An alumni homecoming

I witnessed a milestone at the gathering at my husband, Peping Cojuangco‘s Class of ‘55 homecoming at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is one of the 32,000 graduates the college has produced since it opened in 1847. The school was founded in 1843 by Bishop Benedict J. Fenwick, second Bishop of Boston. The "Hill of Pleasant Springs" is where Holy Cross College is constructed. It was built on the Jesuit thought of pursuing "relentless questioning, critical thinking, consideration of great ideas and great points of view even at times challenging authority… true to their roots in the Thomistic system… that a penetrating and unbiased search for the truth requires the reasons for holding a contrary opinion!"

* * *

Under the Massachusetts heat, I asked Peping, "Wouldn’t it be nostalgic to walk around a bit, see how Holy Cross has metamorphosed since the ‘50s?"

"No, we’re up the hill and we’ll have to walk down again and up." So ours was a one spot stop, turning from right to the left focusing our sights as far as we could see! There was the O’Cane dormitory partially covered with crawling ivy where Peping lived as a freshman. Classrooms are underneath and the dorms on the second floor. As a sophomore, the Fenwick was his home and as a junior the Alumni dorm… and as a senior . . . he has forgotten! "Ah, maybe Carlton, where Jesuit priests watched us at both ends of the hall. You’ll hardly find any Jesuit around it seems," came this alumni’s retort.

Reminiscing Peping said, "I was penalized with guard duty, when I had failing grades. Walking up the hill from the dorm and punching a clock to register my compliance, than up again." No wonder I couldn’t convince him to go on a stroll, we did an about turn.

"That window on the third floor was my room with Wally Mahoney, Roberto dela Guardia, and Tony Malano. I was on the 5th floor and I climbed it more than once everyday," Hector Gonzalez, a Puerto Rican said. His wife Provita jokingly remarked, "Why don’t you contribute an escalator to the school?"

* * *

Warmly welcomed at the class formal dinner, we were praised because we came from so far. "Hey Cojuangco, hey Jose, hey Joe where’ve you been? How’s your sister? Your daughter looks like your wife. Do you remember Fr. Dorham calling your name in a sing-song tone?" Smiles … smiles. Finally, Peping answers, "Yeah, yeah I remember how I gave a bully a karate chop on my first few days."

Most couldn’t remember why their parents sent them to this Jesuit school coming from Missouri, Idaho, New York, Philadelphia, Texas and many other States ... and even the Philippines. It took six stopovers from here. First at Wake Island, then Guam, Honolulu, San Francisco, Chicago, finally New York and three more hours by car to Worcester, Massachusetts. A total of 30 hours.

* * *

"We answered our exams in essay form… long or short and no one was wrong." Interpretations were correct as long as we had valid arguments and logical conclusions. In Manila, I had to have the same thoughts, and reasoning as my teachers."

Like teens again, they recalled weekend drives to New York in Peping’s car during senior year. It was one Saturday after exam week on the freeway to New York when everyone fell asleep. They were awakened by a sidewalk thud. Hector added laughing, "We also had different girls on many weekend occasions. Hey Peping, we didn’t marry any of our dates."

* * *

Not having seen each other in 50 years many didn’t recognize who the others were at the formal gathering. Re-introducing themselves after glancing at name cards on their chests, Peping re-met classmates Joe Discroll, Dan Wellehan, Al Sparrse, Ed Golden, Don Marchand, and couples Jack and Vivien Mahony, Evelyn Reilley, Frank and Carole Doyle and wonderful Bernadette, Wally’s wife.

All talking at the same time, a voice interrupts the 1955 Crusaders. "Ladies and gentlemen, could you please move aside? I can’t serve the dessert." Where but in America can a waiter tell the guests he serves to step aside for his convenience! And then the female server glances at me, "Ma’am, I like your skirt." I’m getting married and I should have thought of flower appliqués. From another waiter, "Sir, you have a pretty good-looking dog." Referring to Judge Dick Kasey whose handsome black dog was tied to his chair. Unfortunately, Judge Kasey lost his eyesight after an illness but despite that, he was appointed the first blind judge in America.

One wife approached me, "Are you Jose’s second, third or fourth wife?" Any more revolutions back home, Jose? Did you know it costs $38,000 for one college student at Holy Cross today? But the Class 55 raised $1.2 million for the Joe Reilly Scholarship Foundation named after a classmate who has kept their alumni association’s spirit burning and worked for the minorities admissions at Holy Cross for Asian and Blacks to learn not just poetry, horsemanship, grammar, philosophy, religion, Homer, Virgil especially Cicero who was an example of civic virtue and was the Jesuits, first thrust to a commitment to social justice against racism.

* * *

The last night at the grand and imposing cream-colored old Kimball Mess Hall brought conversations like: "Did you know it was in this Hall where in 1894, students complained about the bread covered in turpentine and dishwater soup? In the ‘50s we gathered for meals here. Breakfast started after mass. I remember lights out was at 10 p.m., no visitors, not even mothers could take a peek into our quarters even on weekends. For sure, no girls came in and out of boy‘s rooms… bunk beds for four in a room… It’s so different today!!!"

"I gotta tell you a joke," said our dinner mate at the last event after a three-day celebration. "A man went to a Dominican and asked, ‘Father, I want a Lexus, you think if I prayed a novena He’d give me one?’ The Dominican said, ‘What’s a Lexus?’ He went to an Augustinian and asked him the same question and the priest said, ‘Now what’s a Lexus?’ So the man said, ‘I better go see a Jesuit instead.’ ‘Father, if I pray a novena, do you think God will give me a Lexus?’ The Jesuit answered, ‘What’s a novena?’" "Hey, what school did you go to anyway?" A classmate chided him.

Looking around, I saw lots of silver crowns and bent bodies, a few wobbling with canes yet these gentlemen like Jack Mahoney, Tom Vogels, and Bob Denah looked far more interesting than the much younger alumni. Even age, and certainly accomplishments and wisdom brought them confidence, character on their lined faces, elegance in their bearing inside a hall of high ceilings and cornices of the ‘30s.

* * *

Fr. McFarland, Holy Cross president, ascended the podium and spoke, "The program the Jesuits taught is supposed to help students become of help to others and a benefit to the community in which they live. It was to this program that Saint Ignatius committed his order. We are not monks . . . The world is our house."

"One of the most enjoyable parts of the reunion for me, " he added, "was to have a chance to meet so many alumni who have become influential business leaders, lawyers, judges, physicians, educators, and clergy. Here at Holy Cross the answer is clear; we will engage, loyally and confidently pursuing the truth through questioning, critical and creative thinking, and dialogue with different cultures, ideas and beliefs. That is what Jesuits have always done."