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| Attendees of the Pope Pius XII 75th high school reunion. Mom didn't want to be in the photo since she technically didn't graduate with the class. |
All seemed charmed by my presence.
Full disclosure: one of the women was my Mom.
The occasion was the 75th reunion of the 1949 co-ed graduating class of since-closed Pope Pius XII High School in Passaic, NJ.
Mom did not actually graduate with that class (that's a long story), but Dad did... and Mom did go to school there and was Dad's date for all the other Pope Pius XII reunions over the years. That afternoon, I admired a faded Polaroid of them all dressed up and posing with other tanned and happy couples on the occasion of the school's 40th reunion anniversary trip (in a rented bus, with a case of champagne) to Ocean City, Maryland.
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| Here's a photo from the school's 15th reunion in 1960s. Missing is "The Shining"'s Jack Torrance in a tux in the front row. |
But this reunion day in Wayne, 35 years later, was very different.
"Where are all the men?" one of the women asked as the group gathered for lunch... a Caesar salad and a choice of filet mignon or roasted chicken as an entry. (I seemed to be the only one at the big round table who chose the chicken, so maybe red meat is better for longevity than we've been led to believe.)
"They're dead," I whispered in Mom's bad ear, thinking she wouldn't hear me. But she giggled and tried to hush me.
The background music chosen by our hosts at the North Jersey Country Club -- from "In My Life" by John Lennon and The Beatles to "All I Have to Do Is Dream" by the Everly Brothers to "Young at Heart" by Frank Sinatra -- set a nostalgic tone for the enchanting pre-meal conversation.
Several of the women graduates, all in their early 90s, were assisted and escorted by their daughters or granddaughters. I escorted Mom to the event... although I was a poor substitute for my Dad.
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| Chick's 1949 yearbook page, with messages to Gen |
I heard a lot that afternoon about Dad, whose high school nickname was "Chick." His baseball teammates had teasingly inflicted that moniker on him for being as good looking as a woman.
"The ladies were all after him," a former prom queen confided in me in 2024. "Chick did the artwork for our school operettas," noted another woman... as if I needed a reminder that Dad was a talented artist in addition to being the school's baseball and basketball star and senior class Student Council president.
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| Mom, Gen, and me |
I asked several of the women to point out their photos in the 1949 yearbooks ("The Keys") on hand, and lovingly preserved, at the reunion. Carol in green showed me a recent photo of her surrounded by large group of happy descendants on the Lake Mohawk shore. And I learned -- and Mom learned -- that Mom and another classmate shared the same birth date. The birthday buddies, born in 1932, had never realized that until 2024.
That woman, Isabel Mineo, had been editor-in-chief of the "Eagle Light" school newspaper. She proudly showed me a story from one of the old issues about "Robert Varettoni '49" speaking on a radio show ("970 on the dial") that broadcast a civic Junior Town Meeting from the Kresge-Newark Building. Dad had spoken on the topic, "Should We Extend Government Health Service."
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| Mom and her Birthday Buddy |
I was most touched when Gen stood up after lunch and before a group photo, and led the women in song... "The Blue and Gold," the alma mater of a high school in New Jersey that closed its doors in 1983:
There's a starry light that shines in our eyes / there's a sone in our souls we'll ever sing / for a love that burned in our hearts so true / for our Alma Mater, the Gold and Blue. / With loyal hearts to you we bring. the glory we now fondly sing, / "The Gold and Blue"
Here's that moment, captured in video.
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