IONA Pep Rally

I remember how much fun we had planning the pep rally for the IONA game. About a week before the pep rally I remember I was in the hallway by the senior lockers, Mr Reisner was in his class room and someone asked me to make that stupid noise that we used to refer to as the "Whale Call". So, I let out a big "bluh-bluh-bluh-bluhhhhhh" and Mr Reisner comes running out of his classroom to find me there by myself in the hallway, he comes running up to me and says: "Who is making that insane noise?". I looked down the hallway, and there was a door closing to the stairway, and so I replied : "he went that way!". A week later we had the pep rally in front of the whole student body, and he saw me do it again in front of everyone. Oops, the secret is out!

We had quite the time at that pep rally, in fact it was so good that they would not let us have another one!

GO - NADS!

--Leo

This should come under the title of : "I don't remember who said this", but if you recall every afternoon Glenn Bellitto would make an announcement to the student body.

I recall someone telling me : "There goes GDB on the PA spouting his BS again."

OK..so who remembers that day in Senior year, when my girlfriend Judy and her two girlfriends from Greenwich came to visit me at Stepinac.?  Well her two friends were supposed to be “prude virgins” who would probably cringe at the thought of being with only men in an all boys school..!!  Little did I know that was not at all the case.!!     By 11:00, the two of them were in the senior lounge kissing and hugging all the guys they could get their pretty little Greenwich hands on.!  I have it on very good authority that they were doing more than kissing after lunch  (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE..!!)   My GREENWICH GIRLS..!!!   Dirty Purdy

OK…So make my Spain story public..!

While on our Spain trip, Mr. Grubiak and Ms. Chiodo (our teachers as well as our chaperones) were actually using the trip as their honeymoon.  I think it was taboo at the time for teachers to be married, so it was kept extremely “hush-hush” by the school.  Senior year was the year that I finally let go, and really lived up to my name and reputation (“DIRTY PURDY”) and being in a foreign country where no one knew us, I was certainly going to POP.!   While on our trip, I snuck into the newly-weds hotel room, intending to hide under the bed, and scare them when they walked in.!  Little did I know that they were feeling extremely amorous that night, and could not wait to start ripping their clothes off, and having hot monkey sex on the bed, which I was hiding under.!  Well, I certainly wasn’t going to announce my presence at that time.!!   I ended up listening to their moans and groans of passion, and the squeak of the Spanish bed springs, while Ms. Chiodo yelled “STEVEN…STEVEN…STEVEN….”  for three hours straight (WHAT a GUY..!!).  They both finally fell asleep… AS DID I..!!  I’m not sure at what point during the morning that I slid out from under that bed, and snuck out the door.   The next morning at breakfast, Mr. G looked at me funny, and I could swear he had some idea about what I had done, but nothing was ever mentioned, except that he mentioned that I looked tired.               I can still hear her voice screaming “STEVEN..STEVEN..STEVEN..!!

My memories about the Class of 1976 are not as detailed as many of my fellow students. I was still 3 years new to the City of White Plains and  Archbishop Stepinac. I was not on any of the committees or school programs. Always on the fringe, never on the inside: except for that senior year. I got to know many of you that year and there was a strange type of comradery that developed. Jocks, greasers, squares, and dead heads all wanted to celebrate the entire year and we did. 
    I remember the senior lounge, music blasting all the time, constant card games going on in all corners of the room and all sorts of additional activities taking place. I remember Monday mornings with entire tables of seniors copying each others homework, constant reminders to change the words popping up now and then. While all this activity was going on, sporadic outbursts of jokes, put downs, and reenactments of these two new TV shows: Not Ready for Prime Time Player in Saturday Night LIve and the English version Monty Python's Flying Circus. Then there were the concets. 
    Gentlemen, let up please remember that we lived in the greatest decade of...no era of the guitar hero. Not some video game, but the real Rock and Roll Legends, still alive and in their prime. Nugent, Zappa, Kiss, Queen, The Dead, Neil Young, AC/DC, Foghat, Yes, Pink Floyd, Skynyrd....the list is endless and we were living witnesses to these guitar giants in all their glory. We were the true inspiration for the eventual 70's inconic movie, "Dazed and Confused" and personally I feel we put those Texas boys and girls to shame. I do have an earlier  Stepinac memory of a certain biology class where the teacher slammed a body bag of dead cats on his lab desk and as we passed them out he loudly declared: "Make sure you check the cats over thoroughly to make sure none of them is yours," in a gruff and gravelly voice. An ominous silence descended on the entire class. 
     In 1976 I wold fall away from my oldest friend in the Bronx, no going back to the old neighborhood any more. Something stupid over a girl at a St. Raymond's dance, but  that same year I would find 3 new friends: Alfonse, Don, and Pete. We would end up celebrating our high school graduation together, move on to rejoice over our college experiences together, attend and celebrate each other's weddings; swap photos of our newborns; 1st, 2nd, and for some a 3rd. We would drift apart again because of the demand of our jobs and fatherhood, but we all survived. Looking forward to attending the reunion, 

