For the last seven years I’ve been working with the Fulton Public Library to preserve memories of our city’s past. Former library director Betty Mauté and I started The Memoir Project to encourage current and former Fultonians to write down their recollections of our city’s businesses, schools, involvement with World War II and, most recently, its downtown shopping and social hub, The Dizzy Block.
The library’s current director, Caroline Chatterton, continues to support the Memoir Project, which now boasts a committee that includes authors Joe Abbate and Jo Ann Butler, former teacher Mary C. Kimball and former AmeriCorps director Kathy Andolina. Along with helping contributors to write or dictate memoirs, the committee selects topics to reminisce about. When we chose our current topic, Fulton churches, several committee members had their own rich memories on which to reflect.
“Holy Trinity, formerly known as Immaculate Conception, filled almost every aspect of my growing up years,” Mary said. “My grandparents lived next door and they attended Mass every day for their entire lives. I joined them many, many mornings at 6:30. My dad attended Catholic school and had been an altar boy there. My parents were married in that church and my siblings and I were baptized and received our other sacraments there. Our involvement at Immaculate Conception was a cornerstone of our family. I was blessed to have grown up in such a faith-filled environment.”
Joe shared this about his congregation, The First United Methodist Church: "Anyone visiting First United would immediately see why I love it there: the people are warm, friendly, casual and fun. You instantly feel at home. We meet each Sunday to worship, help others, and spread love. If you come here, you will discover your second family."
“My faith has always been very important to me,” Kathy added. “Through this Memoir Project, I enjoy learning more about Fulton churches. I recently read a great quote from Katie Couric about attending church. She said she likes to go to church to ‘be in a community of people who are taking an hour out of their busy lives and thinking of something bigger than themselves.’ That’s what it’s all about.”
Our Project committee knows that many Fultonians have equally rich memories of their church. We’d already heard from a few when we were collecting stories about our city’s schools and teachers. Some shared recollections of the years they’d spent in their church-sponsored school, like St. Mary's.
St. Mary’s School, on Fulton’s east side, opened in 1914 and operated until 1999. We heard from three of its former students, Renae (Cealie) Vehrs, Colleen (McKnight) Grimshaw and Diane (Reitz) Litchisen-Kuzio, who all started there as first graders in 1961.
“Sister Mildred was our principal,” Diane explained, “and I remember the discipline. The nuns would get our attention by tapping their rings on their desk or blackboard.”
“The nuns were strict,” Colleen agreed, “but that strictness shaped our future education practices. I learned to be responsible (to always have my homework done and study for exams), to be organized, to have good study skills, and to have respect for my teachers and elders.”
Renae remembered one teacher in particular. “The best year of all was when we moved on to 5th grade and all 36 of us girls had Sister John Anne. She was young, fun and nicer than a lot of the nuns. She loved us and we loved her. She was like the Singing Nun. We would learn and sing and for whatever reason, we bonded.”
Across the river, on the city’s west side, another church, Holy Family, had its own school. It operated from 1958 through 1971 and a few of its former students remembered their experiences there, including having to wear those Catholic School uniforms.
“In 1969, ’70 and ’71, short skirts were the thing,” Lennie (Spaziani) Laboda recalled. “But we girls at Holy Family had our regulation blue skirt, white blouse and a little clip-on: a ‘girl’s tie.’ We were always rolling the skirts up and being told to roll them down. When we were out on the blacktop, playing, we’d roll them up and then we’d come in. ‘Roll them down.’”
Don Ciciarelli described the guys’ attire. “We wore dark blue pants, a light blue dress shirt and a dark blue tie – every school day. By the time mid-June rolled around, we were sick and tired of wearing them and the nuns would let us wear our regular clothes for those last few weeks of school. ‘Oh, we’re gonna see the fashions come out now,’ the nuns would say.”
Former student Marty Gillard reminisced about a Holy Family celebration known as the May Crowning, when the entire school would line up outside in the shape of a rosary. The students took turns saying Hail Marys and Our Fathers. “You had your moment where you had to say your part,” Marty said. “We were so nervous that we couldn’t say the first part of the prayer out loud and then everyone would know. That was pressure.”
But it was all worthwhile, according to their classmate Punkin (Froio) Walsh, whose children also went to Catholic School: “I think one of the things both my kids would say was that everybody knew your name, kind of like the TV show Cheers. That was one of the good things about Catholic school; even the parents knew your name.”
Those are the type of memories that our committee is hoping to preserve in our latest Memoir Project. If you have or had an association with a Fulton church, we’d love to include your story. Please call the Fulton Library at (315) 592-5159 or contact them at fullib@ncls.org.
All Saints Episcopal Church is one of the many churches that will be featured in the Fulton Library’s latest Memoir Project.