Guys:

In a recent post, I mentioned remembering an upper classman from my SAS days and he, in his response, regretted that he had no specific memory of me. That didn’t surprise me at all (I was a quiet, studious, prayerful lad ;-) and among the least coordinated kids of my age), but it did revive something I’d noticed before: All of us can remember more names and faces from the classes ahead of us than we can from the classes that followed us.

When I first thought about it, I wondered if this was an indication of some underlying snobbery (the younger guys were so inferior, they didn't register as significant), but I finally decided that wasn't the case at all. It's just that the older guys were closer to us and played a more important part in our lives, though not generally on an individual basis. Upper classmen were our table prefects, dorm prefects, waiters, athletic heroes and team captains. When we were first classmen (freshmen), the fourth classmen (seniors), with very few exceptions, were almost like big brothers -- indifferent, perhaps, but hardly ever really unkind. Sure, there was the hazing of the ghost walk at Halloween, but no one that I know of was very traumatized by that. I can still remember the names and faces of many of them.

On the other hand, our interactions with our juniors were much more limited. It wasn't so much that we considered them inferior; they just weren't *there* as much as the older guys were. The folks that I *do* recall who were younger than I were extraordinary in some way or other. The ones I seem to remember were those who were quick with a wisecrack or a joke (Hi, Vern!), or who had some physical or behavioral attribute that made them memorable. I'm sure there were lots of fantastic people among that group, but I never really had the opportunity to know many of them.

Now that we're all grown up (and then some!), it's been great to be able to reconnect through this site with both older and younger guys as adults. Paz y bien a todos!
. . . jim strain '62

Another story: Seniors were allowed to smoke in the rec room only or when hiking.
Underclassmen had to sneak down to the grotto for a couple of hits and hope
Severin wasn't out for his canyon walk. We used to stash cigarettes in the
stone wall. There wass a loose stone on the wall below the chapel.
When you removed it, there was enough of a cavity to stash a couple of packs of
cigarettes. We usually smoked Luckies or Camels, some Pall Mall.
Filtered cigarettes were just coming into existence, but were too wimpy for
us.

George N, '58

Some time ago I began a correspondence with Fr. Peter, who is residing at Mercy Center in Oakland. I told him an abbrevieated story of my life, focusing on my dismissal from SAS after I flunkd Latin II, then went on to marry and have 8 kids and become a foreign language teacher! He sent back a wonderful letter, very witty and sharp for a guy in his late 80's. He told me that he struggled himself with Latin, barely passing, sitting in the same place that I did at St Anthony's. He told me he was astonished when his first assignment after ordination was to teach Latin at SAS!

Great stuff!
A good read!

see more SAS stories at the archive site at www.sasarchive.org and click on "Stories."