  Peace out,   Pascarella

P.S. A special shout out to Car Garafolo who not only has over the last 25 years kept me updated on Stepinac's evolution while shopping in Shop Rite, in Fishkill, he also allowed me the privilege to be interviewed by him in the 90's on his radio station in Dutchess County. Thanks Carl.

Concerts attended 1976:
1. Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seger--Central Park 
2. Hot Tuna--White Plains
3. Jethro Tull, Robin Trower, and Rory Galager---Shea Stadium
4. Marshall Tuck Band and Don McClean--Westchester Premier Theater
5. Flo and Eddie and Poco--White Plains

Five Albums that got me through 1976
1. Beginnings: Allman Bros. Band
2. Eat a Peach: Allman Bros. Band
3. Aqualung: Jethro Tull 
4. Desperado: The Eagles
5. (tie) Dark Side of the Moon/ Wish You were Here--Pink Floyd

And don't lie, you all cheered when Rocky won his fight and felt a little better about 
America that Bicentenial year.

I don't exactly remember what year the lay teacher strike was, but I remember one day we had a substitute teacher for a class, a woman...a very WASTED woman.!  I cannot remember what class it was, maybe Sully can help me out, since he was the one who made us piss our pants that day.  For what ever reason, that day classes were less populated than usual...maybe there was some sort of trip or something, but our class of maybe 30 guys was reduced to maybe 15 this day.  When we came into the class before the bell rang, it was obvious that this woman substitue was fucking ripped.!  She stunk like a cheap bar rag.!  We sat down, and when the bell rang for the second time, we immediately noticed she could barely sit up in her chair.  Someone said "hey teacher, you have to take attendance.."  She had a hell of a time trying to find the attendance sheet, let alone being able to see while saying our names, and Sully basically just said "HERE" after she called out various names.  She was looking around, and we statrted laughing, but again she was so fucked up that she didn't even notice that we were making fun of her.!  Sully then makes a sound like a buzzer, and someone yells  "CLASS OVER", and we all marched out the front door into the hallway laughing.  After a few minutes, Sully made the buzzer sound again, and we all marched back into the classroom and sat down.  Once again, someone said "teacher you have to take attendance..!"  She once again, took the same class sheet, and started taking attendance again, with Sully once again saying "HERE" after every name.  I think we did this routine of buzzer and marching out into the hall, sitting down, and having the teacher take attendance about 2 more times, before Monsignor Matthews noticed the ruckus in the hallway, and came running down to the classroom.  By this time the woman had her head on the desk, and was flipping through the pages of a book, fanning her face and mumbling something.!  Monsignor Matthews said.."hello...excuse me..HELLO..!!", but she just kept mumbling to herself.  He went down the hall, and called Ray Morris, who then assisted him in carrying out the woman ( she was a small skinny little thing)  She had a very short skirt ( with no panties on we discovered !) and Ray had her over his shoulder, with that short skirt hiked way up, showing everything she had down south.!  There was NO CARPET to match the drapes if you know what I mean..!!  I was laughing so hard by this point, I thought I was going to throw up (it was right after lunch period)  Monsignor then came back into the class, and said we could be excused to the lounge for this class, but cautioned us "to forget about what happened here today..!"  YEA RIGHT..!  

WHO REMEMBERS THAT DAY..!!???

What a nut that guy was! I don't know how he lasted the year, but they must have been really desperate for teachers!

I remember Wigmore yelling at Curtie: "Curtie, You're gonna get grilled!" and then Neil Curtie throwing his notebook at him and him getting sent to the principal! Neil was not with us the following year!

I also recall, there was a chain saw running outside and he was convinced that someone in the class was making the noise. He kept walking around the class trying to figure out where it was coming from, when he finally realized it was coming from outside, we all had a good laugh.

