Area History: A MCHS REMINISCENCE by John Sullivan Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Shirley E. Ryan, sryan@enter.net USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ______________________________________________________________________ Mr. Sullivan wrote this article for the Mahanoy City High School Alumni Class Reunion 2001. A MCHS REMINISCENCE BY JOHN “PUCK” SULLIVAN, CLASS OF 1972 A VOICE FROM THE PAST Please Lord, turn back the universe to 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1926, four happy years of my life spent gathering knowledge in dear ol’ Mahanoy City High School when boys were boys and girls were glad of it. The jazz age swinging, bringing radical changes in ballroom dancing, youth’s wearing apparel and hairstyles. Swash buckling boys known as sheiks, girls bobbed hair flatters, Charleston dance contests galore. A few popular songs of the day: “The Old Gang of Mine”, “Tea For Two”, “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally”, ‘Sleepy Time Gal”, ‘Sheik of Araby” and “What’ll I Do?” Great songwriter Irving Berlin at his peak. Newly opened Lakeside and Lakewood ballrooms featuring the best regional bands: Ted Brownagle, John Hall, Ollie Naylor, and Joe Nesbit. A MCHS grad, Tommy James, for five years was first trumpet player with Nesbit’s highly rated band. A short year or two later our two lake ballrooms had us dancing to every top name band in the country. The 1926 graduation prom was the first ever held in Lakewood Ballroom. Our Superintendent of Mahanoy City Public Schools, Prof. H.A. O’Day, Syracuse University, confirmed intellect, splendid appearance, well over 6 foot in height, facial features revealing he was far more American Indian than Irish. We called him “Hank”. Principal, Homer T. Bagenstose, well liked, his nickname “Baggie”. Lovely ladies of the faculty - Misses Elizabeth Flanigan, Jennie D. Kline, Mary McAtee, Annetta McInerney, Katie Rinck, Mary Smith and Verna Smith. The latter two sisters, who spent their entire careers at MCHS. Gentlemen teachers: Howard Amour, Prof. Robert T. Cook, highly rated basketball coach, John L. Geopfert, and Prof J.W. Strong. Teachers with shorter tenure: Misses Mary Campion, Blanche Faust, Ursula O’Connor, Johannetta Snyder, and Kitty Swank. On the male list: Russell Foster, Michael O’Leary, Alphonse Stine and Vincent Underhoffler. At the time school dropouts were compelled to attend one day each week. It was known as Continuation School. In charge: Mrs. Bina M. Ryan. May they all rest in peace. Entering high school our freshmen class numbered slightly over 200. Four years later on graduation day it had dwindled to 107. The main reason for it; some large families struggling to survive were forced to take the older offspring’s out of school. Still at the time we were the largest class ever graduated from MCHS. Class colors - Royal Blue and White; Class Flower - forget-me-not; Class Motto - Not the sunset, but the dawn. It was a find a job time. 1926 found the school organizing its first marching band, fourteen members, under direction of Prof. Guy Dower. Seven seniors, Collins, Faust, Fisher, Everett, Giffin, Kaier and Urban. Under classmen: Becker, Gregory, Grinevich, Holman, Jones, McGuire, and a name less one. A foul up, the only one in the entire yearbook. In those days you were usually crowned with a nickname, mine “Puck”. Others I recall: Ed “Sad” Byron; Michael ‘Wicky” Byron; Harvey Giffiths had a night job racking balls in community poolroom. It earned him the monicker “Cue-Ball”. “Joe Jookie” Cahill; Howard “Chow” Everett; Ed “Nurmi” Kaier (he was named after Paavo Nurmi, then the world’s greatest distance runner). Kaier became an attorney and rose to the position as head of the entire Pennsylvania Railroad Corporation’s legal staff. Answered only to the corporation president. Mark “Mickey” Holland, Sr., the best schoolboy basketball player I ever saw. His every move classic. In 1926 he led his team to the Anthracite League Championship, defeating mighty Hazleton in the play off for the title. The most outstanding sports figure to address morning assembly (1926) was Mr. Harvey Stuldreher, quarter back of Notre Dame University’s famous Four Horsemen. Newly appointed head coach at Villanova University. In 1927 our own Edward ‘Ski” August, a great triple threat back enrolled at Villanova, where he starred for the next four years. Stuldreher said of him “good enough to play with any pro-football team in the country”. On occasions a most welcome visitor, an earlier MCHS grad, Mr. Joel Abbe Coffee, then a New York City attorney, would return to check on the old folk, but always found time to appear at a morning assembly and displayed his talent as a concert pianist. He sure sent us back to classroom in happy frame of mind. My Motto: “You are never alone, if you love music”. When we returned to school for our senior year a major change in the building structure during the off season had taken place. The third floor study hall had been converted into three classrooms to help alleviate the ever growing enrollment problem. The new study hall was the spacious auditorium, heartily approved of by faculty and students. One of the pleasing factors of it was the center aisle separating boys from girls. The study period times forty minutes, I’d study for thirty minutes, the remaining ten I spent ogling the lovely girls on the opposite side of the aisle. Truly a bewildering bunch of beauties. From the senior class alone were: Edna Boyer, Peg Brown, Margaret Curley, Eleanor Davies, Helen Dennis, Grace Ferguson, Florence Gallagher, Helen Gluck, Sara Haglegants, Catherine Hawkes, Barbara Klitsch, Leah McLaren, Kit Ryan, Helen Stremba, Marie Weber and Martha Williams. The lower classes were represented by Ann Campion, Helen Dainis, Helen Dunlop, Helen Hinch, Margaret Howser, Marjorie Lyond, Kathleen Ryan, Helen Stitzer. Florenze Ziegfield would have hired all of them to appear in his follies. I offer the warmest of welcomes to all homecoming Mahanoy City High School Alumni and your loved ones. May your presence accede all your expectations in this jubilee of joy and reunion. John “Puck” Sullivan, Class of 1927 .txt