Outsider

Last summer, my classmates and I celebrated our 60th high school class reunion. Not surprisingly, it was notable for the absence of several familiar faces, a couple of classmates wheelchair-bound and the presence of portable oxygen units scattered about the room. That’s probably not too strange since we’re all in our late seventies, pushing up against the eighty-year mark and slowing down considerably. They say it’s called the circle of life.

Now a year later, a 61st class reunion has been organized. It will be held at a bar/restaurant in the vicinity of our old high school. I’m guessing some of the wiser ones among our class leadership decided that with our attrition rate as it is, it was probably best not to wait another ten years before we all met up again. But there was another reason for gathering and reminiscing about ‘the good old days.’

Concurrently with our 61st reunion, a new book about Cretin has just come out on Amazon. Com. Its genesis was simple enough. After last year’s class reunion, a couple of my classmates got together and decided it would be nice to capture some of the memories of our time from 1957 to 1961 at a unique educational institution that no longer exists. Thus was born ‘Cretin ’61 A Class Memoir.’

When I went on Amazon to buy a copy of ‘A Class Memoir’ I discovered another book about Cretin entitled: ‘Cretin Boy.’ This book was written by a graduate of the class of 1979. The second, ‘A Class Memoir,’ is by one of my classmates, Joe Delmont. It turns out that neither one was a romp down memory lane; at least not for me. Instead both books were a grab bag of other people’s memories; none of them patterned after my own.

For what it’s worth, both books, but especially ‘A Class Memoir,’ brought to mind just how isolated I felt a lot of the time relative to the experiences of my classmates. Reading ‘Memoir’ made me feel as if I was looking in on four years of high school that I only heard about in the homeroom, cafeteria, and after school.

To their credit, Amazon did a good job describing ‘Cretin Boy:’

‘Cretin High School, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota was a Catholic, all-male, military academy that brought unique twists to the already difficult high school experience. Cretin Boys, as they were called, were subject to the oppression of both church and state as they navigated the diverse teaching styles of Christian Brothers, military instructors, and lay teachers. Cretin Boy looks at those menial first jobs, takes you dancing with a girl at that first high school formal, and peels down the street in a Corvette-on-loan with a teen at the wheel. It is a coming-of-age story with a military dress code, a coming-to-faith story while smoking in the boy’s room.’

My classmate, Joe Delmont along with a group of friends, collected all the content for this second book of memories of our class and did a great job with: ‘Cretin ’61 A Class Memoir.’

Amazon described his book this way:

‘What Was It Like To Be Part of This Group?

Cretin ’61 was founded in 1871 as an all-male, blue-collar, Catholic, military high school, for day students, one that emphasized physical discipline and man-to-man directness to teach personal responsibility and excellence in athletics, academics, and career development as we grew from boys to men. This school ceased to exist when Cretin dropped mandatory JROTC and merged with Derham Hall High School. This book is a snapshot of our school days in 1957-1961.’

On a very personal level, the two books paint a fascinating picture of a time and place long since relegated to mostly old black and white photographs and the occasional color print of my high school years. But a time and period of my life better remembered by other people.

While the two books did a great job of rehashing old memories of high school; it was much more personal for me. The books really filled in a vacuum inside my head that had been there for over 61 years. It further reinforced the notion that my high school experiences were remarkably different than those of most of my classmates.

Reading the ‘Class Memoir,’ one can’t help but feel that many of my classmates who contributed to the book were truly reliving their ‘glory years.’ That’s not meant as a criticism but rather an acknowledgement that their experiences during those four years followed a different trajectory than mine did.

Raised in a single parent household (my mother left school after the sixth grade) where education was never talked about, I only had one distant cousin who seemed to ‘have it together.’ He was attending Cretin High School at the time, following in the footsteps of his two brothers. After that, he was going to college, as had his two brothers. Though never discussed, I had the distinct impression that ‘Buzz’ (Ronald Pizinger - later Doctor Pizinger) was the one to follow. So I naively thought I would too.

After being passed by with the first group of applicants, I only got into Cretin after someone dropped out, and I was next on their wait list. Lucky me! Both books brought back a plethora of memories; both good and sad but real and honest, nevertheless.

It truly was the best of times and the most trying - at times. It was what it was and both books pointed out the unique educational experience both my class of 1961 and the class of 1979 can hold dear to their heart.

I can’t change the fact that I felt like an outsider a lot of the time while I was attending Cretin. I still feel like an outsider some of the times but a much older one now and able to treasure the gifts I received there.