ST. WILLIAM STORIES 12 ON AND OFF THE CLOCK

 I kept working at St.William still hoping my ticket out  would be my writing. 

 As I worked there I was having articles printed in the Tribune and Sun Times which kept the hopium flowing.Maybe tomorrow,next week or next month I would stop sweeping floors and sweep the nation instead. I am  reminded of the old tv show "Taxi" where the characters drove taxis as they waited for something better to come along,their true calling.

   But like on "Taxi",while  you hope for something better you begin to put down roots in your not chosen profession.

   And so it was at St.William. Faces became familiar,routines entrenched themselves, relationships formed.and getting out of there seemed less and less attractive after awhile.

    I got the chance to know the teachers and witness their educational skills while also seeing their personal sides.

     I would almost look forward to seeing them in their rooms after school when I entered to sweep up. 

      They would be working on what teachers work on when the students leave. Some treated me like I was just the cleaning guy and I knew enough to be quiet,do my job and leave their room. Others treated me like a fellow employee and we joked and talked and I wasn't in a rush to move on to the next room.

       Only once in my many years at St. William did I develop a crush on a teacher. I knew the odds of any real romance developing were below zero, but I really looked forward to seeing her after the school day ended...or before it began for that matter. Obviously I won't name the object of my affection but her initials were MKB. She was attractive,a bubbling personality and someone I enjoyed seeing. 

I believe I told her about my writing lest she think I didnt have higher ambitions.As tempting as I was to see if she might like to go for coffee once I couldnt summon up the courage. She only taught at school for a short time and eventually married.

     This is not a tell all and my aim is to protect the innocent but in my time as an employee I did indeed see teachers off campus but nothing serious,just pleasant very nice ladies that I was fortunate to spend time with outside of work.

      I also had a friend teaching there,a wonderfully gifted teacher married to my pal and former employee,Manny. Its always nice to have a genuine friend in the workplace and she was mine.

     There were two times a year when I  felt particularly thankful to be part of St.William.

      One was the Christmas Party and the Secret Ssnta tradition leading to it. It was a tradition I looked forward to,not just for the fun,but for the chance to be myself among my fellow employees.

       I would go home for  lunch on the day of the Christmas Party,wash up and change clothes and return for the party in something other than jeans,a t shirt and my headphones. 

      The maintenance team would always grab a back table in the school library rather than seat ourselves at a faculty table.. One year we were actually termed "the fun table" and became preferred seating for the wackiest among us. I could be myself at these gatherings with or without the wine we consumed. Our secret Santa was revealed with the giving of the final. "big" gift which I always tried to make unique. Make 'em know they were secret Santad! And if I could get off a comment that made the assembled laugh, it was an extra gift for me. 

    I loved those school Christmas parties in the library.

     While not as personal,the end of the school year gatherings were a nice perk.

Most of them were held at a restaurant . Seating was everything here. You didnt want to be caught seated with someone you didnt know too well or whom might make you hesitate to be yourself. And you would prefer not to sit next to the pastor.

     Besides the seating, there was always the question of what to order . It was all free but you did not wsnt to be obvious about taking advantage of that perk. Yet you tell yourself you worked hard, might even work harder during the summer so you felt a little entitled. You generally wound up holding back, maybe having an extra drink, and always feeling relieved when the pastor or principal pulled out the credit card.

    When that event concluded we would bid our farewells and head for home. I remember all of them as pleasant and again, a chance to be ourselves.

    Working at St.William could be hard,hot,taxing work but there was down time too which was always welcome.

     And then there were down times that were also work times. Ill chronicle that along with some St.William folks Ill never forget,next time.

St. William Stories 11 OFF TO WORK WE GO

 When we last left our questionable hero, I was learning the ropes regarding the inner  workings of St.William. Now I was on the inside as an employee and it presented a multitudr of challenges but also a number of benefits.

I had a nice break every day as I was able to escape the scholastic environment daily for about thirty minutes or so to go home for  lunch. I also wore an escape device around my neck in the form of radio headphones. I cannot overemphasize  the sanity saving advantages of putting on those headphones to hear familiar radio voices while you are performing the least attractive of tasks. 

    I think very often, people thought I had frozen out all activity with those headphones on. That was never true. Many times I wore them on my neck with enough volume for me to hear as my ears were uncovered. Even when i wore them over my ears,nine of ten times the volume was low enough where I could hear normal conversation. Contrary to what a pastor might have thought,it never interfered with my job and it made the day go by faster. Sanity saver.

    There was another upside too. St.William had some genuinely enjoyable and good people as my coworkers. I acknowledge the school secretary when I started ,Dolores ,who in combination with our first lay teacher principal were people I respected and trusted.

    Not that there werent tense moments.

    I was once called into that principal's office for an incident on the playground.

I was out there during recess either tending to my work or returning from lunch,i cannot remember which. But for some reason I will never know, a female student ran up to me and hugged me. 

     I was completely aware that this was not a good thing no matter how well intentioned and I immediately threw my arms up to make it very obvious I was not returning that hug.

     I don't know who saw or saw fit to report that but I was called into the principal's office and told in no uncertain terms that there was to be no physical contact between students and staff, something I not only knew but avoided during the incident. While I was taken aback by the stern talking to I received, I know now that the principal was just doing her job and she was going to do it even though I had done nothing wrong.

   As I said earlier,the work was occasionally difficult and disgusting. Moving desks and other heavy items from first floor to third,especially on a hot day was brutal. And I was younger than the head custodian who must've had it worse. The students were not allowed to help . Some days we would have help from the sheriff's department who would bring in a busload of non violent offenders to do community service. They were well guarded by deputies and we were allowed to give them assignments.

