MY SO-CALLED LIFE - ABBYSINIA, ST. JOE'S

Every so often I feel the need to step away from All Things Toobworld and blog about something personal here.  Luckily for you, this doesn't happen often.  But as i am a member of the Television Crossover Hall of Fame, and this very influential part of my life was featured in the local TV news this week, I think it is at least tangential to the blog.

From the Meriden Record-Journal:

MERIDEN — St. Joseph School officials say they are sad that the 101-year-old institution will close for good this summer.

“It comes at a time when parishes and schools are looking at finances and looking at numbers of people who are in the seats,” St. Joseph Principal Katherin Sniffin said Tuesday.

The Archdiocese of Hartford announced Monday that the school, at 159 W. Main St., will close at the end of the academic year. The decision was made after a financial review by the pastor and parish trustees determined the church would face serious financial shortfalls if the school continued to operate beyond the current school year.

Here was the statement issued by the pastor:

I went to school there, from kindergarten through eighth grade.  So did all my siblings and our mother and her two sisters.  Friday nights I'd be back there for the weekly Boy Scout troop meeting in the basement.  There is a plaque on one of the steps which was donated by our family.  The place still serves as a location in my dreams every so often.  

When I was a kid, St. Joseph's WAS the Catholic Church.  When I learned my Dad grew up going to St. Rose's Church, but only started going to St. Joe's once he married my Mom, I just figured that meant he converted.

Several other Catholic schools closed in Meriden the last several years and now this leaves only Our Lady Of Mount Carmel less than a quarter mile away from St. Joseph's.  But I always figured it would be St. Joe's which would hold fast as the center for a Catholic education.

I was contacted by the Hartford Courant the night of the announcement about how I felt regarding the news.....

(The word "going" is missing from that last sentence.)

Here are the screencaps from the WFSB news story Tuesday evening which "immortalizes" St. Joe's School in Toobworld:

  

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It's been nearly fifty years since I went to school there; I'm still in touch with several of my classmates from that time.  (A few are no longer with us.)  

But as with all of my favorite TV shows, Time marches on and the St. Joseph's School program has come to an end as well.

BCnU, St. Joe's... if only in my dreams and memories.....