Monday, May 25, 2009

Newman club

The Newman club. A great organization. I was a member of the Newman club while I attended the University of Miami. I still have my pin which bears a portion of the coat of arms of Cardinal Newman.



And the small pin which is an N is a backup safety in case the main pin became unattached the small pin with the chain would keep me from losing the main pin. Of course the N stood for Newman. The picture below is the members of the Newman club. Can you spot Lew in the picture? Look closely.

Here is a close-up which will be of a little help.

The picture is from the University of Miami yearbook. It was taken on a large patio of the university library. It was a very large library with floor after floor of books. The Newman club is a Catholic youth organization on campus. We were based at the St. Thomas Aquinas Center which had a large church as well as a large social hall, a lounge with super soft and super plush chairs which were so comfortable to sit in and sometimes fall asleep in. But my favorite place was the library. The library was a small one as compared to the university library. You might get at most about 15 people in the library at one time. The library had two large long tables which filled the room and the book cases were along the walls. The students use to sit at the tables and study. The primary purpose of the library was a place for the students to study. Although there were a number of students in the library, it was always quiet. It also had the advantage of being across the street from the athletic field where the Air Force and Army ROTC units would practice their marching drills once a week. The tennis courts were there also. It was just in a very convenient location. The church of the St. Thomas Aquinas Center had a very high ceiling but was otherwise of modern design and not of the gothic architecture of Notre Dame which I like so much in a church. There was a young man who worked full time for the Center. He was a sort of handyman, custodian, a little bit of everything. He was about the same age as the students and so we got along real well with him. One day he came to me with a worried look on his face. He asked if I could do him a favor. I asked him what favor he wanted. He told me that one of the light bulbs had burned out in the high ceiling of the church (and I do mean high). He had a very tall step ladder that reached to the ceiling but being so tall it would move a lot as anyone climbed it. He said that he had an absolute terrible fear of heights and if I would change the light bulb for him. I agreed and climbed the ladder and as I did I knew why he was afraid to climb it. The shakiness of the ladder was quite unnerving. But I changed the light bulb and he was grateful and thanked me. After that he was always really friendly with me, probably in case another light bulb should burn out in the ceiling. The University of Miami were my glory days and I had a wonderful time there. Let us all have a wonderful day today. Lew

1 comment:

seaside said...

Libraries are fun. I remember going out to University of Central Florida and spending the day at the library while my dad worked. The UCF library has three floors and I rode the elevator to see what they were like. The third was kind of my favorite because it was a music library. There were fancy singing songs for soloist or choirs with a wide range of notes. Mom is getting the ribs ready for cooking hopefully on the grill. I hope you and Mary have some good eating today. Thanks for sharing your treasured pin and your college pictures.