One of our substitute teachers at Eastern Lebanon County High School (Elco) back in the 1960s was Reverend Gross. As I recall he subbed for English teachers a few times, just a day or two here and there, not for any extended periods, so we never really got to know him or his teaching abilities, but he seemed to be a pleasant, gentle person, large of frame and bald on top.

I’ve tried searching for him, but not knowing his full name makes it difficult. There was a Reverend Lawrence Gross who was pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish back in those days, but for reasons that will become clear, I don’t think that was him.

Anyway, I went off to Penn State and my second year there, I moved to Mifflin Hall.

As I’ve written previously my high school classmates Steve Sattazahn and Allen Maurer were there, living on the fifth floor, and after the fall term, I moved to the fifth floor as well.

We’d often go down to the ground floor, which was the recreation room, to play cards, mainly pinochle or hearts, usually with Ray or Irv, and of course, we’d get to see other fellows who lived on some of the lower floors there, one of whom was named Phil.

Phil was tallish with blond hair and a slightly hooked nose, and we saw him often and chatted with him from time to time.

I was still in my piano phase in those days, so I’d often be down at the piano on the ground floor trying (somewhat in vain) to retain my fading piano skills (never that great to begin with). It may have been on one of those piano playing exercises on a weekend afternoon that I saw Phil with a very familiar figure. It was Reverend Gross, our occasional substitute teacher.

When Steve and Allen got back to the dorm (they always went home every weekend, Steve always taking his dirty laundry with him for his mom to wash for him—if I had been his mother I would have had some words for him, but never mind), anyway, when Steve and Allen got back, I mentioned to them that I had seen Reverend Gross with Phil.

So the next time we saw Phil, we asked him about it. As it turned out, the good Reverend Gross was Phil’s father.

Small world, isn’t it?

(I’m just wondering now if perhaps we misunderstood Phil and what he actually meant was that Reverend Gross was his Father. Hmmm…)

(If Reverend Gross was doing substitute teaching, he wouldn’t have had time to be a full time pastor. He must have been a retired pastor, I assume. Or a partially retired one, I guess.)