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John Paquette
Class of 1925 |
One bright morning in September of 1918, my father brought me into the principal's office of the high school department of the College of the Immaculate Conception, which was just beginning to be known as Jesuit High School. Father McKervey took the necessary information and a $6.00 payment of the first month's tuition, and I was in! Unlike the proceedings of today – no examination, no past records – just that I wanted to attend Jesuit High, and that was that!
I was placed in the sixth grade, which was then called Special Grammar, and in the "B" Section with Father Haggerty as teacher. Naturally, I was, as a kid would say, "scared." However, the day went by; and I began to like the students, the building, and everything about Jesuit. When the final bell rang (a hand-ringing old brass school bell which was rung in various places), it was 2:30 p.m. The locked gates were opened, and the exodus began. At that time, I was living over the river (Westwego, to be exact); and I was shown how to get home via the Magazine streetcar and the Walnut Street ferry. I had spent my dime for a sandwich at Pete's during the noon hour and had 10 cents left, a nickel for the streetcar and a nickel for the ferry. By the way, if you lost one of your nickels or bought candy, you could get a gravy sandwich for a nickel.
As I filed out the gate on Baronne Street next to the Church, I began walking towards Canal Street to take the Magazine streetcar. I turned the wrong way and did not realize that I would never reach Canal Street that way; and I spotted Howard Avenue – my heart fluttered a little thinking I might be lost (I was only 11); but I settled down and decided to turn my nose around and walk the other way until I reached good old Canal Street.
I began to make friends and learn how to study the "Jesuit" way, and I liked it.
Father Haggerty was kind and patient and helped me very much. We had different camps in the class and competed against one another in spelling, English, arithmetic. Someone (probably from home or dear friends) supplied him well with chocolate candy. At the end of the month the camps would compete and the winning camp remained after school for their reward – chocolate candies.
I was in Jesuit only a few weeks when the epidemic of influenza hit the city and outlying towns. It hit hard. People were dying, and it spread like butter on hot toast. The announcement came abruptly – school is closed until further notice! The epidemic reached its peak; and many of my friends succumbed – funeral after funeral passed our house each day. The drug "Quinine" was very popular, and "Antiphlogestine" was spread in thick poultices over the chest to draw the mucous out of the lungs. These treatments worked for some, but for others the disease was fatal.
After about a month, school reopened, and we went back to the grind. My first report was nothing to brag about – average to weak. I finally began to realize that I had to study every night and improve. I did, and I ended up with a much better average. The Wait Disney dwarf "bashful" had nothing on me. I was very slow to join extracurricular activities. I was horrified to get up and talk to the class in Speech and never did join the Philelectic Society for that reason. Of course, living so far from Jesuit also had something to do with it.
I first heard of Gernon Brown and F. Edward Hebert as students and participants in the Speech contests, Debate, Elocution, Oratory, and Dramatics. One year Gernon would win the Debate medal and Hebert Elocution. The next year they alternated contests and won again. Gernon Brown was an unusually good actor. The first play I saw him star in was "My Friend the Prince" at the old Tulane Theater. My parents took me to see the play, which I enjoyed even as a kid. At that time, graduation was held on the same night after the play. This impressed me even though it was a long night.
When May came along, it was time for First Communion, which at that time included confirmation. Well, I "made" my first communion, and Archbishop Shaw slapped my face in confirmation. My Dad took me while my mother and twin sisters "watched the store." After the ceremony Dad took me, in my little white suit with knee pants and stockings, to Kolb's for breakfast. That just put me on a higher heavenly plane – to eat breakfast in a "big" restaurant. As the kids said, "I thought I was big stuff." That about ended the "break of dawn" and began my vacation. I was not thinking about the future in store for me. Needless to say, I was promoted to the seventh grade; and believe it or not, I looked forward to it.
September came again a little too quickly. Of all the catastrophic events destined to happen, this was the worst for me. The first day of school was September 3 – my birthday! What a horrible feeling! However, I made the most of it and took the long trek to Baronne and Common Streets.
I was assigned to First Grammar B as we lined up in the yard near the stairs. Our new teacher came to take us up to class in the McCloskey Building. He was Mr. Michael Watters, S.J., originally from St. Patrick's domain, Ireland.
Before journeying to our classroom, however, the whole school entered the Jesuit Church for morning prayers at 8:45 a.m. This occurred every morning except on Fridays when Mass was included.
All of us fell in love at first sight. Mr. Watters, whom we called Father even though he was only a scholastic at the time, was kind and very patient with us but a teacher in the real sense of the word.
Every grading period at the end of the month, we marched over to the auditorium. At one of these assemblies, Father Terence King, S.J. chaplain of the first division of the U.S. Army, addressed us. He was a hero in many a battle in World War I and comforted many of our doughboys as well as the enemy when wounded. He kept us interested in many a tale from his experiences.
F. Edward Hebert was football manager and leader of the student body. We would gather around the back steps of the Jesuit Church for the pep rally, and he would lead us in cheers. He was a born leader as was proved later in the U.S. Congress.
I began to take an interest in athletics as a spectator since I was too small to become a member of any team. I did play handball in the schoolyard at recess periods. This year Jesuit defeated Boys High 7-0 with 3,000 in attendance including lil ol' me. Joe Palermo was our coach. Also, we won the championship in basketball – our home court was on the hard cement pavement of our yard. Members of the team wore elbow and knee guards to keep away serious brush burns. Some of our stars were Ellis Henican, Gernon Brown, "Crow" Gaudet, and Blair Lancaster. Ellis Henican also won the Tennis Championship for us.