But there must be more stories about him....

It was during the teacher strike in our senior year, I was in third year French and they merged us with 1st year Spanish. I recall Buber telling us seniors do whatever you want, just do not make any noise.

So I whipped out my deck of cards and proceeded to play rummy with Ken Sylvia. Whilst we were in the midst of our game, Buber snuck up behind me, took several cards off the top of the deck and ripped them in half. He then retorted:"You can do whatever you want with the rest of the deck!".

Really??? You couldn't just ask us to put it away, you had to rip up some cards! I was fuming! I stood up, took the remaining cards, walked to the front of the class and threw the rest of the deck loudly into the trash can. I then sat there for the remainder of the class plotting my revenge.

In his classroom, he had a plant that he loved and took excellent care of, I decided this was going to be my target. I brought in a small vile of weed killer and dumped it into the pot and then sat back and watched that plant slowly die. I saw that he attempted to save it by watering it daily and even giving it plant food, but it was too late. The plant just slowly withered away, and one day when I entered the class I saw what had become of the "Charlie Brown" plant as it lay in the garbage pail!

Revenge complete!

Hold on Boys...this is going to be a 2 parter.!  HEY PETE TAHMIN..Remember this..!! 

So one afternoon, Pete Tahmin and I are running away from the school, to get to the lower lot, so we could drive down for our weekly fix at MILK MAID  (soon to be SPORTS PAGE..!)  As we are running away from the school, the FIRE ALARM suddenly sounds, and the class body is quickly exiting the school  (here is where the second part of this story comes in..!! READ ON..!)  Pete and I are freaked, because we are going to be seen running across the field to the lower lot, but we are so fucking toasted we did it anyway.!  We get into his car and speed off.  When we got to milk maid, we munched down on our food, but there were four assholes from WHITE PLAINS HIGH SCHOOL that kept looking at us and laughing, and making faces, giving us the finger, etc.  Eventually they got closer and started saying the usual shit that we got as always - being good CATHOLIC school boys with jacket and ties.."STEPY PREPPIES...STEP IN SHIT ASSHOLES...PREPPIE FAGGOTS...NICE TIE DICK..!", etc.  We really were too stoned to give a fuck, but I (being from PORT CHESTER, and a "GREASER" according to asswipe MALONE) wasn't going to take this shit.  Pete tried to calm me down, but I said to the biggest guy.."come outside fuck face..", and he did.  Once in the parking lot, I punched him in the face , and grabbed his head and banged it against a car in the parking lot.  Another of the guys came running at me, and once again, I was lucky to get a good shot into his face, and he too fell to the ground.!  I broke an antenna off of a car (you remember those radio antennas..!!) and started yelling at the other two.."CMON..CMON you assholes..lets see who is the preppy faggot now..", all the while swinging the antenna like a samari sword.!!  The other two just turned and ran off, while the other guys lay bleeding on the pavement.  Pete came running out laughing his ass off, saying  "PURDY your are a fucking animal...you are a crazy fuck..!!"  We jumped in his car, me still holding the broken car antenna, and drove back to Stepinac laughing our asses off...I think I almost threw up my food I was laughing so hard. We pulled into the lower lot, and I left the antenna in Pete's car as remembrance what we had done.!   We started walking up the hill into the field, and at this point the laughing turned to panic, when we noticed there were FIRE TRUCKS in the parking lot, and firemen walking around.  WAS THE SCHOOL ON FIRE..?  WAS THAT NOT JUST A FIRE DRILL..!!?

We then remembered the fire alarm when we left...........................O.K.!  Here comes part 2

OK..Thanks for hanging in there for PART 2!!    

