Hello, this is Mr. Zagar--Ted, if you will--reporting to the Main Office of the BS Reunion
You are my "first kids." I was new to teaching and as such my 2 years at BS were special. Especially in light of the fact that I never fathered biological children. But you were more like younger brothers and sisters to me, not kids. Our ages then and now are not greatly divided.I found the atmosphere of school too constricting to develop human to human relationships, so I actually quit teaching after those 2 years. However, in late September Bishop Noll phoned me and I was talked into a 3rd and final year of teaching. I probably would have stayed on but the economy was faltering after years of wasting billions in SE Asia (sound familiar today?) and Noll let the youngest 6 or so of us go at year's end.By this time I had become a vegan so I was unable to return to the mills, having given up leather, and thus leather hard-toed safety shoes.After a year of driving a taxi to stay alive, I was given a pair of rubber hard toed safety shoes and I re-entered LTV Steel in April of 1974.I worked there until my department was replaced by better technology. I scored high (2nd out of 260 people) to train for the new, high tech department, but again the leather issue grounded me at the end of the 6 weeks of training. I was given the choice of switching to leather shoes or facing an extended lay-off. I chose the latter and was out of work for 1 month short of 3 years. That afforded me the opportunity to return to college and earn two master degrees.The end of that rainbow has been Pierce Middle School in Merrillville, where I am in my 15th year as the librarian--media specialist as they call it.Oh, and yes, had I given up on my values and bought the shoes that demanded the slaughter of an animal, I would be out of work and 2 master degrees short, as LTV went belly up some half dozen or so years ago. I often see my old mill buddies on the street, out of work and out of hope.I am not a religious man, but I have to go with the adage that 'the Lord works in mysterious ways."Glad to be back in your lives, "kids!" And thank you for the kind words about our two years together.
Ted Zagar
I'm posting this for Mr. Zagar. He wrote me an email and said...
"Hard as I try, I cannot get beyond looking at the site. So here is what I wrote to the 3 students who made reference to me, a reply that went nowhere. Pass it on if you will. I much prefer sending group e-mailings to the willing anyway, as I can attach documents and photos."
Hoping we can resolve the technical problem, but until then...
his email is PanDeva@aol.com if any of you would like to contact him.
posted by Chris Colle '72 @ 8:23 PM
5 Comments:
Hellllllo Mr. Zagar (Ted)I think it is appropriate now to call you Ted.
Welcome aboard the BS train.
I think I can say from all of Class of 72 that we would be proud to be a part of your family.
All of the fond memories of you and on the positive side which is more then you can read about the nun's.
I do recall a few stern looks with those dark glasses of yours and some punishments but nothing we could call evil.
Conducting and interview:
As a teacher at BS and the nuns in control, how were you treated by them.
Did they approve of your music Choices in your class room?
Did you get the look if they didn't approve you your attire for the day?
Did they inspect your hair and make sure it was above the ears.
Viewers want to know....
Beth
Hi, Beth,
Life at this level (we were born during a great cycle of decay and destruction) is somehwat akin to walking through a dream that has dark outer edges. Some things are recalled, and others are increasingly dimmed by time.
Many of my moments at that point in my life--1971-72--require a stretch of memory mixed with imagination to recover. We are constantly flooded with new experiences, and that can push the memories of days gone by evermore to the corners of the mind.
When I was creating my high school class reunion in 2003, I only recalled my classmates as smiling, happy people. I must admit that with few exceptions, I remember the kids at Blessed Sacrament in the same light. I looked at the cheerleaders photo on this blog and somehow I remembered the names of all the girls, every one of them, which surprises me since I haven't seen most of you in 35 years. Alice is on the left and I can only remember her everpresent smile to match her large expressive eyes.
Some of you fill my memory as chatty and sociable, while others were quiet and more reserved. Some of you loved a prank, others were more "proper"--but not above laughing at the jokesters.