   Another terrible task took place in summer after school was out. 

     All the floors had to be scrubbed and waxed.The scrubbing and waxing was done by the head guy,Dan, who knew how to wield a scrubbing machine which was like a bucking bronco and would take you for a ride if you didnt kerp it under control. I followed the scubbing with mop and bucket. Then Dan would wax. There were days he didnt feel like doing it and we would just do little tasks or ride to Ace Hardware. Those were easy type days.

     Another awful task was moving all the clasdroom furniture and desks from one side of the room to the other .That would leave one side bare so Dan could scrub and wax. Once dried i had to move everything back to clear the other side of the room so Dan could tepeat the process. Ultimately I had to put the room back exactly as the teacher had it from a diagram we had.. Doing all that moving in a school minus air conditioning was no fun.

    But there was fun to be had as a St.William employee and more on tbat coming up.

ST. WILLIAM STORIES #10 THE RELUCTANT EMPLOYEE

 There was considerable distance between my graduating St.William and my return. That time was full of learning lessons and odd jobs, once achieving management status at a local record and tapes store. But that material is for my never to be written autobiography. This is St William centric.

   Given my proximity to St.William and allegiance to same, I don't know why but I had strayed. I wasn't attending church and had no expectation of ever walking the school hallways again. 

     Until......

     My mother,as devoted to the Lord as anyone I have ever known, alerted me to a small blurb in the church bulletin that sought writers for a new parish fundraiser called "Clowning At the Corners".

     As many young people do,I had dreams of pursuing a career. I wanted to be a writer when I grew up and I'm not sure how it happened but I had grown up. I was always on the lookout for writing opportunities and while I wasn't terribly excited about the prospect of writing for something I knew nothing about, I hesitantly responded to the ad and the response was rapid.

     A priest named Fr.Walt  called me and based on my thin experience as a writer at that time, he offered me not just the opportunity to write for this "Clowning At the Corners" fundraiser but to chair its writing committee. I sheepishly accepted and this turned out to be my ticket back to the faith that I was raised in and my reunion with St.William that would last for decades.

     Soon enough I found myself in a room with Amy ,Mike, John and Marge tasked with the job of helping directors who were putting on one of the many shows to be presented at Clowning. And I was having fun. Once I had hoped the job would pay but what it kick started for me meant more than  money. I was determined to be myself,no standing on ceremony or being officious. My philosophy throughout my association with Clowning was that nobody needs a second job, especially one with no pay. In that spirit,my fellow writers and I got a kick out of the work we were assigned, though it was never a lot.But people who previously didnt know eachother were now friends and that was the "Clowning" event in a nutshell. It brought me back to church.

    This is not a Clowning diary and though I have a hundred stories, I will stick to my relationship with St.William as an employee and file Clowning away until I remember my time as a volunteer.

      As I mentioned earlier,I dreamed of being a writer and no other jobs appealed to me or caused me to seek them out. I had chosen my course and that was that.

       Until.......

      Father Walt ,my Clowning contact alerted me that there was a position open at St.William that offered actual money. While I had hoped for something more prestigious this was as an assistant custodian. I was not captivated by this. After all,I was a writer. I was writing for a very popular local tv show, and sure that this was a mere stepping stone to bigger and better things. But in the end,the lure of working so near home ,getting paid regularly and having St.William  back in my life due to Clowning, I accepted.

    I had absolutely no qualifications for this assignment.I was at the mercy of the head custodian named Dante,a quirky Italian who spoke with the accent and was one of the most entertaining persons I had ever met. Don't get me wrong, Dante was a good man and when he felt like working he did his job well. When he didn't feel like working he would drive home for extra long lunch hours and sneak home well before he was supposed to leave. That's right,there were times when the entire school,two buildings, were entrusted to me, a guy who had to consult a manual to change a light bulb.

    I was fortunate to work with another guy who was the brother of a good friend. His name was Manny and we became very good friends. Manny knew stuff. He was capable ,devoted to his duties and funny as heck. Dan,Manny and I had so many laughs it didn't matter that our principal,Sister Barbara was all business and as strict as they come. Manny didn't suffer fools gladly and while Sister Barbara was no fool, she was ,on occasion, difficult and Manny made his discontent with her known. I witnessed him going into her office flustered a couple of times and I think it was better for both when Manny left for greener pastures which meant just Dan and I which often meant  just me.

     I was off to a slow start in this new field and Dan, the vetetan custodian was not patient with this rookie.

       "You don't know how to work!"he yelled at me early on.

        What he meant was I didnt work the way he did. I had my way of doing things,he had his. We had 4 or 5 good arguments during my much longer than intended tenure there. There would be short periods where we didnt speak but it was never long before he would have me laughing again with funny stories in that deep accent and doing impressions of some St.William staff. He did a spot on impression of our pastor at the time, on request for anyone who wanted to see it.

    Dan had a volatile temper and wasnt always receptive to requests from teachers and staff which of course,was part of the job. As a result, sometimes faculty members were hesitant to make requests of him. I was in fairly good stead with the teachers. After all I was sweeping their rooms each day after classes and if they were in the room as I worked, we would invariably chat cordially and I even showed my real personality,peppering those conversations with bits of humor.

As a result,some teachers saw me as more approachable than Dan, so often I was the go between for their requests.

   My life as an employee at my alma mater got better with a change of principal.

    Sister Barbara was most capable but in my opinion, not as proficient with people skills.

     Enter Mrs.Linda  with a mega watt  smile and a pleasant personality, the first lay teacher to ever become principal of St William. Reflections on her and what I learned from my second go around at a St.William education...from the inside this time, is next.