St. Gregory's or Harvard? Not sure

My daddy's sister, Aunt Nell, rode with us when Momma took me to St. Gregory's to begin my sophomore year. If you've been keeping up with these posts, she was Uncle Woodrow's wife, the Navy Crypto guy that was one of many uncles that took me under their wing when daddy died.

Just after we passed Oklahoma Baptist University, (OBU), we turned into the main entrance for St. Gregory's. To me, it looked like Harvard. I knew something was up the minute we drove up to the administration building and parked the car.  There were students all over the place but they were wearing blue blazers, grey pants, ties and wing tips. I immediately wondered how much money the family had to use to pay off the school to let "the kid with the shaving cream can" in the front door.

We were met by Father Gregory Pazzetti, or something close to that, and were invited to rest in the student union and have a cup of coffee and a coke before we began. "Student Union", what the hell is that, I thought. Aunt Nell said: "Now this is more like it". She loved the place and momma just had that big grin on her face and I knew a surprise was coming.

I found out that the Jr. College had been added to the prep school and that the student body consisted of upper class kids from well to do families that were mostly from Oklahoma. I saw two Morris graduates there and became instantly comfortable knowing that I wasn't really starting all over. One was Dan O'Malley from Chicago and I felt quite at home knowing "If O'Malley can get in here, I've got it made".  A kid named Sullentrop showed up and as it turned out, one of his Uncles was a Brother there. We signed in, received my Blazer, tie, grey pants and wing tips and things just kept getting better.

Despite all the hoop lah, when I reported to the sophomore dorm, I noticed there were only 30 beds there instead of 50 and I already knew some of the students there. They had arrived from other boarding schools and they immediately introduced themselves. Before I was settled in, Joe Farris, a Morris Graduate from Little Rock, showed up. His father was a uber wealthy man and owned huge shopping malls in Arkansas.

I met a Native American named Raymond Kipp, the first Indian I ever knew. We became good friends for the year and pulled off one of the best pranks I ever took part in. That happened during the camp out we went to at the end of the year. He had a brother, or an Uncle, get us some white lightning and hid it in a special place at the State Park where his family had taken them camping before.

There was a waterfall in the park and they hid a quart of white lightning there so no one but Ray would find it. If you've seen "The Last Of The Mohicans", you can visualize the waterfall I'm referring to. We got drunk as monkeys on that one. I knew then what white lightning was all about and more importantly, I found out WHY they named it that.

Unfortunately, Ray was killed in action in Vietnam 3 months before I arrived in 1970. I never knew which tribe he belonged to and haven't been able to go there to pay my respects.

Not long after meeting all the guys we were invited to come to the REC ROOM. I didn't even know what the hell a rec room was but figured it out the minute I walked in the door. There was a kid there named Pat Cullen who was playing The House of The Rising Son on his guitar. Another kid named Wayne Lavesque had a set of drums there. There was a pool table, ping pong as well as a tv set. I was certain it couldn't be true and figured it was for the college kids and we were just sneaking in before they arrived and started classes. I was really relieved when I found out it was ours.

When school started, I found out that one of my first classes was Civics and World History taught by a guy named Mastrogiovanni. He was a civilian and knew more about George Patton than anybody. I liked his class the best.

Before the week was over, they figured out that I could tell a joke better than anybody in the sophomore class and I received an invitation to spend the week end in Oklahoma City with Pat Cullen. His great grandfather was an original Sooner and his grandfather made a HUGE fortune in the lumber business. Pat's father worked at Cullen Lumber Company and we stayed at his house which was the finest place I'd ever been.

We went to meet his grandfather and I discovered what a real mansion was like. I concluded that he had more money than the Pope and that the week end stay was going to be a home run hit especially when I heard the words "The McGinnis High School Girls".

We went to a burger joint and it was packed with McGiness girls that all the guys knew from Jr High. Somebody's older sister took us there because she had a drivers license. She was a prankster too. The order was placed and, just like we'd heard several times before we placed the order, they would call out our name over a loud speaker. It was a "Miss Jones, your order is ready" kind of thing. Before I knew what was going on, the lady at the speaker said "Miss Carriage, your order is ready" and the whole room erupted in laughter. It was a ball and Pat arranged some dates with the girls he'd gone to Jr High with.

Mine was named Carolyn Rienig and she was some kind of fine lookin' girl. The next night I had a date with another girl and I discovered exactly what French kissing was all about. I can't remember her first name but have often joked about her last name being Hoover..........just like the vacuum cleaner. I HAD ARRIVED. That week end began a nine month long period of week end visits to the homes of many students. I discovered bras and perfume. Surely, I would end up living here the rest of my life.

I'm not sure if any of that had a connection to a punishment I received from Father Paul but suffice it to say that my year wasn't without a wee bit of action. I had to translate the Gallic Wars from Latin to English and it did NOT pass by me when I heard that the Pope decided to stop using Latin during Mass that year. Hmmm, Great timing.

 In any event, Thanksgiving came along and when I was preparing to go to the bus station, Joe Farris' father showed up to get Joe and take him home for the holidays. He remembered me from Morris and when he found out I was going to take the bus home for Thanksgiving, he invited me to ride to Little Rock with Joe in their plane. I was blown away when we arrived at the Shawnee airport to find an Aero Commander Twin Engine executive airplane there. What a ride it was. I fell in love with it and it soon became and remains, my favorite twin engine plane from that era.

I met a senior named Knoblock just before we graduated. The school didn't prevent us from socializing or knowing the upper classmen but the way our floors and classrooms were separated, we only saw them during meal times or during basketball games. He was a nice guy and was friendly toward the lower classmen.

One day, many years later, when I was flying some radios to Saigon, I had an opportunity to go to the Officers Club. While I was walking down a hallway, I noticed a guy wearing an Air Force uniform walking through the door. He looked familiar and when I saw his name tag, I stopped and said: "Hey Knobby" and he immediately came to a full stop. It was a great meeting and he was as surprised to see me as an officer and a helicopter pilot as I was to see him as a top notch Air Force NCO. Small World.

Toward the end of the year I called my momma and told her I wanted to come home and attend a co educational public school. She already knew Jesuit was out but was still a bit worried about the possibilities that might come from that situation. I think my fight with Brother Edwin still worried her as it had been less than a year since that happened. I promised I wouldn't get into any more fights and told her that I never even got into an argument during my sophomore year.

She said "NO" but when I told her that I would do like Greg did and run away from school if she didn't let me, the next thing I knew, I was leaving Oklahoma and headed to Shreveport and all my buddies from grade school.

I didn't say anything about the discovery of the female breast, bras, lipstick or French kissing but that didn't matter because she watched me like a momma that knew what was going on and before my first year at home was complete, I was caught red handed.

As a side note, little did I know that I was going to meet Elsa Buchannan, a girl whose dad graduated from St. Gregory's and became a B 25 pilot during the Second World War and trained at Eglin Air Force Base, the same base that I flew into and out of when I was training with US Army Rangers just before I left for Vietnam.

That's another story but I wanted to finish my boarding school years so I could go on to Byrd High School, Northwestern State and Army Flight School. Hang with me, I'm trying to get this done as fast as possible so I can prepare you for the Timmy Butler plan for 2014 onward. Thanks for keeping up.