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VOLUME 23 • CHAPTER 4 • October 2023MemoirsThe first Campionette, the student newsletter, was published 106 years ago, on November 11, 1917. The first editor of the Campionette was Tom O'Connor, class of 1920. The last official issue was the one announcing the closing of the school in May 1975. Over the years, various classes have published special editions for their class reunions, some of which have been pretty extravagant. The Campion Forever Newsletter was first published by Aaron Huguenard, class of 1947, in 2000 as a means for alumni and faculty to keep in touch and share life experiences. We've been trying to get memoirs from retired and not-so-retired Campion Jebbies for our newsletter for quite some time. We don't care if the memoirs are about when they went to Campion, taught at Campion, or just what they've done since leaving Campion. We just want to hear something from our mentors in the first person; perhaps words of wisdom learned while IHS; typically, we only get third-person accounts post mortem. Not to lay all the blame on the Jebbies, but why can't we get memoirs from more alumni, or what they've done since leaving Campion? Where are all those other authors and editors of the old 'ette"? While it has been a task getting people to submit articles, there are a few dedicated alumni and Jebbies who do regularly provide ideas for articles. This is a good thing; otherwise, I would have to conjure the 'Ghost of Joe Campion' for ideas more than I care to. Tom Olson '72 From Tom Olson '72 The guy that brought us the Manitowoc Minute now brings us what??!
From Dave Keeney '47
According to the 1946 Campion Knight (yearbook), James Vickers was an achieving student who won academic honors, played varsity basketball, and was a billiards and golf champion. In the years that followed, he gained recognition in the world of golf. In 1952, "Jimmy" won the United States Intercollegiate (later NCAA) Golf Championship. Among his other winnings were the Kansas Amateur, Colorado State Amateur, US Seniors (co-champion), and World Seniors (2 times). He played in 41 Bing Crosby Pro-Amateur events, winning with his pro partner in 1977. He also played in the US Amateur, the US Open, and the Masters tournaments. He was known as a great humorist and storyteller. Jimmy died on January 6, 2020, survived by his wife, five children, and nine grandchildren. His funeral services were held at Sacred Heart Church in Palm Desert, California. (The post-Campion information comes from the Desert Sun Newspaper of Palm Springs, California, as published on Google.)
From Allen Smith '58
Hi, Tom: Ed Gormley '58 passed away recently and I note that your current issue shows that. He used to forward the newsletter to me. Miraculously I am still receiving it. I loved Ed --we have stayed in touch ever since Campion. Ed was hilarious, as well as a superb athlete and okay student (B). He and I were inseparable (gym rats) during our freshman and sophomore years, except during classes because I was in A. We got in trouble from time to time, being stupid 14 and 15 year-olds, though nothing serious, mostly just screwing around. After our sophomore years my father received a letter from Campion advising that I was not welcomed back. It contained a lot of platitudes--"Allen's a leader leading friends awry" etc.--but nothing specific. I was severely disappointed. I loved Campion; the camaraderie, sports, classes, Mass and the Eucharist each morning. I even loved working in the dining hall to help the cost of my education. My parents owned a small, struggling dress shop in South Miami. Ed's father was president of Outdoor Advertising. A real gentleman; he came to see me play at the Detroit Lions training camp at Cranbrook School in the late summer of 1962. For my junior and senior years I went on to St. Theresa of the Little Flower, a small Catholic high school in Coral Gables where in senior year I received an award as the Outstanding Student, was all-state in basketball and all American in football. My parents were elated that I blossomed into a very good athlete; they came to all my games, something that wouldn't have been possible at Campion. Especially senior year at Campion, as Ed told me a flu epidemic wiped out the football season in 1957. Fortunately, I played senior year in high school and earned a four-year football scholarship to Xavier University. After my brief stint with the Lions, I became a Naval Officer spending most of my three years aboard ship in the South China Sea. Then I joined the CIA and spent much time abroad as an operations officer under cover. Yes, I am allowed to tell you that, having retired "overtly." What is the point of this email? I guess I just wanted to say how grateful I am for my two years at Campion. Many things I learned there, but perhaps most important was to love the Faith, and be a serious, active Catholic my whole life. I also learned to be a mentor to younger people, to give them chance to become great, spiritually and professionally. Hmmm, here comes my punch line. Was I mentored at Campion? Did a Scholastic or a priest ever take me aside and say, perhaps, "Look, Allen, you have possibilities, academically and athletically, but your behavior is outrageous. You screw around at the worst times and, if you don't change, you will fail at everything. Grow up!" Isn't it strange that I am still hurting over Campion's rejection of me after nearly 70 years? My wife Joan just entered the room and said "I hope you are stressing that you met your wife of nearly 57 years at St. Theresa's." Well, there is that...hahaha! Please ensure that I remain on your email list. I have memories, you know. Best, Allen '58
