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When I began the second grade at St. Gerard's in San Antonio it was quite a change from St. Anthony's, that school that I went to in San Antonio. The school was filled with more affluent children - children of affluent parents than St. Gerard's. St. Gerard's was just a run-of-the-mill folks. One of the guys in my class in St. Anthony's, his name was Mark Watson, his family had a - was pretty wealthy - they owned an insurance business and when I had my uniform that I wore to school that my mother bought for me that had a

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Dad and Uncle Doc and Tony Faldyik and Uncle Jim Raz liked to play baseball and they were part of a team. I might have mentioned this earlier. Anyway dad was the catcher and we used to go in somebody's car that had a rumble seat and I used to get in the back while the men folks were in the front and ride that rumble seat. That was something else. The wind would hit me in the face and I'm glad there weren't any love bugs in the air at the time or I would have been full of them in my teeth I guess but we'd get to the ball park and I was very disappointed that I didn't get to watch the game. I had to sit in that rumble seat until the game was over and dad explained to me that he didn't want me to get hurt crawling around the bleachers and I'm sure that's what I would have been doing. Dad had a compound fracture on his left thumb and when he broke it that bone stuck out and it had to heal over with skin because they didn't go to the doctor in those days. He must have been in a lot of pain for a long time until that healed over. Dad was something else. He was tough. I mean tough in that he didn't give in to pain. He just toughed it out but he was a very gentle person too and I loved him dearly.
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When I was in grade school in St. Gerard’s in San Antonio we lived in a two story house and all of the back of the top floor was our kitchen and that’s where, on the double doors that led to one part of the kitchen, that’s where I hung my stocking. And it wasn’t a fancy stocking it was one of mom’s.
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Well mom and I just got back from taking me to the doctor, the pediatrician no big deal. All he did was trim my toenails, they were extra long and it’s nice that he can do it and Medicare pays for it. Well actually we pay for it but more of us are involved with the payment. I was thinking what Christmas was like when I was a kid. We never had a tall Christmas tree but what we used to do was put a Christmas tree on like a lamp stand in front of the window in the living room. And we didn’t have full sized trees until I guess when we lived in, on Odessa Drive. You know it’s really something when you’re 79 years old you get a lapse of memory. Probably in another few months I won’t have any memory and maybe that’ll be OK. Anyway we’re getting ready for Christmas and all excited about that because we’re going to Suzi’s this year for the family gathering Christmas and we’re excited for Bethany’s present. She’s been borrowing our electric chain saw so she’s going to have a brand new one for Christmas. Since that is their – they use a lot of wood since that is their fuel in their wood burning stove. I’m just getting over Obama’s revenge, I mean Montezuma’s revenge. I had about two weeks of pooping so if you get a big bonus this year Jim that’s because we used so many of those paper rolls. Thank God for them.
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Well today is a beautiful fall day and I thought I’d sit down and share some of my memories with you guys. Excuse me. Got a frog in my throat. I’m sitting on the deck in back of our house. It’s just wonderful looking at the grounds here and seeing the statue of our Blessed Mother in the back, in the foreground I guess. Just finished having breakfast and a wonderful lecture from grandmother on my weight so I have to start today to do something about that. I think the last part of my memoirs that I dictated were some of the first grade memories and what I remembered from my time in San Antonio in the first grade. I started the first grade, as you know, in Yoakum at St. Joseph’s school. It’s a parish school and it was a parochial school that was staffed by the Sisters of Divine Providence – the same group that Sister Mary Christine is a member of for many years from Our Lady of the Lake College. So when I went to St. Anthony’s I believe it was also staffed by the Sisters of Divine Providence. Going to St. Anthony’s was a lot different than going to St. Joseph’s in Yoakum. San Antonio was an exciting place to be and almost scary for a little guy in the first grade – all the so called traffic. I did walk to school. It’s amazing, we would do that today. I didn’t have to go very far but it was several blocks and I never did take the same route every day cause I loved to explore different neighborhoods. St. Anthony’s was a parochial, not a parochial but a, I don’t know what you call it but it was a stand-alone school that like I said was staffed by the Sisters of Divine Providence. (sneezing) Excuse me. Had to sneeze. It only did the grammar school, no high school.
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Crucifixion

Huh.  Well here are some shots of our living room.  I messed up when I turned this thing on.  I was talking about my early childhood and I mentioned some things about Yoakum when I lived there.  I remember one big event.  We went to the stations of the cross during Lent and I guess I was taken aback by the stations of the cross and when we got home, I got 2 two by fours and nailed them together and made a cross.  My idea was to lay Charlie down on the cross and I was going to crucify him and our neighbor across the street – I think he was about 91 or 92, he was a retired Chiropractor – he watched Charlie and I play and when he saw me put Charlie on that cross and pick up the hammer and I was going to crucify him, that old man came off his porch and crossed the street before the hammer came down on Charlie’s hand.  What he didn’t know was, I had put a nail in the wood so Charlie’s fingers were in between the nail.  The nail wasn’t on his hand so the only thing that would have kind of hurt Charlie was if I had missed the nail and hit his hand with the hammer, which I probably would have done accidentally.  But anyway that was kind of an exciting time for that old Chiropractor and for Charlie and I.  It was a little much for us to do.  When my mother found out what I was doing she was not a happy camper about that.  She kind of got upset with me, but I think that actually she was chuckling inside.  That’s one of the really stupid things I did as a kid.

The Start of the Journal

Agnes:  This is Papa and he’s getting ready to tell a little bit more of his story.  He decided to change to a different chair so it would give a little bit different scene because he wants to take it not on himself – and its too hot to go outside and take a picture, but he’s going to do the next one from this chair.

Getting the Hang of Things

There, there.  Hey we’re in business now. Hi Jim.  I have my own sound effects here.  I just got back from a KC meeting and Johnny brought me home.  I have to beg rides from wherever I can get them and he told me that Casey’s truck blew a head gasket so he’s going to have to replace that head gasket.

Casey Schultz

He says its expensive because - if you take it to a shop – because of all that stuff you have to take off, so he figured that he and Casey can get that thing taken off and the head gasket put back on.  It will be good for Casey to get some experience with that.
 

It is hot here.  It was 103 today and it didn’t look like there was going to be a break in the weather until about the 16^th of August, but that’s the way it usually is this time of year.  I really appreciate the gift and the work you and Cristan did putting this package together.Now I’ve got to enroll in MIT and figure out how to run this thing, but I’ll catch on.

Jim and Cristan

Mom’s already way ahead of me on this so she can help me.  It was nice to get that package.  Cristan did a superb job of packing it.  That was very professionally done.  Anyway, its here and I’m going to start getting some experience with it.  I guess this will be the first entry of this journal so you’ll be hearing from me some more.  Thank you very much and I do love you dearly and Cristan too.  God bless you both.  Night night.