We were all cast by the culture and society of the times into an unnatural set of circumstances: uniforms, a young man being charged to oversee the indoctrination of 52 14-year olds, etc. Oh, were we born during more enlightened times, when we could have been outdoors more than inside, studying nature's beauty instead of talking about it as if it were a million miles away.
Some of the nuns were strict, but that was expected of them. I work in a middle school now--same age as when I had you guys and gals, and I must confess that self-discipline is lacking in far too many of today's youth--not to mention respect for age. I am not the object of student frustration myself--in fact, I am somewhat of an advocate for the individual, as I have always been, and I never see a "bad" kid so much as a square peg being forced by social norms to fit into a hole not his or her match. Kids come into my library and they know they can speak to me as an equal.
Some day the flesh on your arms and legs will fall from the bone. As time passes, you see new re-generations--counted in years, like tree rings--of children in your neighborhood, among your friends and family, etc. They, too, like blades of summer grass, will be cut down. Yet the life force remains and sustains and pushes against incredible odds to produce yet another round of living beings.
It is good that you are meeting with each other. Sometimes a backward glance refreshes the current frame of reference. You see where you were and what you were, and with whom you spent your now spent youth with. This allows you to evaluate your present state and look forward to where you are steering your vessel and in what waters and with whom and toward one goal.
Yet we all--no matter what course we take or who are mates are--heading back home. We must come to value the journey as well as prize and anticipate the destination. Life is a journey, surely, and to savor each day is to return its gift.
I don't know how the nuns--in general--felt about my musical tastes, my clothing, etc. Looking back and considering today's mass marketed music, I don't know how what I liked could be taken for anything but superior to the current offerings on the airwaves.
Culture and society have hardened. People are not as light-hearted as they were. We have leaders who tolerate torture and beating down foreigners for their labor and natural resources. This is not my America. It is another place.
But cycles are relentless and their will be a return to a better way, even if it is forced upon us when the folly of our ways come home to roost.
Look at the good of 1971-72. Yes, the nuns were strict--some extremely so--but consider the near collapse in self-discipline among some of today's youth. I live in the same house that I moved into as a 3-year old in 1950. For decades the neighborhood was peaceful. Now gangs are in the street and my house and two cars have been shot up in drive-bys, last summer 6 homes were set ablaze by arsonists (all within one block of my address), etc.
People have been hardened by the circumstances of their decaying culture. But the blades of fresh grass and new generations of souls to animate new flesh on new bone will come again, inevitably, like waves of the ocean pounding against the shore.
This should give every hope. That what can be will be. Aim high, shoot higher. You can't miss.
Ted Zagar
Thanks Ted (Mr. Zagar just trying the Ted thing out) for giving your inspiring words of wisdom.
And it doesn't surprise me that the students today relate to you as we did way back when.
I think that our class respected you because you were very honest with us.
When you mentioned seeing the pictures of fellow class mates Chris and I have experienced the same thing although we still look for the little kid faces when we approach someone for the first time.
Chris and I have been so involved in the reunion that we have to stop our selves from getting excited. We wonder if others feel the same way we do about seeing everyone.
We're hoping that our turn out will be big and everyone loves sharing the memories as much as we have by talking to everyone.
The laughter is still there with the class mates. I love the humor we are seeing in the blog.
Can't wait to see you at the Reunion and I know that the rest of class of 1972 is feeling the same way.
Love,Laughter, and Friendship,
Beth
WOW!
Mr. Zagar,
Good to hear from you after all these years!
You were the first male teacher I ever had...not to mention the only one who thought the Moody Blues were worthy of deep thoughts during class time. I have shared your teaching style with great fondness throughout the years... especially with my boys(who by the way thought I made up that story until they read others on this blog refering to our reflective moments with you in class!!)
Wow...34 yrs later and you still are making us think...deep thoughts...what music do you have your students reflect on these days?
oh by the way...thanks for some great memories!
toni(dauro)belko
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