I don't believe that they started numbering the reunions. Like, would this one have been the twentieth? At any rate, it is too late to start now. The weather for the day was great and the turnout was excellent. Jimmy Cavanaugh said that he took a quick count during the Mass and came up with about eighty people.
I believe that some people left right after the Mass and consequently I did not get their picture at the get together downstairs. As it is, I did not get everyones picture.
The Mass was said by Father Clavero, who is retiring this year. John Kelleher assisted as the deacon. Remember when we would have a high Mass and there would be eight to ten altar boys and three priests on the altar? Depending on the liturgical time of year not only determined the color of the priests vestments but also what color the altar boys wore.
I have compiled a bit of a rogues gallery of sorts and I am going to share them with you. If any one is dissappointed with their picture I appologize. It's the camera.
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| Tony Alva, Pat Dowd, John Scott and Marge Scott |
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| John Croake |
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| Pat Purcell |
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| Kay, Eileen and Margaret |
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| Timmy Cleary, Bill McGooe,? and Mike Sexton |
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| Emma Sakel |
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| 50/50 time Jimmy Cavanaugh hold the hat as Jane Reily, Betty McKiernan, Emma Sakell and Marty Chambers look on. |
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| Mr. and Mrs. Marty Chambers |
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| Billy Maher, Mike Sexton, John Scott, and Timmy Cleary |
 Kay Donahue, Eileen Flynn, Margaret Boylan, John Keegan, Bobby Cunningham, Jackie Murphy, Betty Read and Jackie's nephew. |
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| Bart Mugan |
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| Bobby Cunningham |
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| Tommy Burke |
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| Gene Feeley |
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| John Reynolds |
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| Kathleen Reynolds |
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| Jack Murphy |
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| Mike Sexton |
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| Barbra Rochford |
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| Tommy Rochford and Mike Stack |
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| Mike McCaffery |
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| Buddy Clancy |
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| Donald Rochford |
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| Harry and Betty Anne Read |
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| Bobby Frascotti |
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| Maureen Read and Margie Brennan ( Galligan) |
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| Tom and Maureen Read |
499 West 135th Street had to be the best represented building, Mike Sexton, Tom Burke, Jack Murphy, Bart Mugan, John Mugan and Tommy Carr.
I think that Google, which runs this blog site has changed some things. It was not as easy putting this blog together but I didn't want to give up and here it is. I hope that you enjoyed it.
Bernie Donovan writes:
TOMMY:
Once again, thanks for a lot of memories. Yours is remarkable.
Seems that a lot of neighborhood guys were smart enough to get into Regis. Speaks well of the nuns, and our parents. You lasted two years. I lasted only one and a half. In my first week there, a teacher (I think he was a seminarian) asked me a question. I answered "I ain't got none". The class broke up and the teacher tried not to smile. He asked me to repeat my answer. I did. More laughter. I suddenly realized that some of us from the Hill didn't speak the King's English. I felt I didn't belong there. My mother , bless her soul, wouldn't let me quit. so I got myself thrown out during my second year. My brother Vinny entered Regis the year behind me. He didn't like being there either. He arranged to get thrown out the same day I did, knowing I'd be the one to get whacked up along side the head. I can still remember my poor mother's face when she come home from work to find the two of us in the kitchen. I wish I had do-overs.
In an earlier blog, There was a mention - I think by Buddy Clancy - of a Nellie Miller and her bakery. A girl in our crowd was named Ellen (Nellie) Miller. A great girl with a throaty laugh and a ready smile. She lived in the house above your Dad's store. A great dancer. Unless I had a few drinks in me, I was a leadfoot on the dancefloor. But Nellie would take me out and make me feel l;ike Fred Astair. I often wondered what happened to her. Is she the Nellie who opened a bakery?
Bernie, I believe that the Nellie Miller that I write about is the same as the one that you wrote about. She had a brother named Hughie. The bakery did not last too long.
Margaret Boylen related this story to me at the reunion.
Margaret's dad was the doorman at the stage door to Lewishon Stadium. For two years in a row Lewis
Armstrong was the star of the July Fourth program. Two years in a row Mr. Armstrong gave Mr. Boylen a crisp one hundred dollar bill as a tip. Margaret said twice in her life she got to see what a hundred dollar bill looked like. I think she may have seen a few more since then.
