St. Helena's Carnival...April 27th-May 2nd

[Blbackack]

Yeah, and also kept a lot of people, with good intentions, FROM attending ($5 at the gate per person).

I'll never understand people.

[DEMOA]

Just bumping this before the weekend!

[Naomi]

TD Road Trip

we can do that

[Naomi]

Just bumping this before the weekend!

are you going to be there every night ?

[DEMOA]

Yuppers!

[Forum Junkie]

bringing back memories........I went to St. Helena's for grade school....I'll have to see if I can go that week. Should we ask all the staffers if they know a DEMOA????

[smoogles]

Yeah a carnival with alcohol..im in

ditto

[smoogles]

Well, from being there myself, every night, I can honestly say that I don't know of this violence. I know sometimes things spill out onto Philly Pike wayyyyyy late when we are done closing. And no, I never heard anything about a toddler being pushed under a horse last year. In fact, I'm trying to remember if we even had the mounted police LAST year. I know we did the year before.

could be SaintAnthonys. they have the horses. I haven't been their in many years, like I was pushing a stroller last time so what thats got to be 20 so years ago. It got to crowded and rough for me. But I would love to go just once again. I love carnavals.

[Joe Walther]

bringing back memories........I went to St. Helena's for grade school....I'll have to see if I can go that week. Should we ask all the staffers if they know a DEMOA????

When did you go there? Here's a bit of history.

The parish formed in 1938. The founding pastor was Father Edward Dougherty (pronounced Dockerty for the Irish) and the assistant pastor was Father Thomas Reece.

What they now call Dougherty Hall was THE church. Where the convent now sits was a small, wood frame white house. It was the rectory. Where the church and rectory now sit, was nothing but open field. The convent was located 4-blocks to the south on Philadelphia Pike. The nuns used to walk (In a column of 2's) to the school each school morning.

The school officially opened for classes beginning September 1949. It housed grades 1 through 6. It expanded through grade 8 in September 1952. The school was financed (both phases) through a grant from the John J. Rascob Foundation.

In fact, his foundation paid for the construction of every parish parochial school built in New Castle County prior to 1957.

There were no lay teachers. The Sisters of St. Joseph did the teaching and the stipend for nuns at that time was $15 a month. The pastor's salary was $4,000 a year. The assistant made $2,900 a year.

I have not checked since about 1990, but a nun's stipend had jumped all the way to $40 a month. It's probably all the way to about $80 a month now.


School tuition amounted to $5 a month/child. Parents placed it in the offering basket during Sunday mass. The honor system was in effect at that time because there were no "offering envelopes."

I graduated in June 1956. I went on to Salesianum where the tuition was a whopping $90 a year. The Wilmington Diocese paid the tuition for any boy who's parents could not afford it.

And, just for the record, the carnival has been held every year since 1951. I attended my first one (alone) in 1954. My mother gave me $2. That $2 got me on every ride, plus a hot dog, French fries, and a Coke.

Things were different then, not better, mind you, just simpler and different.

Regards,

Joe Walther

[DEMOA]

Should we ask all the staffers if they know a DEMOA????

ha! ha! you could ask...but if you ask for DEMOA..I'm sure you will get strange looks. I'm sure "Jill" will suffice. ha! ha!

[DEMOA]

Thank you for the history, Joe!

[Mark]

GL and the little GL's in training will probably not make it there until Wednesday at the earliest. Have a ball game tonight with the boy.