the store. The store also stocked personal articles and candy barrels. It was the only place in town where the kids could go for a treat. I suppose that my parents, grand parents, aunts and uncles used the place to get prescription medications, but only occasionally. My dad and my grandmother concocted several home remedies for minor maladies. The one I remember is cherry bark cough syrup, which we all took if we had a cold. I remember stripping bark off of cherry trees for the purpose. My grandmother made compresses, soaked in a variety of boiled herbal solutions, to apply at one place or another on the body, healing many aches and pains, even to new babies in the family who cried a lot (colic?), with good results

The family owned pharmacy, whose pharmacist knew everyone coming into the store, and home remedies, are gone forever. What we have now are "big-box" drug stores: Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, and pharmacy counters in Wal-Mart, Meijers, Krogers, and every other super market. The pharmacist only knows you because your social security number is in the store’s computer (Hy-Vee in Peru is different). But, I will say that the people behind the counter are friendly, and try to be personal. With each prescription, you receive two pages of information about the drug you are going to take, including paragraphs about side effects, and what not to do while taking the medication. After reading the information, you have to feel really sick to convince yourself to go ahead and swallow the pill.

Do you remember when men placed fine pen and pencil sets in their shirt pocket? They were jewelry, like a gold watch; a nice set came in a cushioned case and made a good gift. Indeed, the distinctive sets were sold in jewelry stores. Elegant pen and pencil sets have disappeared. I recently went to a store to buy a refill for my favorite ballpoint pen. Guess what? That store doesn’t carry refills any longer. I could buy a plastic package of six ugly ballpoint pens for $1.39. Or six ugly yellow automatic pencils for the same price; but no refills, and none of those little boxes of lead for an automatic pencil. These days, when the ink or lead run out, you put the ugly writing instrument in the trash. I shouldn’t complain. No fine writing instrument could improve my script!

Kaye sent me a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: "The years teach much, which the days never know." I think it was for our 36 th reunion (1989), that Kaye sent an anonymous quote that we included in the booklet for that reunion: "After crosses and losses; men grow humbler and wiser." Indeed, the years have taught us much, and we have grown humbler and wiser. The experiences of years have taught me that I have a treasure in my humble and wise friends from elementary and high school days. I hope you feel the same way. You and I both know that our children and grand children do not accept our wise consul without reservation. There is a confidence problem ... if grandpa cannot operate the two remotes controlling the TV and VCR, while he is trying to retrieve the "last call" on his wife’s cell phone (why does she hand it to me?), and at the same time setting up to record one channel while viewing another channel, and doesn’t know if his wife can do "texting" on her cell phone, and doesn’t know how to order pizza from his computer. The grand kids say ... "Grandpa ..?." Like I don’t know anything. And, I say; "Grandpa doesn’t have to multi-task, and if he had a cell phone he would know how to use it, and if he wanted pizza he would drive to the place and get it, and when you get all A’s, talk to me about living life." After the family has left, I go down to my desk and find a note: "I love you Grandpa. Have an amazing day." Signed with drawing of a heart, and X’s and O’s. What do the years teach that the days do not know? ... abiding love.

If you don’t use the internet and communicate by email with friends, you miss out on the Power Point presentations sent from one to another, with pictures showing the natural beauty of the world which surrounds us. The pictures often have poignant captions. A show I recently received was titled; "Reflections On Life." (I think we do a lot of reflecting on life these days; not because we don’t have anything else to do, but because the big picture is clear to us.). I particularly liked one caption in that recent show: "Life cannot always be filled with happiness, but it can always be filled with love."

The LP High School Board approved a $330,000 project to restore the clock tower above the main entrance. Work began in June, and was to be completed before the start of school in August. Kaye sent me some pictures from the NewsTribune that show a complex of scaffolding when the work was in progress. I hope the work was well done. Our high school building is a treasure.

Although the high school building is in good shape, its students are not meeting standards. In a NewsTribune article dated August 20, 2009, the curriculum director, commenting on last year’s evaluation, said that "LP is booming in a demographic sub-group that leads to poor results ...," whatever that means.

Just after the start of the new school year, the Ottawa high school teachers went on strike. The LP vs. Ottawa football game scheduled for October 2, 2009 was cancelled, because classes were not in session at Ottawa. The game would have been the 111 th meeting of the two teams. Think about that! Subtract 111 from 2009, and what do you get? 1898! It would be interesting to see pictures of the school buildings, and know the enrollment in 1898. I bet there were some tough boys on the 1898 football teams ... many would have been sons of immigrants, sons of coal miners, railroad and road workers, and farmers. I wonder if the teams had cheerleaders, and a marching band? I don’t know on whose field the first meeting game was played ... who was the "home" team. The teams didn’t travel on busses to the game ... maybe the coach put the whole team on a hay wagon. Fans came in horse drawn carriages. For sure, the 1898 game was not played at night. The teacher’s strike ended October 26, 2009. I hope the Ottawa Township School Board and the high school’s teaching staff make an extra effort to make the remainder of the school year a good one for the students, especially the seniors. The Cherry Mine disaster occurred November 13, 1909, killing 259 people. A group of volunteer workers, using donated materials, have been working since early summer to complete a memorial in time for the centennial anniversary of the disaster. I have not seen any renditions of the memorial. In my mind, that 300- foot high pile of pink-colored sludge seen on the horizon was a memorial.

