(Editor’s note: Kevin Child’s grew up in Highland Falls and has not only a fantastic memory but also the gift of great story-telling. He entertains us this week with a story of the Sacred Heart Church Lawn Fetes of decades ago. MJP)
Perhaps a few more remembrances of 1940’s and 1950’s Highland Falls will ease the angst and loneliness that must be part of many lives during these times.
A small, but beautiful school was part of our village during those times. Though separate, they shared the name “Ladycliff”; one an Academy and one a College. A number of the resident Franciscan nuns at Ladycliff were also teachers at the Sacred Heart parochial school, located directly across Main Street, right next to Sacred Heart Church. Our town was certainly an educational haven during those times, and the diverse nature of the area’s curriculum could have been called War and Peace.
Sacred Heart Church had an annual event properly called “The Sacred Heart Lawn Fete”; held each year on the expansive front lawn of Ladycliff, facing the village Main Street. It was a carnival of sorts, with twenty, or so, tents featuring games of chance as well as pie and cake tasting and other displays of local talents. There was usually at least one ride (perhaps a pony), so the local kids had some way of expending their pent-up energy. In the 1950’s when I was in my teen years, and since I was a member of the Columbian Squires, I joined other members who helped the Knights of Columbus transfer some of the event prizes from their building across the street to the Lawn Fete.
Let’s jump backwards a bit, to the 1940’s, and an earlier “Fete”. I must have been about four or so, and the other person involved would have been about three. Kids of this age range often remember little, as they are pushed this way and that way by parents and relatives; somehow surviving and often thriving. An annual event at the Lawn Fete was something called “The Baby Parade”, where the smallest children were dressed up in their finest, and paraded in what amounted to a toddler fashion show. This Lawn Fete was probably in 1947, which would make me three years old and my “mate” two years old. I call her my “mate” because we were dressed as a miniature “Man and Wife”. We did win, and I remember that my “wife”, Nancy Ellen Maher, won a doll, which was almost her height; and I won green chicken, almost my height. Such were the innocent times just a few years after the conclusion of the second world war.
Sadly, the Church can not longer hold their Lawn Fete’s at Ladycliff, as West Point has Paved Paradise, and put up a parking lot. (The 1970’s crowd will get that reference.)
That’s it for now. The world will return to normal, and remember; if you have to have your own Lawn Fete, make sure that everyone maintains a six-foot separation … even while dancing.
— KC
