Easton Catholic Marks 100 Years of Reunions

It's been decades since anyone cheered for the Easton Catholic High School Shamrocks.

Yet here were a bunch of cheerleaders from nearby Notre Dame High School, gathered Sunday afternoon in the dining room at the Green Pond Country Club. 

And why not? It's not everyday that a school -- even one that only exists in memory -- celebrates 100 years of reunions.

Graduates came from as far back as the class of 1939, and as recently as the class of 1957, the last year the school -- on South Sixth Street in Easton -- was open. 

"And nobody here from the first class," said John Hammerstone, class of 1949.

"I feel like I'm from the first class when I wake up in the morning," joked friend Joe Hoffmeier, from the class of 1950.

They were joined by another alumni, Paul Ealer, all three of them natives of Easton's South Side.

When they went to school, Easton Catholic was staffed by five nuns. Hammerstone can still remember them: Sister Francis de Chantal, Sister Saint Bee, Sister Bernard Agnes, and the formidable Sister San Gregoria.

"She was 6'2''," Hammerstone said. "This nun here," he pointed on a painting of the school to where her classroom was, "she'd give you a loving tap on the ear. She was the best teacher. The strictest, the most loving to everyone."

It was a no-frills school, said graduate Joe Jacobs, a Forks resident. Everyone took the same classes, designed to prepare students for college. 

"No buses," Jacobs said. "You walked to school every day. You'd get up every morning, go back for lunch, go back for dismissal."

There was no cafeteria, and no gym. The basketball team practiced in the armory building on Northampton Street, and played its home games at the Governor Wolf building.

Soon after that, the cheerleaders began their cheer --  "Go Shamrocks, go Shamrocks, go! Go Shamrocks, go Shamrocks, go!" -- and everyone headed inside for dinner, and more reminscing. 

That part's not that unusual for some Easton Catholic graduates, said Hoffmeier. On the first Monday of each month, a group of them gathers for breakfast. 

"Old friendships never die, I guess," he said.