When we were in high school, LP’s athletic teams competed in the Big-8 Conference. In 2009, LP is part of the NCIC Reagan Division. High schools in the two conferences were/are:

Big-8	Reagan Division
Elgin	Dixon
East Aurora	Geneseo
West Aurora	Morris
East Rockford	Ottawa
West Rockford	Sterling
Freeport	Streator
Joliet

We always played non-conference games against Ottawa and St. Bede’s during our time in high school. Not to offend the current competition, but it seems like LP has been downgraded ... maybe because of enrollment. There is essentially no increase in LP’s enrollment from 1953 to 2009. The big schools have gotten bigger, and LP has stayed the same. A recent NewsTrib article exclaimed ... "First Time In 91 Years," LP beat perennial opponent, Geneseo, 38-36. I don’t know where that reporter got his/her history, but I can attest that LP did not play Geneseo in the years 1949-1953.

Sheldon Raizes sent me some information related to my comments in Issue 39 about elementary schools. The name of the shop teacher at La Salle’s Lincoln School was Mr. Rockwell. Although the vast majority of elementary school teachers were female, La Salle’s Washington School had a male teacher, named Mr. Smith. Sheldon mentioned that four or five teachers were killed in an auto accident around the time that we were in eighth grade. Does anyone have a memory of that accident? Sheldon recalls, not too confidently, that two of the victims were Miss Clark, Lincoln’s Principal, and Miss Malone, a high school teacher.

I don’t mind admitting that I need a picture or some words to cause my memory to make a link. Sometimes, when that link is made, everything is there ... time, place, people, experience. Other times, someone will give me all of the "facts" (according to their memory), and my memory doesn’t have a clue! It would be nice, if, using computer lingo, one could do a "System Restore," and the whole thing would be back in memory, clear and complete. My friends, so many good times that we shared are lost in my memory. I am glad an experience, even if embellished, can be recalled by some of us. In most instances, I am in no position to offer correction of the details, and applaud the story-teller for the pleasure of an experience I had completely forgotten. It is probably not important to create a memory rank order of class mates. But, if a survey was taken for that purpose, I could name the top ten ... all males. Number one would be Buzz Byczynski, and number two would be Don Haas. While we make light of "senior moments," we know that many of us have family members with serious memory conditions, like Alzheimer’s. Forgive me, if my words about memory loss are considered by anyone to be insensitive. I am not.

Let me say, the recall of memories from high school-days is not the purpose of this publication. Now and then, those memories reinforce the bond that we hope is made strong just by remembering each other.

This is the first time in a long time, that we have not added the name of a class mate to our In Memoriam list.

Congratulations to Don Mayszak who was inducted into the IVCC-LPO Hall of Fame in April, 2009. In 1955, Don was the most valuable player (MVP) of the then LPO football, basketball, and baseball teams ... all three! And, he was a pretty good student, as well. I wish I had been at the induction ceremonies to hear Don’s acceptance speech.

Here’s some information to put perspective in our lives. The baby of our high school class, Mary Jean (Brennan) Stuart has become a great grand mother! The new baby, Liam (Irish for William) was born to MJ’s youngest grand child. Several of our class members became great grand parents years ago. The event for MJ and Jerry is a defining milestone ... it is now very clear that all of us are old enough to be great grand parents.

I received a copy of the IVCC Foundation’s spring, 2009 magazine. There were two picture articles of interest to me in the magazine: An Alumni Profile (brief) for our Minnie Venturelli’s husband, Harold Larson. Harold mentioned that Elizabeth Cummings, one of our librarians was in his high school class. Harold (and thus, Ms. Cummings) graduated in 1949, four years before us. I would swear that Ms. Cummings was 20 years older than us! The other picture that caught my attention had the caption, "Shuffle board in the JC men’s social room 1954." (The room was on the first floor of the high school.) There was no article associated with the picture. But, I can identify all of the men in the picture - all from LP’53: Art Pyszka, Mike Castiglia, Jim Jakubek, Joe Smith, and Earl Papini. I spent a lot of time at that shuffle board during my one year at LPO, before going into the Air Force. By the way, if there was a JC women’s social room, I don’t remember its location.

A good picture of the pharmacists in the Arkins family on the cover of Spirit magazine’s summer issue, captioned, "Four Generations in Pharmacy." The only one I recognize in the picture is our in-law class mate, Bill (Kaye’s husband). Arkins’ drugstores in La Salle and Oglesby were well known to us. I think that when Bill closed his Oglesby store a few years ago, it ended the presence of Arkins’ stores. If my memory is correct (not a certainty these days), Kaye Harl met Bill Arkins in the Oglesby store when she went in the place to have a soda, or milk shake, or banana split; I forget that part of the story. Or, did she go in so that she could meet Bill?

