OLE Auditorium (Cafeteria, Gym, Air Raid Shelter) and Milk Envelopes

Hi John,

Doug Roll posted a quick message on the blog this morning.

On having a tour of OLA, I have to admit, I am with the majority and would like to see the old place again. I can smell the milk now!

Lord knows I spent enough time at that school. I don't know if you remember but I used to receive a personal milk envelope each week from Mrs. Trapani (I think that was her name). She was the secretary to Sr. Paula and later Sr. Damian. I helped Ralph the custodian sweep the floors of the school every night. He was getting on in years and they though it would be a good idea for me to help him out. I would leave the school at 7:00 p.m. every night and would often have to back for 7 or 8:00 a.m. mass the next morning. Hey, I had some good money coming in those days, between the weddings, funerals, the milk and sweeping the floors. By the time I got to Molloy, that summer, I marched into Bro. Hugh Andrew's office and asked for a job. I was qualified! Hugh asked why I though I was so qualified and said that I though the fact that I had the nerve to come see him should have been enough to give me job. At the time he was feared by all as Dean of Discipline. Later they changed his title to Assistant Principal. By July 1st, I was working for Molloy six days a week making the I.D. cards, changing the locker combinations, answering the phones, working in the general office, running off the basketball scores for Jack Curran's camp and eating dinner every night with the kitchen staff. Later Bro. Richard Van Houten and Thomas Reithman taught me computer programming (IBM Autocoder) and I became a key punch machine operator for them. At Molloy, I got paid in milk envelopes too! Bro. John Alexis would settle with me every Friday, until Bro. James Maher came along....more later...

I think it will jar my memory to see OLA again and get me up to par with you and Leo in terms of remembering so many of the details. Actually it looks like Josephine is right up there with you two guys.

-Tom