School Story:
I did not graduate from SJHS, but rather Tremper Class of 1968. None-the-less I certainly do have a memory that I would like to share. And if there are St. Mark Alumni class of 1964 guys reading this you might recall this incident.
In 8th grade at St. Marks we played football on the blacktop that was on the corner of Sheridan Rd. across the street from the new gymnasium building. On one particular day I was captain of one side and we were in the process of choosing players. Teddy Marcineack was always the last to be chosen for good reasons. Now for those that might not know Thaddeus, he probably graduated with a perfect 4.0 and was always the nuns favorite. But he had this strange sense of obscene humor that could suddenly come out from left field and would take you by surprise. Anyways, I was quaterback and I couldn't get the ball down field because all the good players were being covered and after every unsucessful try Teddy would come up to me in the huddle and say; "Hey! No one is even close to me throw me the ball!" So I says; "Okay Teddy but you better catch it."
So the next play comes up and sure enough Teddy is all by himself yelling at me to throw the ball to him, so at about ten feet away I toss the ball to his outstretched arms and I couldn't have made it any easier for him than if I were to hand him the ball personally. The ball went between his out stretched arms, hit his big belly and fell to the ground. I couldn't believe it! I then started yelling and be-rating Ted to which he responded in his dignified, casual stiff-upper lip style that he was known for. He simply turned around with his back facing me then bent over at the waist, directed both of his hands between his legs my way and flipped out both middle fingers, then stood up with all the maintained dignity he could muster and walked off the playground. At that point Lenny Wright was laughing hysterically and I turned on him; "What's so funny Wright?"
Lenny replied; "I taught him that."
But in all reality Teddy was a great guy and he was invaluable to me during final exams as I sat directly in front of him. Like I mentioned he was a 4.0 student and he never objected to me looking back over my shoulder and copying his work. A great kid!
