Alumni Memories - The Latin School of Chicago

LATIN STORIES

Our alumni are the living institutional memory of Latin School. We hope you enjoy reading some of their stories and reminisces below. These stories give flesh to Latin.

Click here to share your Latin story.

I'll never forget when my best friend and I set off a stink bomb in the stairway of the new Upper School building. We just wanted to try it out and thought the stairway was an out of the way place... never realizing that the smell would disperse to all the floors of the school. It caused quite the pandemonium with classes being disrupted and teachers and student council member running around trying to find out who the perpetrators were. Since we were known for being such goody-goodies, we were never suspected... and got off scot free!

- Katy Adinamis Sutter '75

The late Douglass Smith and Dusty Sang with Constance Metcalf, Susan Haskins and Allan Reich in "The Enchanted," 1965

- anonymous

We were the class who went to school on Scott street with Miss Elizabeth Singleton as our principal. Back then we wore uniforms - navy skirts with white or blue shirts - Monday through Thursday, then on Friday, which was assembly day, we were required to wear a two piece blue silk uniform with snap-on white collars and cuffs.

The teachers I remember were Miss Jarrett, Miss Lawrence and Miss Hood, who taught English literature. Back in the 1930's we had four years of Latin, ending up with Virgil's Aeneid.

In grade school our play ground was Astor Street where we used to roller skate. In high school we collected at Angie Johnson's apartment and danced and smoked cigarettes with Boy's Latin School. Every two weeks we put on long dresses and danced with them again at the Fortnightly Club.

Graduation was at the Casino Club in long white dresses, marching down the aisle to Pomp and Circumstance. I don't suppose that has changed. There were 30 in our class, the largest in school then.

- Harriett Dawes Wilson '40

The prank that I admit most often to having pulled occurred in Dr. Lovett's English class, when we were studying the Bible and he made us all recite the books of the Old Testament. I think about four or five people had finished reciting them all perfectly before Dr. Lovett noticed that we were all reading them off the blackboards from the list that I had written across the tops of the boards before class. I think his tipoff was watching people turn from one side of the room to the other, following the sequence of titles as they progressed from blackboard to blackboard. The irony was that I had written them on the blackboard from memory.

- Dr. Barry Bolewicz '59

5th Grade Business School
Recess and after-school card trading time in front of the Lower School. All of us boys would act like we were the next Rockefeller with our rarest and most valuable possessions slipped gingerly into plastic sleeves in special baseball card binders. Bartering McGuire’s Team USA rookie card for a Tony Guinn or Donny Baseball; pouring through the latest Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazine to figure out which cards were the hottest of the day.

- Chris Holinger '96

I recall many early Saturday mornings doing push-ups outside the
theater and doing 20 laps of the stairs - all five flights - and then
swimming till water spouted out of our ears. We both respected and
feared our fearless coach, Nat Coffman, because he also happened to be
the school disciplinarian. But he taught us to swim, and fast, and we
became strong both individually and as a team.

The many evenings L'Tanya Evans and Betty Ross sacrificed to work on
the yearbook may not have been formally credited therein, but their
effect can be seen throughout. From team building and theme creating
at "yearbook camp" to the last night of pizza and the last, last
minute edits, I will always remember their good humor, respect for
creativity, and kindness - they treated us not only as students, but
as fellow artists.

Dr. Dolezal always kept a jar of jelly beans in his office. One could
always stop, grab a few, and receive a few beans of wisdom along the
way. The entire school, and certainly one young man, found much
inspiration and learning from that little jar.

One year, Rob Frederick taught a class, "Philosophy of the citizen",
perhaps to encourage us to vote and otherwise participate in our
society in a responsible way. We were allowed to be comfortable - some
preferred to be horizontal, on the floor - but were expected to
participate and speak our mind in 10-12 page papers. One day, a
particularly mischievous student (on the floor) broke the camel's back
of inappropriate remarks. Justice was served in the form of a giant,
elastic-ripping wedgie from our 6-foot-plus girls water polo goalie.
The class remembered that day's lesson well - utilitarianism states
that the good of the many outweigh the good of the few.

- Mark Yoon '01

Everytime I hear about a heated rivalry in sports match, professional or college, I always think about how they would compare to a Latin-Parker Varsity basketball game. I will always remember the atmosphere back when the games were played on the main gym at Latin as well as at Parker-the stands were overfilled to point that students would be sitting behind both baskets on the court, the chants and the cheers would be intense. As a spectator in grade school and then as a player in high school, no game got more personal and important to perform and win than the games against our rivals up the street. Needless to say, we beat Parker at home and away during the regular season, as well as in Regionals my Senior year. Everytime I run into someone I played against in Parker I'm happy to be remindful of that fact.

- Jeremy Ebie '96

There are too many amazing memories to just share one. But at the top of the list are my seasons playing sports.

I'll never forget those Field Hockey and Soccer seasons...from Erin LaBarge and I getting into trouble for giggling too loudly during a Bower practice (sorry Bower!) to taking the team on a long run and jumping into the lake afterward to feeling the thrill of winning a game playing next to my sister in the mid-field. Freezing snow in May, Homecoming games where we generally lost our fans to Johanes' mad soccer-skills across the way! The teams, the challenges, the joy of putting it out on the field for that 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes! Still brings a smile to my face to remember them now!!!

- Abigail Nelson Humphrey '99, Director of Alumni Relations

I will always remember the Friday night 'After Hours Program' where the gym was open to all to come and play every Friday evening. All of us would gather in the gym for several hours of fun, playing everything from basketball to dodgeball and whatever else we could imagine at the moment. It was a great, and safe, place to be on Fridays and we would go almost every week followed by dinner out or just going somewhere to hang out together. A great ritual!

- Jeff Siegel '76, Alumni Board President

Edit This Favorite