The citizens of Guttenberg, Iowa continue to honor the memory of Stephen Daniel Shannon, killed in Iraq, January, 2007. Stephen was the grand son of our Sylvia (Starovasnik) Davenport. In 2008, the citizens decided to construct The Stephen D. Shannon Athletic Complex at Clayton Ridge High School in his honor. The complex was opened and dedicated at the school’s football season opening game, September, 4 2009. The $1.1 million cost was funded by donations; $900,000 of the amount coming from donors outside the local area, as far away as California and New York.

I learned from a class mate who recently spoke with Elly Mills’ sister, Margie, that Elly is in a nursing home in Wisconsin (see address below). In past few years, Elly has been in and out of nursing homes, being cared for memory problems. Margie said that Elly’s short-term memory is non-existent, but she has good long-term memory, and it is likely that she would remember a friend from high school. I encourage you to send Elly a note or card.

The 2009 recipient of our scholarship is Alyssa Rose from Oglesby. I received a nice thank you note from Alyssa, in which she wrote; "I will strive to be the type of teacher Mr. Trobaugh was."

The LP Twp HS Foundation sent me a copy of their check payable to IVCC on behalf of Alyssa in the amount of $1,200, dated June 22, 2009. After issue of that check, our scholarship balance is $11,104.74.

I need to inform you of a decision that I made in regard to this year’s recipient, that I asked the Foundation to apply in the future. If I exceeded my authority, I am sorry, but I did not think it necessary to write a letter and take an opinion survey in regard to the matter.

After the HS committee decided to award our scholarship to Alyssa, it was later learned that IVCC was awarding her an athletic scholarship (for softball, I think) that would pay her tuition. Since the wording of our scholarship guidance to the HS was for tuition, books, and fees, the HS committee contacted me to inquire if the duplication (became known only a few days before the awards ceremony) would preclude Alyssa from receiving our scholarship. I thought about this, and replied, NO. Alyssa was selected to receive our scholarship based on criteria included in our guidance. The potential that a recipient might receive another scholarship should not influence the decision of the selection committee. I wrote that the student would not be authorized to take any money out of his/her account at IVCC for any purpose other than fees charged by IVCC to the student. I trust that this is satisfactory to all of you. Maybe I need to write IVCC and say that any balance in the recipient’s account at the time of graduation from IVCC should be forwarded to the recipient’s next, 4-year, college.

At our July gathering I spoke with a couple of class mates raising the matter of additional funding to our scholarship. Specifically, should we try to raise enough money to perpetually fund the scholarship, probably $15,000 in addition to current balance? The consensus is NO. However, should any of you want to make a contribution to the fund, get in contact with the LP Foundation, or contact me and I will give you names, addresses, and phone numbers.

We enjoyed good, cool, weather for our gatherings Friday and Saturday, July 17 and 18, 2009, along with the great pleasure of being with dear friends for a short time. The weather was cool enough that we roasted marsh mellows over the gas-fired pit in the Haas’ back yard. Many thanks to Mary Jean and Jerry Stuart, and Don and Carole Haas for hosting us. And, to Buzz Byczynski and Wayne Schultz for making arrangements for golf. We plan to do it again in July, 2010, about the middle of the month ... put it on your calendar.

The hors d’oeuvres and food dishes (and drinks) at our gatherings are a treat to the palate of the most discriminating gourmet. Several people asked for Gloria Byczynski’s recipe for the baked bean casserole she brought. Here it is:

Name of recipe: Kovacic ( suppose that is Polish) (Jim's note: Kovacic is Sarah Kovacic, known for her bean recipes.)

We were contacted by the Class of LP 1960, asking if we could add them to the site as they begin to promote their 50th reunion in 2010. We agreed. Jim Brooks will be working with a representative from the 1960 class to get their information posted on the site. If that is done, I will ask the 1960 class to send some financial support.

In Issue 39 I wrote about Illinois being a county in Virginia in 1787. I received several replies providing additional information. In 1800 the Indiana Territory was formed, which included Illinois. Then, in 1809, the Illinois Territory was formed, which included Wisconsin. The Enabling Act of 1818 provided for admitting Illinois as a state, even though its population was less than that required by the Ordinance of 1787, and on December 3, 1818

Illinois came into the union as the twenty-first state. Kaskaskia was the first capitol; but, in 1820 the capitol "was moved to uninhabited.

Vandalia for real estate moneymaking purposes." (From Kindred Trails Worldwide Genealogy Resources) And, thus began the history of corrupt politics in Illinois. With the help of Abe Lincoln, the capitol was moved to Springfield in 1837. In 1881, the Mississippi River flooded and changed its channel to the east of Kaskaskia, causing the village to lie on the west bank of the river, still in Illinois, but only accessible from Missouri. The 2000 population of Kaskaskia was 9 persons in 4 households! The name comes from a sub-group in the tribe of Illini Indians. (Marge - did you really think that I thought that the Kaskaskia Hotel was named for the Indian who rowed the canoe for explorers La Salle and Joliet?)

Please send information, retirement activities, stories, address changes, etc. to:

Email Jim Brooks at: james.r.brooks@lpths.org ... or snail mail: 3518 Calvelli Ct., San Jose, CA 95124