IBEW Local 1505 Fondly Remembered as host of Generations of Catholic Singers

St. Joe's parishioners reminisce
By Mark Benson / Tribune Correspondent
Monday, September 27, 2004

WALTHAM -- Past and present members of Waltham's St. Joseph parish reminisced about its unique traditions yesterday at a special farewell Mass and barbecue at the Main Street church.
They agreed with the Rev. Gerard Brennan that "in each of our hearts there will always be a special place for St. Joseph's."
According to Sophie Aucoin, a St. Joseph's parishioner for 80 years, her parish embraced all worshippers.
"We came from Canada, and my father took our family to St. Joseph's starting in 1924, when the church building was on Central Street. This has been my family's church ever since," said Aucoin, 94, who was saddened by the decision of the Archdiocese of Boston to close St. Joseph's, the place where she was married and her children baptized.
"As I child, I went to St. Joseph's, then I married an Irishman and we went to St. Mary's with the first three of our (10) children because everything was in French," recalled Estelle Frechette Delaney, 83.
Her oldest brother Francis became a priest and presided over her wedding Mass in 1948. "When they started to change to some English, we moved back here, and I've always stayed."
Efforts at St. Joseph's to reach out to new parishoners were evident during yesterday's Mass.
The Rev. Robert Bergeron, the former pastor, gave his homily in French. St. Joseph's cantor Christina Almeida led the parish choir and the Ugandan Martyr's Choir in a rendition of "Cantique de Marie."
Musical performance has always enjoyed a special place in St. Joseph's history.
In the 1950s, church members formed the Debonairres, talented song and dance performers who delighted crowds at annual church musicals staged at the IBEW Hall next door to St. Joseph's.
Students from the Ecole St. Marie, the former St. Joseph's parish school, also performed at the IBEW Hall.
"Every year we were at the Ecole St. Marie, we had school musicals and one year, (the late) Peggy McGlone taught us dance steps and we sang, 'Daisy, Daisy,'" recalled Priscilla Delaney-Scanio.
Her maternal grandfather, Charles Frechette, was one of St. Joseph's founders in 1894. "For that year, we hummed the song into an instrument made from taking a comb and covering it with wax paper. We were practical!"
A week prior to yesterday's event, teachers, nuns and alumni of Ecole St. Marie joined at St. Joseph's for one last time in their old church building. Peter Delaney looked back wistfully at that era.
"Sister Marguerite Aucoin was the principal, and, every Sunday there was a PTA meeting," Delaney said kiddingly. "You sat with your family's pew and if there were things from the previous week of school that had to be corrected, they would be discussed between your parents and the nuns. That way, things never got out of hand."
Delaney said St. Joseph's parish always took time to express its gratitude.
"I was an altar boy and, if there was a Mass during the school day, we were asked to be part of it. They gave us milk and a doughnut as a reward," Delaney recalled.
Yesterday's barbecue lunch was a similar expression of thanks.
"The inside story of this church is that the people of St. Joseph's believe their faith and live out their Catholicism," said the Rev. John Swencki, parish administrator, sipping a soda in the church basement.
"If someone in the community is sick, they respond. They believe what we profess in church and try to live it out," Swencki said.
Gus Chiasson was one of many parishioners whose sweat and funds help build the current church as well as Camp Jean Marie, a special summer camp on the shore of Blackmore Pond.
Camp Jean Marie opened in 1973 and was run by a trio of St. Joseph's priests - the Revs. Larry Martineau, Henry Gagnon and Robert Julien - for children ages 7 to 14 for four two-week overnight stays between June and August.
"Each day, we'd get up, clean the cabin, go to mess hall for breakfast, then take swimming lessons, boating lessons, archery and arts and crafts until lunch," recalled Don LeBlanc, whose spouse, Aimee LeBlanc, has also been a member of St. Joseph's since childhood. "After lunch we had a free swim then four o'clock Mass, dinner and an evening activity."
LeBlanc commended Jean Hache for reviving the musicals at St. Joseph's in recent years, noting that her 1994 production of "Making Memories" was a highlight in the 100th anniversary celebration for St. Joseph's organized by Brennan.
"This church is so much a part of our lives, who we are and what we do," said LeBlanc, at the barbecue, proud that her uncle Albert Aucoin, the first Deacon in the archdiocese, said the final words from the altar at St. Joseph's yesterday, "let us go in peace."