Nowadays, there are graduation ceremonies to celebrate moving on from nearly every grade and every activity.

It used to annoy me until I realized the end result could be a photo like this one:

Back in my parents’ day, though, it took many years of study to achieve a graduation ceremony. At St. Francis School in New Haven, Connecticut, there was even a group portrait taken when the class passed out of 8th grade.

There’s Mom – Joan Cassidy- in the back row of girls, third from the right. It made me feel good to pick her out of the crowd without hesitation – such a lovely lass! The tallest girl in her class, Mom reached her full height of 5’6″ (my height as well) while in the sixth grade.

Here she is:

The photo brought back all sort of memories, as Mom and Dad quickly identified the two priests, with a story about each.

Let’s start with the Monsignor. He’s the fellow wearing a biretta – the hat with the fluffy pom that would be hard to resist touching (as long as you didn’t mind burning in Hell for all eternity, that is). His name was Monsignor Fitzmaurice.

Dad says there was a nickname for him: Jiggs.

This nickname was only used behind his back, though. “Jiggs” referenced his resemblance to the awkwardly nouveau riche Irishman from the popular Bringing Up Father comic strip. (Another quick-access-pass to Hell: I think he looks like diminutive comic actor extraordinaire Leslie Jordan.)

And speaking of diminutive, the second priest in the photo is Fr. Sullivan. He was in charge of the altar boys – including scheduling. An altar boy, Dad remembers Fr. Sullivan as being 5’5″ tall, maybe a bit more, but not much. Once Dad overtook him in height, Fr. Sullivan scheduled his tall altar boy to serve only on Sunday mornings at 6am. This just happened to be the least-attended Mass.

Mom remembers Fr. Sullivan as being kind, and more understanding than most in the confessional. There were four confessionals (and priests) at their church, and for those who were careful to observe which priest was located in each and queue up strategically, it could very well mean a lighter sentence.

Here’s another graduation photo from the family archives.

That’s our John in the sunglasses.

He would have much preferred to be elsewhere that day, but he lined up with the rest of the graduates onstage at Lincoln Amphitheatre and received his diploma. (Or actually, it was a fake-out. They withheld the diplomas until after the ceremony to make sure everyone behaved. I’m sure John would want me to point that out.)

Would you like to receive an email notice when there’s a new Too Much Brudders post? Sign up here: