My alma mater is in the news.

A Newsweek article about Trinity High School.

Thanks to my classmate Nora for pointing this article out to me.

I missed my calling.

#15, "Knitter in Residence." It makes sense, if you follow stranded knitting.

Thanks to my friend Nora for calling my attention to this.

Kumbaya

River Forest, Illinois, September 1975. A cherished high-school friend visit me this week. She took a day off and drove up from the Chicago area. I had seen her twice in the last thirty-eight years. We picked up as though no time had passed. She brought a photo album filled with some touching snapshots. Among them was this one she took at the "Big Sister/Little Sister" picnic the high school hosted at the beginning of our senior year. We attended a mandatory, outdoor Mass during the picnic. My friend correctly remembered that I disliked going to Mass, and she recalled I was annoyed by the 1970s-ish "cool" Mass trappings. I'm (wearing a bandana and) apparently singing compliantly in this image, but my friend spotted a look of discomfort and skepticism in my brow.

Thanks to my friend Mary for making this photo available to us.

"Red pants, that's France!"

Suburban Chicago, November 1960. This clip reminds me of "Red pants, that's France!" I learned that piece of uniform history during my senior year in high school, when I took "Western Civilizations." Western Civ was the course that turned me on to studying history. I liked the class because we used a college-level textbook,* and the teacher, Sr. Francia Shannon, was amazing. She taught us to use primary sources.  

I think my classmate will remember how we repeated, "Le pantalon rouge c'est la France!"

*Our edition was a hardcover with white binding. I saved it for about 30 years; I think I got rid of it when we last moved. I have a newer, paperback, edition on the shelf—one that I used when I taught the course in the late 1980s. I'm annoyed I can't find my high-school volume. It had my underlines and notes. I'm a purger, but this is a time when I regret getting rid of something.

A Halloween Chronology

My friend Nora suggested I do a Halloween post chronicling my childhood costumes. Here are the photos; there were a few years in which I had two costumes. If I earlier had blogged an image (or a similar one), then I link to that post in the corresponding year.

1961:

 

 

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1962:

 

 

Again, 1962:

 

 

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1963:

 

 

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1964:

 

 

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1965? Dad must have missed the moment.

 

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Same problem for 1966, but I have this:

 

 

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1967: 

 

 

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1968:

 





 

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1969:

 

 

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1970:

 

 

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1971:

 

 

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1973:

 

 

Again, 1973:

 

 

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Finally, here is an image from 1994. I dressed as a moose for a workplace party. It's the only time I've worn a Halloween costume as an adult:

 



 

A Friend of the Blog

My friend V and I met because of Amber Reunion. This is the second or third time that I've connected (or reconnected) with someone because of a blog. (The first time was when a beloved, high school friend spotted me over at Althouse. Ah! This also counts as a surprise of sorts.)

V, an active, life-long scout, had been searching for historical photos of Lithuanian scouting. She stumbled on this blog, but she did not see a direct way to contact me. Instead of commenting, V wrote to one of the Madison Lithuanians after she saw occasional references here to Wisconsin life. My friend and former folk-dancing teacher, Nijole, put V in touch with me.

V and I have been email pals ever since that original connection, and I am delighted to report that we will be meeting in person this summer.

Indiana, about 1965. Here's V with her Mom. Mom's folkdress is of exquisite quality. The book is about Lithuania's first President, Smetona. You can read more about Smetona here.

Thanks to my friend V for making this photo available to us.

The Life Box (Part 5)

In the 1970s, my high school—like many others of that era—divided students into groups based on the school's perceptions of our potential. Students clustered in the "AP" category enrolled in college-prep courses with demanding workloads. I often found the homework expectations overwhelming. There were many nights when my Parents permitted me to stay up beyond my bedtime so that I could finish assignments.

Most homework projects were rewarding. I enjoyed doing the newspaper project that accompanied our study of Romeo and Juliet. The same teacher who assigned the newspaper project also required us to write a play. I wrote a story about a man fleeing life behind the Iron Curtain. 

 

During my freshman year, I took a "World Civilizations" course. It was one of my favorite classes. Early in the year, the teacher assigned a "team project." We were to work in groups of two or three girls, and we were to produce a document that illustrated our understanding of ancient Greece. I chose to work with a classmate that I had met in gym class during the first week of school. 

 

Here are some snapshots of the assignment we submitted forty-one years ago. A few thoughts popped into my head as I looked at the project today: (1) In my first career, as an historian, I focused my research on Mediterranean piracy (see the last paragraph of the project's text); (2) The teacher who created this assignment still teaches at my high school; and (3) My partner on the project and I keep in touch, and she occasionally visits the blog.

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