I did not enter St. Bernard’s School until 1942, three years after this 1939 honor roll was published. That should erase any question as to why I was not listed with those high-ranking students … and for the sake of complete transparency (ugh!) I believe I only attained that “honor roll” status once … in the sixth grade.

There were 27 students in my 1944 graduating class, and if all eight grades had about that number of pupils then the total enrollment for the St. Bernard’s at that time was about 216, and by a quick count there were close to 100 listed on the honor roll.

I knew almost every person listed in the honor roll. It’s fun to look through the names and up pops Walter “Bud” Duffy or Walter McGovern or Paul Reiss, probably our most renowned classmate. Among many other accomplishments, Paul was President of St. Michael’s College in Vermont. Although he may agree that his greatest accomplishment was marrying a beautiful Irish girl by the name of Rosemary A. Donohue.

What an educational, cultural and social shock for me when I entered that sixth grade classroom for the first time. Sister Mary Martin, of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy was our teacher. I knew many Sisters from that Order since my aunt, Sister Mary Dorothy Riley was a member of the Sisters of Mercy, a registered nurse, who worked at Uihlein Mercy Center until her death.

We had moved from the farm on Norman Ridge where we had attended the ‘Porter School’ now the home of that famous Adirondack photographer Mark Kurtz. There were about 15 students in eight grades taught by Ms. May Arnold, sister to Professor Robert Arnold, my high school pal, who contributes great educational essays to the Enterprise. That school property was later owned by Steve Ransom and my brother Charles “Chic” Riley.

Many grades had no students; some had two students, some had four, etc., etc. Those students along with the Riley family were the Derby’s, Johnson’s, Ransom’s, Fletcher’s and others I don’t remember.

We had hot lunches during the winter months. Pretty simple … the mother’s took turns bringing a hot lunch to school every day. No small feat when one remembers the hard work housewives put in every day on those hard-scrabble farms in the 1930s.

It didn’t take long to make friends at St. Bernard’s and a whole new world opened up to me. Years ago, Phil Gallos preceded me as a speaker at an event at the Artists Guild, located in the the former Charles Green grocery store, where I worked briefly carrying groceries to cure cottages.

Phil told what his life was like as he moved from New York City to Saranac Lake. Following Phil, I said that when we moved from Norman Ridge to Saranac Lake I thought I was in New York City. I had never been to a movie; never seen a black person and had never seen so many people in one place except for going to the fair grounds on the Bloomingdale Road.

You Know What? In this 1939 honor roll for the third grade, Barbara Maple’s average was 96.7 and Hilda Castellon was 95; when we graduated from St. Bernard’s in 1944, Hilda had taken the lead and was named valedictorian and Barbara was named salutatorian.

Saranac Lake

High School Class Of 1948

My brilliant classmates of 1948 remained at the top of the class. There was a two-page fold at the center of our yearbook, The Canaras (remember Saranac spelled backward) laid out as a newspaper named the”Saranac Daily Snooper” much like the Emptyprize of today published during Winter Carnival.

The headline read: “United States Rocket Ship Reaches Moon; All Aboard Reported Safe” … Here is the irony. The “fake news”story was written by none other than Barbara Maple, but wait there is more. The story was dated July 20, 1948. The United States landed men on the moon 21 years later, July 20, 1969. Here is Barbara’s story.

“Chief U.S.S.R. delegate Andrei Vishinsky, walked out of the security Council today after a heated argument with U.S. delegate Arthur M. Levy [our classmate who became a renowned M.D.] , over the territorial claims to the moon. Mr. Levy expressed the views of the U.S. Delegation; Messrs. Thomas Quigley, Howard Riley, Edward LaPoint and Carlton LaMoy are prominent members, when he said that the United States should retain ownership to the land it had just claimed.

“Miss Margaret Buckley, the U.S. ‘Mata Hari’ was appointed to coax the Russian delegate into returning for the meeting tomorrow.

“If Mr. Vishinsky becomes much more difficult, the famous Branch brothers, Fred and Jerry, will be assigned to chauffeur him. After a few rides with the Branches, we’re sure he’ll be more easily persuaded.”