From Terence Flynn '74
CJHS STORY - Terence GF FlynnWould Of Been Class Of 1974What's The Craic, ---------------------------------------------------------- I grew up in Shorewood, WI, in the 1960s, a solid middle-class suburb north of Milwaukee, WI. I attended Atwater Kindergarten and then went across the street to St. Roberts Parish Grade School, Dominican Sisters, through the 8th grade, and yes, I was a long-term Alter Boy. A Student Representative from CJHS was granted permission to present the CJHS story and the benefits of attending the high school to the boys in the three classrooms of 8th graders. I did experience a dislocated left hip just before 7th grade and then again just before 8th grade, eliminating sports in high school and college. Due to the very unpleasant home environment of an up-and-coming prominent and politically savvy surgeon and the busy social juggernaut of a doctor’s wife, I jumped at the opportunity to leave the home for school. I was an unwanted birth, and I was blamed for wrecking my parents' plans. I was re-informed regularly of my unwantedness. I was number 2 of 6, and it seemed my parents' views were also ingrained with the other 5. I was smart, but my self-esteem was so low upon entering CJHS, and I did not fit in all that much, but I was at peace at CJHS. I actually started to grow up and enjoy life, yet I was still behind the norm for students. I was proud to be at CJHS. I attended CJHS Freshmen & Sophomore years, 1970–1971 and 1971–1972. I would have graduated in spring 1974. My freshman roommate was from New York City and acted like a NY Wise Guy at times. I remember the floors and steps being slippery during humid days. I was taught that if one needed to pee while having a bowel movement, they should just position their penis to pee while sitting. Well, a couple of fellow freshman students were being perverted and were spying on fellow students on the toilet. They saw me position my penis and spread the word that I was a wanker. I lived through this, and the Jesuits were not happy with the perverts. I wanted to stay through the summer, but I had to go home and endure the environment of mass negativity, putdowns, and continued family loneliness. I returned for my Sophomore year and liked the campus even more than the previous year. I brought with me a +/- 15” television set, and that only caused more trouble for myself than it was worth. I have many fond memories of my two years at CJHS.
I was way too sheltered in the way of the world and of individual relationships to be a valued thread of the CJHS Tapestry. This was due to my home and early school life, both of which were overly controlled. The first days and weeks at CJHS were an eye- and ear-opener. I let myself get taken in by those who did not have honorable intentions. I did not grow as much as I had hoped during my freshman year. My studies could have been better, but I let myself put those studies off at times. Looking back at times, over the years, I was not generally accepted by the general students but yet used a bit at times; I had no negative feelings toward anyone. I arrived at CJHS with a whole lot of baggage, which did not help with my integration into the general student body. My times at CJHS did have positive elements and grand memories to live over in my mind, to put a smile on my face these last 50 years. Even the bad or negative times, issues, and such have given me pleasure over the decades, giving me the grit to overcome times, issues, and such. Those two high school years were one of the two Best Of My Times life experiences; see below for the other. I look back on those two years more often than I can ever count or even recall, and those lookbacks have gotten me out of much of my present sadness. I will be or was 68 years old on October 16th, and sadly, those memories have faded some, but there is still an impressionist slew of memories. I believe I have early dementia, like a grandmother, but any kind of memory is better than none. When all is said and done with my life, my time at CJHS was Grand and did provide a better life foundation to live on with. BTW: Ever since I had a personal computer (1995), my computers, tablets, mobile devices, and work computers, I have had the Fr. Strzoks Circa 1970 Aerial CJHS View as my screensaver or home screen image on each and every device. This should tell all of you about my views of CJHS. ----------------------------------------------- The story below is about the incident that prevented me from returning for my Junior year of school at CJHS. I was persuaded to go along on a beer raid, in the second half of the second semester of my sophomore year, of the Jesuit cooler, through an