O.K., so here is Pete and I, just back from our MILK MAID weekly excursion, and we are looking at a half a dozen fire trucks in the back parking lot (still buzzed I might add.!).  We snuck back into the building, and into last period..I think ENGLISH with STRAKA..??, but anyway, half way through the class Father Malone barges into the class and says.."YOU..!!!"  pointing at me (!!)  "COME WITH ME..!!", and as I stand, he grabs the back of my neck, and pushes me out the door, iknto the hallway.!  I am freaking out as I am walking with him down to his office, thinking..."HOLY SHIT...the guys from WHITE PLAINS HIGH SCHOOL must have told on us, and now I am really going to be in deep shit, for beating up those two guys..!"   As I got into the office, Pete Tahmin is already in there and looking at me like  "FUCK...WE are in trouble..!!"   I am prepared to take the entire blame..Pete didn't throw a punch..he didn't destroy the car..I WAS THE ASSHOLE THAT DID..!!  As Malone starts to talk he says.."you two clowns were seen by 2 freshmen running away from the school and across the field into the lower lot about an hour ago...is that true..?"  I looked at Pete, and we said..."YES Fr. Malone, we had to go get books from our car"...lying of course, because we weren't going to fess up for the Milk Maid stuff yet..!  "Well...which one of you pulled the fire alarm...AND WHY..??"  I looked at Pete, half in shock because who the fuck saw US pull a fire alarm(which WE DIDN'T) and half in glee because this wasn't about the MILK MAID incident..!!  We said.."WE DIDN'T PULL THE FIRE ALARM..!", but of course, MALONE had two eye witnesses, and the alarm that was pulled was right near where Pete and I exited the school, and ran across the field.  WE WERE IN A DEEP HEAP OF SHIT..!!  Malone stressed that this was a criminal offense, and that we were going to be dealt with by the Police after STEPINAC got through with us.  We were facing EXPULSION as well..!!   At this point in my STEPINAC career, I never even had ONE detention..!!  Now what..!!  My mother was going to kill me..!!  Malone kept telling us to confess...we would be in less trouble if we did, but the reality was WE DIDN'T PULL THE FUCKING FIRE ALARM..!!!   WE escaped the school (like we weren't allowed to.!) and kicked the shit out of some WHITE PLAINS guys.!!  We sat in his office for what seemed like hours, before we were told to go home pending further investigation.  This was a Friday.  I don't know about Pete, but all weekend I was so nervous..I went home but didn't yet tell my mother what happened.  I expected that the school would call her and do that for me.  On Monday morning at 7 a.m. exactly, Ray Morris called the house and told me to come to school.  He didn't say what was going to happen, just to be sure to get to school.   When I got there, I was asked to wait in Malones office.  Pete was not yet there, nor did I know if he was coming or not.  When he did arrive, we both sat there worried what was going to happen.  Finally...MALONE entered..!!  He looked at us and said..."the two freshmen confessed to pulling the fire alarm...you guys get to class..!"   No SORRY I DIDN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS....just go and get to class..!

I didn't get the perfect attendance award...didn't deserve it, but I didn't get the "NO JUG " in 4 years award either....I did deserve that..!!   But we got away with teaching some WHITE PLAINS assholes a lesson..!  I bet they could't tell their friends about that..!  OH...and if you know someone who was missing their car antenna after going to MILK MAID one afternoon in 1976...THAT WAS ME..!!! and I am so sorry..!! 

Hey, Leo.

Great Memory.

Yes, we made some modifications to the original script that Administation had approved after the fact.

It was not the version that they had O.K'ed us putting on.

Father Malone and Father White were pissed and had to explain it to Monsignor.

We had a lot of good laughs with that one.

Like: " What's a Go Nad?"

Tommy Holland played the Stepinac hero Brusier McBeast.

We had a lot of hiddend jokes in "play"

My brother Phil, Class of '73 was actually the one who coined the phrase "Iron Iona" when he was the head of the Crusader Booster Club and the Poster Club that Father Peter Gelsomino was the Moderator for.

Hey, Leo.

Great Memory.

Yes, we made some modifications to the original script that Administation had approved after the fact.

It was not the version that they had O.K'ed us putting on.

Father Malone and Father White were pissed and had to explain it to Monsignor.

We had a lot of good laughs with that one.

Like: " What's a Go Nad?"

Tommy Holland played the Stepinac hero Brusier McBeast.

We had a lot of hiddend jokes in "play"

My brother Phil, Class of '73 was actually the one who coined the phrase "Iron Iona" when he was the head of the Crusader Booster Club and the Poster Club that Father Peter Gelsomino was the Moderator for.

Steve, glad that we have been able to saty connected somewhat over the years. Even if it is was over Grocery Shopping. I did not think that I would ever connect with any of our class in the God Forsaken place so far the Bronx and Yonkers. But here you are along with Sean Donnellan who used to be a neighbor and our daughters who have know each other since they were two years old have remained friends. Sean actually was a neighbor of my wife, Marie growing up. Who knew. His parents may they rest in peace, Great folks and were friends with my in-laws. Steve, I'd love to have you back on the show sometime to talk sports. All the Best to a Brother from the Bronx. Carl.