As a little kid, I got to know some of the seniors. One of them gave me a copy of the first school annual, which the Class of 1920 edited and published themselves with faculty approval. It was called The Blue J. The name made a hit with the students and faculty. It originated really from the white sweaters with a block Blue “J” on front which the athlete lettermen wore. Henceforward the Jesuit student body inherited the name of Jesuit Blue Jays.
"Father" Watters encouraged us to study regularly and to be accurate in our recitations and examinations. My grades began to improve drastically until I was near the top of the class. My mother began to expect good grades; and if I dropped a little in some subjects, I never heard the end of it until my next report.
Another year passed. I made many good friends and enjoyed my stay at Jesuit. When June came along and the end of the year was at hand, again I attended the graduation exercises at the old Lafayette Theater on Baronne Street. The play was "Richelieu" starring Gernon Brown.
One afternoon I started to the exit gate and met a very pretty lady who was the mother of my friend and classmate Bentley Byrnes. She inquired about the whereabouts of Bentz (as we called him). I reluctantly told her that he had penance hall and would not be out for quite a while. Without hesitation she bade me call my parents and tell them I would be home late. I didn't know what was up until she showed me tickets for the Orpheum Theater which at that time was strictly a vaudeville show. I thoroughly enjoyed the show while poor old Bentz sat disgustedly through PH. I don't know if he ever forgave me for this; but knowing him well, I feel he understood that it wasn't my fault and that his mother meant business.
Once in a while word was secretly passed around that there was to be a big fight after school. When the final bell rang, we would trickle out the gate and into an alleyway between two buildings nearer Canal Street. After a few bare-knuckled blows, the opponents would quit, grin a little, and shake hands. So different from the teens of today who now go home for guns and finish it in a deadly fashion.
Another after-school treat was to walk across Canal Street and down Dauphine for a block to the Palace Confectionery for the biggest, slushiest, most delicious cream puffs made in heaven.
One afternoon on a sadder trek we walked over to see the ruins of the old French Opera House which was still smoldering. We didn't know much about opera, but it was still sad to see such a fine old building in ashes.
In September 1923 we entered our junior year, and our biggest loss was Mr. Watters. We were really sorry to lose him as our teacher; but we had him for four years in a row, and it was time for him to go on to Theology and later ordination. Our new teacher was Father John Cronin, who proved to us to be another dedicated Jesuit who led us through our studies with patience but not without discipline.
At the beginning of this year, I had to drop out because of my dad's inability to work at the time. I went to work as a copy boy at the New Orleans Item newspaper to bring in a little money to help the family through our crisis. I intended to return to Jesuit as soon as I could.
During this interim I met a few fine reporters and writers and made many friends at the Item. Fred Digby was the gruff sports writer who turned out to be one of the finest in the country. The city editor, reporters, and heads of departments would yell, "copy boy"; and we had to take the material up the stairs to the composing room. I was there for some big Dempsey fights at which time we were told to work late. The returns would come round by round over the ticker tape. One copy boy stationed himself on each floor, and the news was relayed up to the composing room. As soon as a knockout or decision came as a flash over the wire, an "extra" paper was readied and hit the street in a few minutes. It was the same daily paper with a new front page. Giant headlines carried the story. Our pay for the evening was a $1 voucher to get out and get dinner; and, believe me, you could get a good one for that amount.
Dad finally got back on his feet at the beginning of the second semester, and I returned to Jesuit High.
After getting much help from my classmates, I finally fell into the everyday routine of completing junior and senior years. It was quite a trip through the speeches of Cicero and the adventures of Virgil, the complicated formulae of Algebra II and the interesting experiments of Chemistry and Physics. Our Mathematics ended with Trigonometry. Father Cronin helped us through, and then came graduation night.
All of us attended the play at the old Tulane Theater, "If I Were King" featuring Henry Dupre as Francois Villon. After the play we were called up to the stage to get any awards and our final achievement, our high school diplomas. It was quite a long night.
Now to get a job! I did find one, not much to my liking, but it was pay coming in – $7.00 a week refilling fire extinguishers. Not satisfied with this, I applied to the New Orleans Item newspaper and was assigned to Mr. Thomas Ewing Dabney as financial reporter. Incidentally, the pay jumped to $10 per week. My responsibility was to get the latest stock, cotton, and other quotations from the markets and send them into the office. Accuracy was most important if you didn't want investors on your neck.
During the 1925-26 era my old alma mater was torn down since it was no longer feasible for students to attend a downtown school. The Pere Marquette building was being erected. The school rented an old building on Howard and Baronne which had been used by the United States Tire and Rubber Company. "Beaver Board" partitions were erected, and classrooms divided the different floors. The recreation area was the building roof. Pedestrians were sometimes affected by things thrown from the top. Luckily, no one ever tried to "fly down."
The new building was being erected on Carrollton and Banks Street, and in the meantime an old house on Prytania was used as the rectory and offices. It was then that yours truly heard of the position of Registrar being created. Father John Cronin wrote a postcard telling of the new job and that I should apply. Father Percy Roy was principal at the time, and I went to see him. I don't know how he ever hired me; but even though I was as green as grass, he did, with, of course, no guarantee for the future.
As soon as the basement was solid enough to walk on, an office was opened for registration and business purposes.
As time approached the opening of school, which was delayed several times, furniture began arriving - classroom desks, etc. Scholastics and lay teachers formed a line on the stairs' landings and passed up desks to the upper rooms.
Finally the school opened with an enrollment of 520 on September 24, 1926.
It is now 70 years later, and much water has passed under the bridge. If anyone asks if I thought I would have been here this long, the answer must be, of course, "No.” But now that the time has passed, I wouldn't trade anything for it, and I must acknowledge that, as it has passed, I loved and enjoyed every minute of it!
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