Chapter II - 1956-1960 - Parish With a Temporary Church

As noted previously, church music was introduced to Christ the King Parish when the Boys Town Concert Choir sang the first Mass at Peony Park - a Latin High Mass.  From that time one until the temporary church was dedicated, choral music was the order of the day.

An exceptionally fine performance of the adult choir at the Dedication Mass gained the choir its reputation as the finest in the city.  Norbert Letter, the director, and Mary Rensch, the organist, deserve much of the credit.  The small Hammond organ already had been used in Peony Park and now furnished some grand bakcground support for the choir.

The choir loft was so small that the altos in the back row had to sing almost from a kneeling position lest they bump their heads on the low-pitched roof.  The choir, ranging from 25 to 50 members in the beginning, sang not only the Sunday Masses but also on special occasions such as Christmas Midnight Mass, the Pastor's 25th Ordination Mass and later the Dedication Mass of our beautiful permanent church.

Eventually a larger Baldwin organ was acquired until a pipe organ would be more practical.  Meanwhile, Norbert Letter, his wife Evelyn and their daughter Kathryn Letter, a student at Cathedral High School, played and sang for funeral Masses.

The choir always sang four-part liturgical music (alto, soprano, tenor, and bass), always searching for the best music, be it Latin, English, German, Spanish or whatever.  Charter members of the choir were appreciated and encouraged to remain with the choir as long as possible, and new voices were always welcome.

On the morning of the first funeral, it was interesting to see the mortician trying to get the casket through the front door, which was not wide enough for the casket.  So the pall bearers had to turn the casket on its side, bring it in and return it the same way after Mass.  You may be sure that the next morning bright and early the construction people were there to correct that oversight and build in place of the single door a double-door entrance.

During Lent, devotions and programs were well attended.

Things now were really getting organized.  For the first time, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, was set aside for a First Communion Day.  The children received Holy Communion during the Evening Mass, enabling entire families to be present.

Along with our temporary church came the completion of the Social Hall, which doubled as a cafeteria on school days.  A hot-lunch program was set up and put into immediate operation, with Betty Andrews in charge.

Our first Confirmation class was held in May 1956, and Archbishop Bergan found a large crowd awaiting his arrival.  There were all ages and sizes and the ceremony took a long time, but His Excellency was obviously pleased with the strides that had been made in his first "daughter parish."

In September of 1956, school enrollment took such a jump that new classrooms were opened in each of grades one through five.  Five nuns were now on the faculty, as well as eight lay teachers.  The Junior Sodality that had been started earlier was under the direction of Sister Mary Miriam, and several sodality projects became school traditions.  Among them were Family Rosary Crusades during October and the Living Rosary in May.  An annual day of recollection was set aside for the upper grades.  The first Sodality reception was held on April 25, when a small group of sodalists made their Act of Consecration for a three-month period.

At a Trustees meeting, I expressed a need for a bus to gather children in the Peony Park area for school.  Trustee Bert Murphy indicated that there were difficulties in hiring a bus driver for the brief time needed to transport children back and forth.  With a wink, Murphy suggested that he would donate a bus - if I would drive it.  I thought for a moment and said I would.

Two weeks later, the challenge: Murphy called and said that a bus was ready for me to pick up and drive back home.  I managed to get a ride downtown to Murphy's Plymouth dealership and drove the bus back.  It had been used by the "Murphy Did-Its," a baseball team that years earlier won the national American Legion baseball championship.  Until I found a driver, I would drive the bus myself to the Peony Park area, bringing the boys and girls back to school, offering the children's Mass at 8 a.m. and then taking them home in the bus after school.  That continued for a couple of weeks until I persuaded our janitor to arrange his schedule to take over the bus-driving chores.

Uncle Bert Murphy, as he was affectionately known in the parish, was a successful businessman with a dry sense of humor.  He once said to me, "Young man, your sermons are too long for an old man like me."  To which I asked, "Well, how long is TOO long?"  He just smiled, but the next Sunday he sat immediately in front of the pulpit.  As I neared the conclusion of my sermon, Uncle Bert reached in his pocket, pulled out a clean white handkerchief, gently shook out the folds and wrinkles, wiped his brow and put it away.  After Mass he came in and said, "You read signals very well."

While activities were continuing in and around the school, the entire parish was preparing for a country auction.  The president of the Guild master-minded the entire affair.  Jerry Foy, an auctioneer from Fremont, volunteered his advice and services to keep the event on an exciting track.  The sale took place in a sale barn at Miracle Hills and, needless to say, it was a giant task that reaped good social and financial benefits for the entire parish.

A number of changes took places in and around the school beginning in the fall season.  Sister Mary Catherine became the first full-time principal, replacing Sister Mary Henrietta, who had headed  the school while also teaching a class.  The staff consisted of nine sisters and 11 lay teachers.

Daily transportation for the nuns back and forth from the Mother House at 75th and Military was still a problem.  The opening of St. Joan of Arc Parish was thought to bring some relief to the parish but that was slow in coming.  New families continued to move into the area.

In January 1960, census figures continued to haunt us beyond our wildest imagination.  We now counted 1,200 families, with approximately 5,000 parishioners.

During the summer months, Mother Mary Beatrice was named Mother Provincial of the Servants of Mary at the Mother House on Military Avenue.  When school began in September, the school was practically filled to capacity.  It was necessary to convert the sacristy into a classroom.  That gave us a total of 22 classrooms.

The fall of 1960 saw the reactivation of Christ the King Parish Boy Scount troop # 370.  There were about eight scouts and three volunteer dads - John Bohrer, Ray Bradley, and Byron Oberst, M.D.  Some of the scouts were Eric Bohrer, Steve Bradley Byron J. Oberst, Tom Harvey, Bill Phillipson and John Grimm.

The troop met on Thursday evening in Christ the King School Gym.  There was some spare camping equipment in a storage room and some troop flags.  As time passed the pastor provided means for obtaining sufficient tents and camping equipment for more than 40 scouts.

The three dads collectively decided not to have a "spit and polish" type of scouting experience but to emphasize an outdoor approach to manhood, such as:

1. A monthly campout from September to May, come rain, snow, or shine.
2. A summer camp for one week if possible at Camp Eagle near Fremont.
3. A home "adventure" activity each year to highlight the scouting year.

The three dads decided:

1. Not to require a full scout uniform, only a shirt and neckerchief.
2. Not to be active during the summer and not to compete with Little League baseball, family vacations, swimming programs and similar activities.
3. Not to be involved in fund-raising events and programs like selling light bulbs, etc.  Instead, each Boy Scout was asked to bring $5 for the year.  If that was not possible, one of the dads would put up the money.
4. To avoid getting involved in major scouting camporees and contests.  They were only to emphasize basic scouting.

The three dads decided that Dr. Oberst would be the Scoutmaster and coordinator of activities, based on his previous scouting experience.  John Bohrer and Ray Bradley would be Assistant Scoutmasters in charge of "outdoor activities and campouts."  Those decisions were approved by the pastor.

Beginning with a small group of boys, it was easy to pack everyone with gear into a few cars for monthly campouts "rain or shine, hot or cold, we go."  That was our troop's Scout motto.  Campouts emphasized outdoor scouting activities such as fire-building with two sticks, two matches and no paper, cooking over an open fire without utensils, making comfortable beds on the ground, pitching tents and (later on) advanced scouting - such as building bridges over creeks, advanced hiking and other related items.

Formal Thursday evening meetings were employed in programming, organizing the tropp units into patrols and developing leadership among the scouts.