We got back on the buses and rode to Throop and waited for Michael Metrinko’s motorcade to pass as it headed into Olyphant. We were was inserted into the parade, and played patriotic songs as we marched down South Valley Avenue and then Lackawanna Avenue on our way to Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church in downtown Olyphant.
When we arrived, we saw helicopters from television stations flying overhead. There was WNEP, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Skycam 16, as well as the Philadelphia stations: KYW Channel 3, WPVI Channel 6, and WCAU Channel 10.
Outside the church, Monsignor Stephen Hrynuck led the crowd in prayer. Almost a year earlier, Monsignor had Michael Metrinko’s parents, Harry and Alice Metrinko light a special candle. That afternoon, Michael Metrinko was back in his hometown to extinguished the candle.
Recently Michael Metrinko and I began to occasionally exchange electronic correspondence. In December of 2019, he sent me a package. He enclosed a two-page letter. The first paragraph:
As I continue to downsize my collection of memorabilia and art works, I think that you are the ideal person to receive the items I have enclosed as a gift. Your book “The Old School” was really wonderful and meant a lot to me because of the impact that building had on my young life.
One of the items was a school bell with a wooden handle dating back to the 1800s. It was used to summon the students to class. It was given to Michael Metrinko’s Aunt Mitzi. She took it with her to college in Springfield, MA. She then kept if in her home in Massachusetts, until the 1980s when she gave it to her nephew, Michael. He took it with him during his State Department service in Poland and Israel. He later had it with him in Virginia. He last “officially” rang this bell about two years ago to quiet down a group of about forty US Military and State Department guests who were at his home for dinner. He passed this bell on to me as its “next custodian.”
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