A School Remembered

Yesterday, I attended a ceremony dedicating a portion of West 61st Street off Amsterdam Avenue in New York City as "POWER MEMORIAL WAY." The renaming of that street honors the former site of my old high school, Power Memorial Academy which occupied that corner from 1938 to 1985. The corner holds a thousand memories of adolescent uncertainties, of academic strivings, pranks, accomplishments , and setbacks. Of friendships and insecurities. The corner speaks to me of countless band practices up and down W. 62nd St, and of the blasting and excavation between W. 61st and W. 60th in preparation for the new Lincoln Square Campus of Fordham University. I remember hearing the dynamite blasts from my seventh floor classroom. The building shook as if in an earthquake. Little did I suspect that society shook even more vigorously in those years between 1966 and 1970.

Power Memorial opened up a dialogue between me and the outside world. It's Catholic teaching reflected the heady "New Theology" of the post-Vatican II years--it was liberal, trendy, yet still loyal to the Catholic Church. Most of all, Power helped me set the tone for the ways that I would look at things for years to come. The friends I made there went their separate ways as did I, and then over thirty years later some of us reconnected through a series of reunions and participations in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. On March 17, 2004 the Alumni of Power Memorial Academy returned to The Parade. We won a trophy that year, and the year after that. Dinners were scheduled. More alumns joined. A scholarship fund was established to send deserving boys to high schools run by the Irish Christian Brothers. And now we have a street in the Big Apple named for our beloved school.

Comments

EE Green said…
Very well written memoir of your Alma Mater. Great subject for a non-fiction treatise.
March 15, 2010 at 8:44 AM
Irving Douglas Estella said…
Thanks E! Perhaps my Power reminiscences could become a Power Story type of book. Will look into it.
March 19, 2010 at 9:24 AM
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