We've got some memories from the Fidelian from June 1966 and June 1969:
Mr. Meissner and Mr. Caringola were highlighted
at the end of their second and first years of teaching,
and two other articles seemed too hard to resist sharing. Nehrus??
Mr. Meissner Makes Mark On School As Teacher & Coach
by Jim Jones
Two years ago Mr. Meissner came to St. Fidelis Seminary mainly as an Algebra and Geometry teacher for the sophomores and juniors. Today Mr. Meissner has become a prominent and well-liked member of the faculty.
Before, sports were just sports; but now since Mr. Meissner has injected a new spirit of enthusiasm into the high school, everyone has taken an active part in sports. Mr. Meissner introduced, in his first year at the seminary, the new sport of soccer which is still liked by many members of the sophomore class. He also has given much of his time to the varsity which he started two years ago. The first year he coached the team to a 6-4 record, and the second year the team acquired a 10-1 record for the season. The varsity team has created a new school spirit which has even taken hold of the college and the clerics.
Mr. Meissner is always open for suggestions and is willing to try almost anything to help the school, and usually succeeds. He made up a high school tennis team of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. He has already had three matches. Even though he has met with defeat he will never give up trying.
Mr. Meissner has met with success in both fields as coach and as teacher, and we are looking forward to seeing him next year.
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Mr. Caringola Shows Active Sports Spirit
by Bill Dorn
As this school year draws to a close, the students of St. Fidelis may truthfully say the school has enjoyed sharing its spirit with one of the most congenial and athletic-minded men on the faculty, Mr. Richard Caringola.
Mr. Caringola’s favorite team in baseball is the Pittsburgh Pirates; in basketball, the Boston Celtics; and in football, the Green Bay Packers. One can see that he enjoys all sports. Occasionally he can be found discussing all aspects of sports, from next year’s draft choices to what brand of bat Roberto Clemente prefers.
One can also tell that he enjoys sports by his loyal, enthusiastic showings at all the varsity basketball, tennis, and baseball games.
At St. Fidelis. Mr. Caringola, along with conducting his history and POD classes, enjoys co-coaching the varsity baseball team with Fr. Julian Haas. In February of this year he also coached the college basketball team to a borderline victory over the Falcons.
Mr. Caringola also plays in the intramural leagues. In the senior football league he played on Mike Gremba’s team, and in the senior basketball league he was on Steve Kamp’s team, which finished second. Presently he plays shortstop on Tim Beazley’s team in the sophomore-freshman softball league. Even after participating in all the seminary’s activities, Mr. Caringola still finds time to hunt and fish.
Mr. Caringola evaluates the athletic program at St. Fidelis as having excellence considering the length of time allotted to it. “The basketball team,” he said, “ is at par with any Class ‘B’ team, and the tennis team is doing exceptionally well.”
Having enjoyed his first year of teaching and coaching here, Mr. Caringola is looking forward to returning next fall.
St. Fidelis Competes
On The WIIC ’Battle Of Wits’
by John Stehle
The “Battle of Wits” is a television contest shown each Sunday on Channel Eleven, WIIC, Pittsburgh, in which representatives from two high schools are tested on their knowledge of current events.
Benjamin Regotti, Joseph Quinn and Peter Wallace represented St. Fidelis. They went to the studio on Tuesday, April 22, to tape the program. It was then broadcast on Sunday, April 26. At half-time, St. Fidelis was trailing South Park High 37-35 but came back to win 77-44 in the second half. This was enough to put them in the semi-finals. Ben said, “ After losing at half-time, I was surprised that we could come back so well in the second half .”
The following Tuesday, April 29, they went to the studio to compete against the first-place team. Bentworth Area High School. The program was broadcast the next Sunday. May 3. We lost woefully by the score of 82-40 to Bentworth. The three contestants had put in long hours of reading current news magazines in preparation for the matches.
Each member of the winning team won a ten-volume set of Gateways To Great Books, and the seminary received a plaque commemorating the victory.
A STUDY OF GENERATIONS
by Herman Mudwump (Tom Gregor)
We teen-agers of today constantly hear the cry, “ Where have we gone wrong? We never dressed or acted like that.” These words are spoken by our parents, naturally.
Our parents constantly criticize our generation for the use of marijuana. Yet, I bet there aren’t many of our parents (of age, of course) or grandparents that didn’t have a “ wee nip” of liquor during the prohibition days. Then they’ll say, “ Well okay, but look at all the kids who are dying from the stronger drugs like heroin.” They forget all the people who died from “ rot-gut” liquor. They act like every teen-ager and only teen-agers are on drugs. They seem not to know that this country’s biggest drug problems came at the turn of the century. Drugs were legal then and sold over the counter. It wasn’t until 1914 that they were outlawed.
They ask why we wear the crazy eastern styles like the Nehru jackets Their memories fail them in respect to the raccoon coats that were the “ cats pajamas” in their age. They look at our peace beads and laugh, but we bear it remembering their Charleston beads. They look at a girls skirt and are shocked to see it perhaps eight inches above the knee, a full 8 inches!!
Something else that both generations tend to forget is that the “ generation gap” is not a recent problem. Plato, 500 years before the birth of Christ, complained that, “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders, and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when others enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers . . .” I’m sure Plato merely stated the constant complaint of parents from the dawning of time until the end of the world. In fact right now I can almost hear someone on a planet in a solar system a billion light years away saying, “We never dressed or acted like that.”