Hodgepodge Blog

By Barbara Groark

I’ve talked so much about the girls, I thought I’d mention the boys who came out of Sacred Heart School, Riverton, and went to Holy Cross, and they are Fran Eschemen and Frank Evers, a couple of unassuming guys, and also John Haller, who is among the deceased. At one of the reunions, Kathy Williams came up to me and pointed out Fran, an unrecognizable tall, thin guy, who had just bought a favorite local bakery, Klipple’s, at River Road and Riverton Road, and which is now an coffee bar near the River Line trains. I don’t know if Fran still runs it. In grade school and high school (and he and I did not speak that whole time), Fran always looked like a forty-year-old businessman, along the lines of the prosperous little guy with the white mustache in the Monopoly game. And he turned into this other taller, thinner person. What an appearance change a lot of men make after high school, like growing five or eight inches! Or in other cases losing one’s hair, which some men find embarrassing but which some women find very appealing. I worked with a girl once who would only date bald men, and she finally married one and lived happily ever after.

I remember John Haller surprisingly ran for class president in our senior year, and I remember listening to a speech he gave and thinking, surprisingly, “I may vote for him,” and I think I did. I’d known him since grade school, and one of his younger sisters and one of my younger sisters were friends. When he ran for president, there was a new aspect of his personality that came out, one that stayed pretty hidden most of the time, and it was self-assured and confidence-inspiring. If I remember correctly, Harry Lukis beat him out, and I forget who were the rest of the officers.

OK, I got the 1968 yearbook. There were two groups: the Student Council Officers pictured are Daniel O’Connor, Susan Bronesky, Patricia Brant, and Harry Lukis. I guess they ruled the whole school, because there were then officers for each class, the Senior Class Officers being Thomas Albrecht, Sharon Stewart, Donald Osmundson, and Molly Walsh. They all must have ruled justly, because I can’t remember ever feeling too oppressed by their governance. I don’t even know what they were responsible for, they ruled so seemlessly.

Are any of these people in politics today, or is anyone else? Write and let us know. I recently found out Dan Turygan had spent a few years in local politics out in Pemberton Township, Burlington County - another guy who went through big changes after high school.

At one of the reunions, I was sitting at a table near the door chatting with, I think, Trish Brant and Marie Griffin and maybe Branko Galunic. It was about 10:30, after the meal had been served and the tables cleared. A man breezed in the door in informal clothes and sat down and asked if the food was still available and where could he get some? He was kind of dashing-looking and preoccupied with his thoughts, like a member of the Order of the Phoenix or something. We probably pointed out the food area, and when he left we looked at each other and said, “Who was that?” None of us knew. He came back to our table with his plate, and he told us who he was – Anthony Bucci! – and that he was glad food was still being served since he had paid for it, but he had just come from the hospital delivery room where his wife had given birth to a girl (?), but he had been wanting to stop by and say hello to people. I was still trying to remember who Anthony Bucci was, and at some point afterwards I had to get a yearbook, and there he was! Someone else I had not spoken to throughout high school. I hope his wife is less busy in October than she was that night.

I tell you, all most people really need for all-around improvement after high school is a good spouse and a couple of kids under their belts.