Stephen Magnotta:  

I'm not able to read any messages here, but you can find me on Facebook or Stevemagnotta on G mail. - Here's a few memories I have from LCC. First day of freshman year, trying to be cool and not let any fear or confusion show in the midst of the overcrowding and chaos that the brand new combined central school had created. Waiting for a ride in the entrance hallway just outside the offices, I was keeping a safe distance from the crowd as I leaned against a wall. An old man with gray hair walked by and dropped his keys right in front of me. My natural instinct was to bend down and pick them up for him, but I remembered to fight that so I wouldn't seem uncool in this new, older crowd. The old man picked the keys up with a slow slightly pained effort as I stood there and watched. A few days later in an assembly I recognized the old key dropper as the principle of the school, Brother A. He was either too cool to hold it against me or more likely never recognized me from the other 1300+ students. That first year, starting in the fall of 1970 was hard to forget. The two new high schools, opened just 5 and 6 years before had each been built to hold up to 1,000 students, but the closing of O'Rafferty caused a combined enrollment at the new central school of over 1300. The lack of classrooms for the overflow students was partially taken care of by holding classes in the hallways, circles of kids seated in old wooden chairs from St Mary's grade school that were far too small, with one class circle just feet away from the next, three or four circles per hallway. The Model Schools program that we were now guinea pigs for believed that 13 year olds would all do much better if left to their own self motivation and that allowing us to set our own schedules would better prepare us for college. So overcrowding was also alleviated by the lenient attendance policy, allowing the more adventurous of us to study some real world environments far from the crowded halls of the school. Conflict and inconsistency was a part of the era, and the school was a microcosm of that with the idealistic lazier faire teachers who welcomed the model schools program pitted against the remaining traditional old-school staff including the Catholic Brothers who still deeply believed in structure and discipline. Including physical discipline, right up to a point where one side might totally break down. I believe the Brother teaching math was named Brother Charles (although I may be wrong on that name) who challenged a rebellious student in a test of wills that ended in the Brother tossing a chair in a fit of anger in front of a full classroom, breaking down in tears and leaving the room, and the school for the remainder of the year. Can anyone remember who the strong willed student was, Rick Falsetta or one of the Saenz brothers perhaps? There was another conflict settled with a Brother provoked fist fight that left a student bloody, I think that was Mike Hayes and the Brother was the vice principal or school disciplinarian, I can still picture him, he was always wound very tight, but his name has escaped me. But those years were nothing if not inconsistent. Random acts of discipline were mixed with an anything-goes, work at your own pace and we won't hassle you approach from others. This fit my own personality pretty well, not that I was one of the few self-motivated students who completed all the basics in each class and spent the remainder of the year deep in study of their chosen subjects of interest. My days that year were mostly spent in the cafeteria comforted by the juke box where I never tired of Ike & Tina's version of Proud Mary and fortified myself with a diet of ice cream sandwiches from the vending machine. By spring I grew restless enough to venture off campus and often walked down Michigan Avenue and dropped in at Dave West's business where he made custom guitar amps, speakers and PA systems and got him to talk to me about his early days working with Grand Funk, Dick Wagner and ? and the Mysterians back in Flint. He had quite a few stories about the history of Michigan Rock which I was eager to hear about and I studied at the feet of the old master so to speak, although he may not have even been 30 at the time. Another important influence on me that year was at least a part of the schoo...Expand for more