August 30, 1956, a number of monks were busy carrying lockers up to the second floor, beds to the dorm area and desks to the classrooms. Only three days later, 175 students would take up residence in the new school, St. John’s Seminary. The day to receive the students finally arrived. We had enough beds, desks, books and eight monks eagerly waiting to begin classes. We were also graced when Archbishop Gerald Bergan had the opening Mass. We were all set for school, but one thing was still missing: a gym. We had run out of money and could not even think of building a gym. To raise money we began the Fall Festival, and it has since been a yearly event.
     The seniors lived on the first floor of the south wing while the monks lived on the top floor of the south wing. The remaining student dorms were on the top floor of the north wing. Some of the students slept in the east section of the north wing, which is now the freshman dorm. The rest slept in the area, which is now the library. The school library was in an area of the west wing, which was converted to private rooms about 25 years ago, currently the senior floor.
     If you were assigned to serve the private Masses that particular week, the day began at 5 a.m. At the same time, the rest of the student body would rise and would be in the chapel at 6 a.m. for the community Mass. After Mass, everyone had breakfast and then did their work assignments. Each student was assigned some work to do: washing dishes, emptying waste baskets, cleaning the floors of the hallways and classrooms, etc. Classes began at 8:00 and ended at 3:15. The evening meal was at 5:30 and study hall was from 7:30 to 9:00 followed by lights out at 9:30 p.m.
     The refectories (dining rooms) for the students were in the current dining room, but with the number of students we had, we needed another room so we used the room now being used for the monks and faculty. The monks’ refectory was in the room we call the mail room. During the noon and evening meals, one student was assigned to read to the students. The books would vary but usually would be a biography of some important person: saint, president, war hero, theologian and the like.
     St. John ‘s was a seven-day boarding school. One Sunday each month was visiting day for parents, relatives and friends. We had school six days a week. On Wednesday and Saturday, we had half-day classes. Thanksgiving vacation was from Wednesday to Sunday; Christmas vacation was usually about 14 days and Easter vacation three days.
With no gym, we had difficulty finding an area for sports. The school was surrounded by corn/sorghum fields. It was so close that one could open the window and reach out and pick an ear of corn. A slight exaggeration, but the fields were close to the building.
     The only area for sports was an area where the corral is now located. We could play softball there. Because of the lack of space, we had very little intramural activities, but we did have calisthenics which were held in the crypt or when not too cold outside in the area east of the school building. When harvest came and the last ear of corn was picked, we were then able to begin playing touch football and then soccer. That day I think the faculty and staff sang a number of alleluias, for most of the students would be out of the building for several hours.