open window. This theft was the idea of a Junior; his name is omitted so as not to tarnish that name. The same goes for the other two students involved. One that worked in the building, a kind of work-off tuition setup, left a window unlocked. The four of us each got a case of beer. We were all turned in the next day or two by a student who got mad because no beer was offered to him, and we stood trial—yes, a trial. This trial was a rigged trial, just a formality. Basketball Coach Don Gosz wanted all of us expelled, period. Some Jesuits wanted community service and free workers as a punishment. There was a third option: a money donation from the families and, most likely, community service work. Money donations overruled Coach Gosz; he was not a happy coach. The other 3 families paid a donation to keep their kids at CJHS, and thus I was expelled and the rest stayed on. My mother never told my father of the incident, and she would not pay a donation. As I was told, I was not worth it. The experience while at CJHS was eye-opening, and I treasured those days. My father found out years later, while he was attending a Dominican high school in Whitefish Bay, Milwaukee Suburb, that fundraising dinner included a meet and greet. My father and Don Gosz sat next to each other during dinner. Of course, the conversation came around to where he coached before DHS. Thus, all the dirty laundry was brought up about me, the beer incident, expulsion, and money donations. My father was a bit upset, to say the least; he was angry beyond words for the next few days, months, and years to follow. When all was said and done, my father would have paid the donation, not for me but for his reputation. My mother hated me for my father finding out, and neither one forgave me ever, for their own reasons. I ended up at the local Jesuit high school in Milwaukee, Marquette University High School, with Fr. Leonhardt as principal and a past staffer at CJHS. Thus, Fr. Leonhardt kept an eye on me, and when the Wisconsin legal drinking age was lowered to 18, I was the first to reach the age of 18. On that memorable day during homeroom announcements, I was told to be present in the principal's office ASAP, causing a howling and hooting response from the student body. After high school, I took the entrance exams for the new Marquette University Bio-Medical Engineering Program and passed. I had my books and stuff, met my upcoming Professors, Teachers, Grad-Teachers and such, and even had a private room like the other program students. Two weeks before school started, I was informed that I was no longer eligible for the program or the university, thanks to my father’s feelings for me and his influence at MU. I was devastated and spent the next 5 years in an alcohol and drug daze with a p*** poor school record at UW Stout. In late 1978 or early 1979, I came to a realization, cleaned myself up, and found a great job as a microfilmer of classified government blueprints in the private sector. I then became involved in a platonic friendship with a young lady, and when she found herself pregnant and not wanting the child, she asked me to adopt the female girl child and raise her, which I did on my own and without any family help, even when she almost died. This adoption is the second best of my times life experience; see above. --------------------------------------------------- Having to leave CJHS was devastating. I think of CJHS so very often, even into 2023. I appreciate the Newsletters so very much and read them with pleasure. I never forgot CJHS and just how Grand of a place it was. I was smart, but my self-esteem was so low upon entering CJHS, and I did not fit in all that much, but I was at peace at CJHS. I actually started to grow up and enjoy life, and yet I was still behind the norm of students, which was okay as I thought 4 years would shape me to achieve and prosper in life. I was proud to be at CJHS. I never forgot CJHS and just how Grand of a place it was. Being stupid and forced to leave CJHS was, is, and will be the worst experience of my life, no exaggerations. I submitted a couple of short reads to Thomas Olson ‘72 in early 2023, and he asked that I put together a more proper read for the Campion Forever Newsletter of my experience at CJHS. These last many years, it has been just myself and the two cats that I have pledged to care for. They are sister and brother, Lal and Spot; an air point to those that can figure out their names. So I took a fountain pen and paper and put it into a document for easier publication. I guess this is a long read, but I have a long read of memories of CJHS to keep me smiling. When I go to meet my maker, CJHS will most likely be my Rosebud.
Tis Himself,
From the desk of John Duskey '63
EMOTIONS IN POPULAR POETRY, INCLUDING OUR LOSS OF CAMPIONThere were a few things in my July article that I want to clarify. One of my classmates reminded me of the problem when a course is too easy. One could take a course like Physics and find it very easy, and that might affect his choice of a major in college. Then, when he finds out how difficult the field really is, he may realize that he had a false sense of security, and might have made the wrong choice.
