50th Anniv Page 5

In Celebration of TCH's first 50 years (1955 - 2005)

Page 5

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There's was no 911 emergency number to call in times of trouble. You called either the police (you made sure keep the number on a piece of paper next to the phone so you wouldn't have to waste time looking it up) or the funeral home. The funeral home??? Yes, the funeral home because they ran the ambulances in Lafayette.

What about something as simple as telling time? Watches didn't run on batteries, you had to wind them. If you forgot you had to look for a clock. The 1960s did bring improvements like self-winding watches and later on battery powered watches. By the 1970s, a good 20 years after TCH opened, the first digital watches came out. They used red L.E.D.s but you couldn't see them in daylight and they cost a minimum of $100. You can now get a digital watch with a calculator built in for $20 or less.

Even going to church was different when TCH opened its doors. First of all, the Mass was said

Fr. Bede Becnel

1st TCH Principal

in Latin. You memorized the prayers but few kids had any clue what they were saying. The priest kept his back to the congregation and you went to Communion at the Communion Rail where everyone knelt to receive the Body of Christ. You also stuck out you tongue because you never ever touched the host. Women wore chapel veils and if they forgot to bring one, they could pin a Kleenex to their head as a substitute. And you didn't go to anticipated Mass on Saturday...the Sunday celebration was only on Sunday! If you wanted to go to Communion, you could not have anything to eat for 3 hours prior and nothing to drink for 1 hour. And note that if someone would have tried to go to church in blue jeans, t-shirts or shorts, the congregation would probably have run them out for being so disrespectful.

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