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2005 Reunion Speeches

Heights Memories

Margaret Wilkinson

I second Ed’s welcome to you. I am Margaret Wilkinson, class of 1950.

The forties were a very different era from today. Our mothers pretty much stayed home and took care of the house and children. Home baked goods and scratch meals were the norm for the majority of us.

Families attended Mass together on Sundays and we had twice a week Lenten devotions for the whole family and when Easter arrived, we thought we had sacrificed our candy and now we were ready for the Easter Bunny.

Gone With the Wind was the movie of the year in 1940 and Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. The Government persuaded women to take jobs during this time and almost seven million women responded – 2 million as industrial Rosie the Riveters and 400,000 joining the military.

Sweaters were very popular in the 1940’s. Some factory owners would not let women wear sweaters. They said the sweaters were dangerous. They said they could get caught in the machinery. They were not entirely wrong. A sweater on a woman that was too loose was a health hazard and a sweater that was too tight was a morale problem.

The Ottumwa Catholic Community in the forties was a very close knit group of people. We knew everyone in the schools, their parents, siblings, grandparents. We were all watched over and any untoward actions were reported to our parents. It always amazed me that my Dad knew everything going on and he was mostly confined at home with polio. But then I found out that Mr Payne went to all the ball games and kept track of everything and reported to my Dad at Morrell’s the next day.

Since we had no yearbooks at the Heights until 1950 and that was the only yearbook produced at the Heights, I had no resource for information on the forties. So I asked some of the alumni for memories of those times.

Mary Modesta Nagle, class of 41, sent me this message. Life on the convent side of the old Ottumwa Heights intrigued us all. We had classmates who were postulants and junior college students who were novices. There was always a prevailing curiosity about life on the other side.

An interesting conduit to this mysterious other place was what we called the tunnel, a long narrow sheltered passageway connecting the convent and the student side. It began at a hallway’s end on the student side, wound alongside the auditorium for a short way, then down two steps and through a wooden double door into the convent side, the motherhouse of the Humilities.

Students practicing on the auditorium’s baby grand could detect footsteps and rosary rattling of approaching nuns, particularly those of Mother Geraldine, provincial of the order. When her oncoming presence would announce itself, the student would stop playing, stand looking straight ahead and remain so until Mother Geraldine had passed. And the double doors to the convent side discreetly closed. Did Mother Geraldine wonder about the young piano player who stopped midway in the sonata to stand and stare straight ahead. Did we convey the tremendously awesome respect we had for her? We hope so.

Many of us remember all of the fun we had at the many dances offered to us. Starting with Father Martin teaching us social graces when we were in eighth grade and all of the dances, to the proms at the Heights and Catholic Central. The CYO dances every Sunday evening at the KC Hall, the Easter dances at the Coliseum, the Christmas dances, Homecomings. And the dances after some of the basketball games. The Mardi Gras was always one of the biggest dances of the year. We performed in the floor show and then met our dates for dancing.

We always looked for opportunities to spend time with the Central boys and we seemed to have been provided with many of them. The Heights furnished cheerleaders for the Central teams and

we had plays together with them.

When I started at the Heights, it was a very big change. For the first time, I rode the bus instead of walking. We met our friends on that bus and got acquainted with the girls from St Pat’s and Sacred Heart as well as the house students. For the first time, we went from room to room and teacher to teacher all day. A big change for us, with all of the grounds at the Heights to spend time on. Sister Helen remembers Father Kerrigan’s classes. He would sit on the window sill and always seated us in order of ability. And all of us remembered the highly polished halls of Ottumwa Heights. The House students always had to meet their dates in the parlor and pass inspection of the sisters. We thought they had lots of things to do and I am sure they thought the house students were free to spend their time roaming the town. The sisters were wonderful, they were excellent teachers, they seemed to have fun, and seemed to genuinely like us. We owe them a great debt and as Mary Modesta said, we hope they know how much we loved and respected them.

We all remember wondering if our formal dresses would pass inspection at the door to the gym because if they did not, the Sisters were there with shawls and fabrics and you would be draped before you went any further. They were also expert at sniffing out any alcohol on the breath of the boys and if any was detected, that boy did not enter. We always had a date committee so every girl always went to every dance whether she wanted to or not. Sister Saint John used to make corsages from the altar flowers. And if you were dancing cheek to cheek, the sisters came out on the floor and gently separated you. Then we went to the old Colony Club and danced until our curfews at home. Basketball and dances were our way of life during those years.

The Navy Air Base opened in 1943 or 44 and they used to send buses into town to pick up the Heights girls and take them out to their dances. They always had big name bands and the girls remembered having lots of fun. And at least one marriage resulted from that, E. C. and Donna McDonald met that way .

We had a three day silent retreat every year and were not allowed to speak even at home, which made my two older brothers very happy. Our religion was a very important and integral part of our lives, as we went to daily Mass as often as possible. We also tried many different sports with out success. Finally Milly Horrabin came and taught us to tap and ballet and we had a recital each spring at the Heights. I personally loved that dancing. Alma Jeanne remembers being taught a sailor dance by Millie Horrabin that she and Jowan Celania , Mary Gretchen Schwartz, and Mary Calkins performed at the Air Base for the sailors. Millie stood in the pit and directed them with hand motions as she always did, and when the dance was over, the four kept doing it over and over as long as the music played with Millie frantically trying to get them off the stage. We were always so well disciplined that the fun was in pulling some stunt like that.

We also had a field day each year which was spent outdoors trying all different kinds of sports. The grotto was the hot spot for everyone at the Heights. If anyone was smoking it was always behind the grotto. Our freshman year, Patty Tray, Mary Gretchen Schwartz and Jowan Celania, decided to initiate us and they took us behind the grotto and I don’t remember what they told us but when we came out, Sister Joanne met us and said. Do not do anything those three girls told you to and do not believe anything they tell you. And Patty tells me that she started tormenting Nancy Carr and I in grade school so it was a natural second step.

Mary Ann Verhille was the editor of the Ottumwa Heights Academy yearbook and remembers wondering if they could sell enough advertising to pay for it. They did and we had one very fine yearbook. We also had a Queen’s page newspaper and that editor was Betty Ward.

With great fondness we remember the sisters and faculty of the Heights. We had strong bonds to each other and to our school And even though our school no longer exists, the ties that bound us then are still pulling us back together. I remember those years as being fun filled and carefree.

Those bonds have brought us back together tonight.

I would ask that the Ottumwa Heights Alumni please stand and be recognized as we remember those alumni who are deceased, as well as the faculty and the priests who have gone before us. May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen I would ask you to remember all of our friends who were not well enough to be here this evening or who have a spouse they are unable to leave.

When Fran Broich pushed us to do this, we had no idea what response we would get, but the success of this evening rests solely with all of you who came from all over to be together tonight. And it rests with those of you who helped find people and told them about this gathering. Ed and I had a great time putting this together and we thank you for coming, and spending this time with us.

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