School, itself, was not the major site for extracurricular past-times. For many classmates, hours were spent at the local YMCA. Before the tenth grade, for many young Catholics, this “Y” was out-of-bounds. The approved, alternative “Y,” Catholic Youth Organization (CYO), of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, my local parish, was devoted mostly to the jocks. The parish priests, with their limited command of English, were not interested in catechism as much as they were in sports. It wasn’t until the year I was in tenth grade that the parish reintroduced religious classes for Catholic teenagers and a fuss was no longer made if we participated in events held at the YMCA.
I was not part of the gang of boys who hung out with the Mt. Carmel CYO. I did go with friends to the YMCA housed at Jefferson Junior High. This was my place for playing ping-pong, the only sport at which I sometimes was able to win a game. During my junior year, I was pleased to have helped design and build the group’s float for the town’s Halloween parade. I went to “sock hops” there, where I enjoyed myself even if I did not really know how to dance.
I did try to go to the religious classes held in the parish, but they often did not have enough participants for a session, and we would leave without beginning. I’m not sure if St. Stephen’s had the same problem.
During the late forties and early fifties, the separation of Mt. Carmel’s parish and St. Stephen’s parish was a result of classic, socioeconomic divisions. Mt. Carmel was attended mainly by those of Italian descent; St. Stephen’s was for Irish and wealthy Italians. Back then, St. Mary’s in Mineral Ridge was for the Polish, the third major ethnic group in the area, but their youth program was minuscule and not available for car-less teens like me.
In addition to supporting teams for church leagues and a place for teen-dances, my parish was also the site for the annual Italian festival, held in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, whose feast day was July 16. The days surrounding this date became the time for the major summertime, social event for those in high school, regardless of their religious background, as well as for many adults, even the Irish. Carnival rides, centering around a Ferris wheel, as well as the booths for games-of-chance and others for ethnic food like pizza or hard-rolls filled with fried-peppers-and-sausages, provided nine days of merriment in midsummer.
The only competition the festival had was the annual town carnival. The Niles-wide event had more mechanical rides than the festival had, and more games-of-chance, with larger stuffed prizes, even if fewer were ever won. One year, I came back with a gold-painted ceramic box with a mermaid sitting on the lid! I do not recall how I won her. For many years, she guarded my small treasures, even if my mother made me cover her with a white, plaster-of-Paris brassiere!
The Mt. Carmel Festival also had much better food and a more intimate atmosphere than did the town carnival. Nevertheless, the Niles carnival had a large, teenage attendance. Most of us got there on foot. The gathering was held on a field at the edge of town that much later became the grounds for the current McKinley High School.
Back then, it was safe to venture out in the evenings and walk to places that now would be of a doubtful nature for any sensible adult, let alone those in their teens who do not yet drive. Today it’s called “free range parenting” and often in large towns or cities parents may be fined for the illegal action of allowing their kids to venture forth on their own. In the fifties this was the only way to go.