Since everyone seems to be sharing all sorts of warm reminiscences about their favorite Notre Dame moments, I’ve decided to weigh-in with my favorite memories from the first five decades.
Favorite Memories of the 1840s
Not dying of Typhus on the ship crossing the Atlantic
Winning 524 acres of Northern Indiana tundra in an all-night Baccarat game with the Bishop
Being utterly enchanted by the quaint beauty of South Bend – this was a very brief experience
Redecorating the Log Chapel in a fetching ‘Louis Catorce meets Sitting Bull’ style
Not falling through the ice and drowning in the frozen lake I didn’t know was there (thanks for the warning, Badin)
Saving the souls of Midwestern lads from the depredations of the Jesuits
Favorite Memories of the 1850s
Not dying of Yellow Fever from mosquitoes that would pass for house finches in France
Bamboozling the United States Postmaster General into thinking Notre Dame, Indiana, was an actual town
Turning a profit for the first time…on the farm, not from tuition
Begging the BVM to relocate from Lourdes to Indiana
Favorite Memories of the 1860s
Indoor flush toilets
Opening the College of Science to pay for the Arts and Letters money-pit
Playing “loser goes to the Civil War” billiards with Bill Corby – and winning
Starting a law school so I could sue the bastard stealing water from my lakes
THE BEARD beginning to fill out
Favorite Memories of the 1870s
The Main Building burning to the ground (can you say “overinsured”)
Kidnapping an Italian painter and keeping him until he frescoed everything down to the ceiling of my bathroom
Felling large trees across the road to St. Mary’s to keep the lads from the occasion of sin
Trading a couple of Irish Brothers in exchange for a large amount of gold leaf (What? The Brothers were excited about the idea of working for the Sultan, and I needed the gold because “The Nickel Dome” just doesn’t sell.)
Favorite Memories of the 1880s
Electric lights
Setting Al Zahm’s broken leg with a Jerusalem Bible and a 2-by-4 after he “proved” human flight was possible
Opening a palace called Sorin Hall – that’s right, I said palace, because those rooms are luxuriously large for you lads and the stench is your own fault
Discovering a little game called football
EFS CSC
Son, in 199 years of religious study, I have only come up with two hard, incontrovertible facts: There is a God, and I'm pretty tight with Him.
Now I’m going to tell you a whole lot of things I’ve kept to myself for years. None of you ever knew me. I was along before your time, but you all know what a tradition I am at Notre Dame. And one of the most important things I ever said was, “Friends, sometime when my University is up against it and the breaks are beating the students, tell them to go out there with all they’ve got and win at everything for Padre. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be then, friends,” I said, “but I’ll be looking right over your shoulder.”
- Good Fridays w/Padre: WORTHY! - November 30, 2018
- Good Fridays w/Padre: The Horror - October 26, 2018
- Good Fridays w/Padre: BALLS! - September 7, 2018
The hardest part of reading your posts is my 2 and 4 year old asking me what I’m laughing at and me not even trying to explain. They wouldn’t get it even if I tried.
Well, then that’s just one more reason to send them to the University when they come of age (as though you needed another).