•Alumni Memories

Enjoy reading the “memories” recalled by our graduates! 

Have one to share?  We’d love to read it!  Email it in on the Alum Form by clicking on the

Alumni Association link...

Being allowed to watch TV in the classroom when the Pope visited the US and whenever there was a space launch.

Frank Murphy (Class of ‘76 )

Falling in love in the fourth grade with Miss Weiss and following her Camaro (red with a white top) when she left school while we walked home.
Learning to play the guitar and the clarinet in the school band.
Being a model for the Women's Guild fashion show.  (Please note that I was an unwilling “volunteer!”)

Tom Walsh (Class of ‘81)

My old friends Ed Ridgway and John Szczesniak, who I am still in touch with, and others who I haven't seen in many years, among them: Kelly Connell, Chris Waltrich, Maria Noonan, James Newman, Wendy Parker and Jeanine and Jennifer Rouse. Please forward my information on to any of these classmates if they are part of the alumni association. Thank you!

Mary Betz (Class of ‘57)

Classes in the Lacey Park Community center; I was in fifth grade when the parish opened...singing in the school choir and Father Lahart taking us to school in his car when the building of the Turnpike closed Davisville Road.

Trudy Betz Mihalcik (Class of ‘61)

Lining up to get our box of Christmas candies from the Pastor, and the Eighth grade girls leading the May Procession.

State Rep. Tom Murt (Class of ‘74)

Almost winning a CYO Football Championship in 1973! Our team record was 7-1.

Carolyn Simon (Class of ‘84)

One of many favorite memories is the feeling like being on top of the world at my 8th grade graduation. Only to be knocked down to reality 3 months later as a freshman at Archbishop Wood.

Dave Michael (Class of ‘73)

I have far too many to even come up with just one.

James White (Class of ‘03)

Academic Contests

John Kopchak (Class of ‘71)

3:00 PM!

Linda Hetzel Recentio (Class of ‘62)

Father Keenan distributing boxes of candy at Christmas and the May Processions.

Kimberly Stites Branco (Class of ‘81)

Ms. Henry!

Donald Stites (Class of ‘76)

Becoming an Altar Boy

Nancy Ciamaichela Schmidt (Class of ‘70)

Bitsy and I were always the first in line for our grade in the May Processions.

Dorothy Michael (Class of ‘64)

Oh, so many memories! I'll just recount a couple for now.

The most vivid memory I have was of 22 November 1963. I was in 8th grade and every afternoon I collected attendance slips from each room and then entered the numbers in a ledger. It was probably about 2:00 PM and I was about to go into Room 1 when Mother announced over the PA system that President Kennedy had been assassinated.  I remember a lot of crying and even some kids screaming. What a sad, sad day!

During the 1960 Presidential campaign one of the bus drivers had a picture of John Kennedy taped to the window (couldn't get away with that these days, I'm sure).
My teacher told us we should be sure our parents voted.  If I remember correctly, she said something to the effect that no one should tell anyone else who to vote for, but she mentioned that JFK was Catholic.

I remember signing a "copy book" which was placed in the cornerstone of the school addition and attending the dedication.  I believe it was around 1961/62.

Every morning all of the students lined up by grades in the front parking lot and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the National Anthem while the flag was raised.  Cars would stop on County Line Road (which was 2 lanes at the time). Once a letter was written to the school by a gentleman who stated how proud he was to see that.

My dad, Dick Michael, coached CYO football at SJB for a number of years.  From the time I was about 7, I went to all the practices and games. I begged him to let me play but girls couldn't do things like that at that time! (I actually could pass and punt pretty well). The boys would play in jeans and shirts and use their own equipment.  It was somewhat of a rag-tag group.  I think it was St John of the Cross School that had nice, matching uniforms, and our boys looked so disheartened when they would play them.
One year the parents had a fundraiser and they bought helmets, pants and jerseys.  I went with my Dad to pick up the helmets.  There was a game that day and we had to get back quickly.  The helmets had red stripes down the center, so on the way back I sat in the back of the car and covered the stripes with strips of green tape.  The boys did not know about it, so it was a great surprise when they were told to go into the basement of the rectory and they saw the piles of uniforms.  I remember how proud the guys looked to be in matching uniforms for the first time!  I even have pictures from that day.

Julia Gana (Class of ‘70)

I took piano lessons at the school for 50 cents.

Mark Kearney (Class of ‘76)

Great lay teachers who reached out to me and others to make sure we worked hard; lifetime lessons.

Karyn Egbert (Class of ‘03)

I remember when, in Mrs. McKnight’s class, we were covering the 1950s to the present, and we listened to the song, “We  Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel so many times I think we sang it in our sleep.  The projects we did on the years mentioned were incredibly fun; I definitely miss Bosco and the teachers.

James Healy (Class of ’56)

Going to school at St. Joseph’s and then being moved to temporary classrooms in Lacey Park as we watched the new St. John Bosco school being built. 

Father Keenan was also a great memory.  I had a very hard time learning the Latin to be an altar boy and he needed a server one Sunday and told me to do everything else and when it came time to say the Creed, I just had to move my lips and he would say it loud enough that nobody would know I was not really saying anything out loud.

Robert Hessler (Class of ’79)

I have many memories of my time at SJB, right down to the first day of school in first grade.  I can still remember how I felt walking in and being greeted by the teachers (including Sr. Mary Goretti), telling my name, and then being led to the classroom where I was assigned.