I mentioned that Plato included ideas in the Protagoras which relate to curriculum. I referred to this passage:
The truth is, you can ask a poet about the meaning of what he says, but he won’t always give a clear, concise, or even a correct answer. Looking at the works of Paul Simon in the early 1970s, one finds several descriptions of people. On the Dick Cavett show in April 1970, Mr. Simon said that he tries to get into the mind of his subject, to see and express what that person is thinking. In Slip Sliding Away, there is the “father who had a son; he longed to tell him the reasons for the things he’d done.” There is also a “woman, became a wife.” One might wonder what it would be like to be a person in one of these poems. But I don’t wonder. I know what I know, I said what I said. I had a conversation wth someone who, I later learned, was a friend of Mr. Simon. Much of what follows here dates back to that conversation. I deal with this one character in the third person, one that I call “man of Kodachrome.” It is a snapshot of a 23 year old man as he was at that time, and it is reflected in several poems besides Kodachrome, particularly Baby Driver and My Little Town. Baby Driver provides an array of facts: born at just after midnight, particularly enjoys music, his father was an engineer, and his mother played bass violin in her high school orchestra. He carried a gun, actually an M1 rifle, in high school ROTC, but ‘never got the chance to serve’ in the armed forces. His father’s big promotion happened when he was about 6 years old, so the “we can play” section really doesn’t fit, nor does his mother as a member of the naval reserve. At times the poet is constrained by the need for rhyme. My Little Town plays on the fact that he grew up in a house previously owned by Thornton Wilder, who lived in that house during the 1930s while he wrote “Our Town.” In that town, Catholics and Baptists were supposed to live on the other side of the train tracks. The town was infected with racial and religious prejudice. Mr. Simon’s subject was a student in first grade in a Catholic school; he came to know that “God keeps his eye on us all.” He recalls coming home after school, and his mother doing the laundry. The lines “nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town” relate to the cemetery scene in the final act of Our Town. Against all this background, Kodachrome adds very little, except the expression of his frustration with the study of Virgil’s Aeneid in senior Latin class. The relator could not imagine that a boy of age 13 could leave home and go to a boarding school. So, the line “leave your boy so far from home” had to be included. Kodachrome simply rhymed with that expression. In a generalized high school reunion song, he proposes color photography, as in his father’s 8mm home movies, as preferable over black and white (just as, at the time, he wished he had a color television set). This poem was released to the public in the spring of 1973, at the time of his 10th anniversary reunion, which he had said that he looked forward to. But the word ‘Kodachrome’ really stands for something else, something that was in the process of being taken away in 1973. Something that was finally lost two years later--the high school itself. We find several works of popular poetry that have historical meaning in the lives of real persons. I had mentioned two of these, Waterloo and The Battle of New Orleans, in my Freshman Rec Room article in April 2016. There are also songs that deal with historical events from the standpoint of human emotion, e.g., The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, by Joan Baez. There are songs that state principles that might well govern human behavior, such as the line “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” in Janis Joplin’s Me and Bobby McGee. In his 1963 hit, Bobby Vee issues the reminder that The Night has a Thousand Eyes. In their 1961 hit, the Shirelles posed the question Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, giving some emotional background to the idea that sexual promiscuity is problematic. In 1971, in Mother and Child Reunion, Paul Simon speaks to, and gives voice to the depression of a mother when she first sees the body of her deceased son. The decedent opted for a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I went to a baseball game at the BOB in Phoenix when they played this song as background to a series of mother and child pictures displayed on the scoreboard between innings. What a terrible misunderstanding of the poem! Fortunately, many of the comments on YouTube acknowledge that this reunion would happen after death. In a historical and highly emotional sense, Bo Donaldson (1974) gave voice to an Army recruit’s fiancé in Billy, Don’t Be a Hero. Her sorrow becomes very clear, as the song’s ending recalls the tragedy of the Vietnam War. Some of us know this emotion all too well, as it relates to our friends and fellow students who died in that war. In 1975, Janis Ian released At Seventeen, a song that dwells on the emotions of a girl who feels rejected from social life during her high school years. She included the line “those whose names were never called when choosing sides for basketball.” Boys tend not to express emotions like those Janis Ian describes, but high school boys have their own set of emotions. To a great extent, Kodachrome is remembered for the first two lines, which were a criticism of high school curriculum. It is, more than anything else, a high school reunion song. Despite all the criticisms, the poem leads to the conclusion that the subject person doesn’t want the high school to be taken away. The song is so upbeat that the depth of emotion seems to be hidden. That may be why it became so popular. To respond to this or any other of Mr. Duskey’s articles, see the “Contacts” tab above.
Me and Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin (1971)
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – Joan Baez (1971)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – The Shirelles (1961)
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes – Bobby Vee (1963)
Mother and Child Reunion – Paul Simon (1972)
Billy, Don’t Be a Hero – Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (1974)
At Seventeen – Janis Ian (1975)
Kodachrome – Paul Simon (1973)
Baby Driver – Composed by Paul Simon. (1970)
Linked here is the cover version produced by Joshua Lee Turner, 31, a native of Indianapolis and a graduate of Butler University, produces and performs many songs on youtube videos. This is one of his best. See the article on him in Wikipedia.
My Little Town – Simon and Garfunkel (1975)
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Obituaries: