Give him that kind of applause, so once again give it up for Tom everybody.
Hi, this may come as a shock to many of you but I was not always this handsome.
No, really. In 1933 I was 10 years old. I'll give you a chance to figure out the
math now, I was a new kid at st. Matthew school in Milwaukee, South Side, and I was
in the I think third grade, probably for my third year, no. Anyway it was St.
Valentine's Day at the school, it was a Catholic school and the nuns
had they said in February we were allowed to bring Valentine's in and I remember I've
got a five, imagine in those days the depth of the depression. I was able to
buy a five pack of Valentines for two cents. So I had to choose my gals very
carefully. The one gal of course was everybody's choice was the beautiful
Betty Jane Hayes, just gorgeous, even the nuns were in awe of her. She was just
great and the second of course was the sultry Patricia Gilbert
She was very nice but John Gorton had her cornered. Anyways I thought "Well I'll
risk it" so the third one was a Thomasina
well these are actually the names by the way I hope they're not here. Thomasina
Welsh was a flaming redhead gal who during recess loved to play the
games with the boys. All the girls are by themselves on
recess, the boys had Thomasina Welsh. And we used to play a game it was called
break the camel's back, you ever do that? You line up you grab a poll, the guy
the person behind you guys and then what happened you take a running jump you
jump on top and try to get the guy to collapse to the front, that was breaking
camel's back. And Thomasina Welsh was a part of that. That was thrilling.
My fourth choice was Dolores Behowski. Now Dolores was not plain, she was sort of
pretty but the main attraction for most of us was that she was an early maturer.
Of majestic proportions. I don't remember who the fifth one I was, doesn't matter.
But anyway we had this big box that
the nun sister Mary Giordano, very sweet lady, very devout, not the
stereotypical nun. This is a real sweet nun. Anyway they had
the box up there and you had to drop your Valentine's in there and near the
end of the day she would take them out and she called out your name, you had to
come up get your Valentine. Well Betty Jane Hayes to nobody's
surprised got, first of all the classes about 40 and I think that they were even
they pretty much evenly divided boys and girls who Betty Jane got more than 20 so
it means there were some girls that really gave her Valentine's as well.
And a Patricia Gilbert came in very close to a second and then at the end of
the time I they said, for some reason I don't say the stay I don't know
why she would do this she said "Now who got the least amount?" And this was Ruthie
Parkinson who had adenoidal problems and always carried a sodden handkerchief
in her hand. So anyway, used to drip. So anyway then we
started with the boys and to nobody's surprises the guy that boy that got the
most was Billy Bebot, that star who later became a really a great football player,
you played for Creighton. And he was tall, handsome, blond good-looking guy. Donald Levell
was a close second, Levell was kind of sly he was my idol. I liked his style. And
then they all the way went down the line I don't remember who was third or fourth.
Finally she said "Now let's see who got the least."
And somebody said Jimmy Sweeney. Jimmy Sweeney got up and she said "How many did
you get Jim?" "Two." So it should have stopped right there but Jimmy Sweeney,
damn his soul, said "Sister, Tom Sitter didn't get any."
That's precisely. I mean, there's nothing worse than pity. You can
hate me, you can detest me, you can ignore me, isolate me, but don't pity me.
So anyway, so finally after that mantle of pity which was lifted from me
it was kind of forgotten about. Near the end of the day sister Mary Giordano
said "Oh my goodness what have we here?" She reached into the box, "Oh, there's a
Valentine stuck at the bottom of the box. Imagine that. Well
well, let's see who it's for. Oh it's for Tommy Sitter.
Get up here Tommy." So I had to go up, open it up, and it was signed in very fine
Spencerian script "A friend." So twice again the mantle of pity descended upon
me like wet sodden blanket. I was ready to die,
was ready to kill, I was just so angry. So anyway I knew that at that point you
know I was like, a lot of Catholics, I believe sincerely that he punched a
priest or a nun you go straight to hell. I mean that was a straight shot, do not pass
go do not collect $200. Don't even think about stopping the purgatory, you're
going straight to hell. But at that time I thought about punching sister. And I'm
glad I didn't because she's pretty strong, she would've whipped me. But
then I thought about big mouth Jimmy Sweeney. Then I used to have dreams, do you
ever wish that you could choose your own dream before you go to sleep at night? I
used to have this daydream about someday I'm going to meet Jimmy. Now Jimmy, if
he's still alive today, he's 92 like 93 like I am and he could be in a
wheelchair. But I'd like to find him and go down there and I'd like to take him
out for a nice walk in his wheelchair, maybe go down a hill
and then then inexplicably my hands would slip from the chair and
he would careen down the hill which ended at a busy intersection and
into traffic.
Anyway if anybody knows where Jimmy Sweeney is let me know. Thank You.