Young adults, now elderly, recall club

Gene Cahalan picks up the gavel, holding it carefully and solidly.

On the table, the gavel is just wood and polish, a gift from the Catholic Young Adult League at the end of his year as president. It is scratched in a few places from years of use.

In Mr. Cahalan's hands, however, the gavel is alive with a half-century of memories: the crash and clatter of bowling pins...the taste of desserts crafted by a friend...40 names written on a card of congratulations he and his wife received for their wedding.

"Fifty years ago,..." he said, incredulously. "I can't believe it."

Five decades later

In the early 1950s, the Albany area experienced an influx of young talent. Attracted by job opportunities offered by Niagara Mohawk, General Electric and the State of New York, Catholic "twentysomethings" found the state capital an ideal place to advance their careers.

However, for young emigres such as Mr. Cahalan, life outside of the State Health Department, where he worked, was less than exemplary. Lacking a parish and a place to meet other young Catholics, he found himself "carpooling back to New York every weekend. I never stayed in Albany."

Margaret Mailloux, a former member of the League, noted: "Many of us didn't have a social life, and we didn't have any place to meet people of our own faith."

For youth

That changed in 1953, when Mr. Cahalan and two of his co-workers -- Mary Egan and Mary McInerney -- decided to do something about their situation. With an advisor, Rev. (later Msgr.) Joseph Conway, they embarked on creating the Catholic Young Adult League. It would change more than 150 lives.

By the time member Joan Weiner and her husband, Fred, moved out of Albany in 1959, the club had blossomed with social events, service projects, study groups and pilgrimages, presided over by an enthusiastic, intricate network of highly organized committees.

"We were very organized," said Mr. Cahalan. "That's why we were so successful. Everybody was challenged. When you walked in the room for the first time, you were greeted. You'd leave belonging to three committees."

Active Catholics

Life in the League was a balance among bolstering Catholic faith through religious activities, helping the community through volunteering, and taking part in social activities aimed at providing members with a chance to have a good time with people their own age.

For every Bible study group, communion breakfast or trip to a monastery, there was a bowling night, a dance at the Ten Eyck Hotel or a horseback ride.

Members refurbished Camp Scully, the diocesan summer youth camp in North Greenbush; threw parties and pageants for children at St. Catherine's Center in Albany and St. Colman's Home in Watervliet; and served as extra clerical support at the Chancery for big events, like the ordination of Bishop Edward Maginn. In 1956, they took the lead in helping a number of Hungarian refugees meet their sponsors and enter the country.

"There was so much going on," said Mrs. Weiner. "It was a really fun thing to belong to. Everyone was just friends, and it was wonderful."

Match game

Although it was never the League's purpose to function as a matchmaking service, quite a few young people found their spouses through the organization. "It was not a Lonely Hearts Club," insisted Mr. Cahalan. "There were too many activities. We were far too busy."

However, waiting for an event at St. Patrick's Church in Albany to begin, Vincent Mailloux struck up a conversation with Margaret Fitzgerald.

"I liked him," she recalled. "I thought he was nice. He came over and sat next to me. That's how we met. We shared a 'silent butler,' since we both smoked."

They are still happily married -- as are most of the couples that met through the League.

"We were a group that enjoyed doing things together," she said, "and we did all kinds of social work. I think that because we kept in touch with one another and our own faith, we did things that kept our faith uppermost in our minds. That's why we succeeded."

Good times

At their reunion, alumni of the Catholic Young Adult League will rekindle old friendships and retell old stories, like the time half of the group headed for a Communion breakfast got lost in Thatcher Park and the other half ended up with nothing but fruit and beer...or the hayride in Castleton, where they picked fresh corn from the fields, roasted hot dogs and sat around the fire singing for hours...or the botched folk-dancing lesson, where Leaguers showed up at the German-American Community Center expecting to be taught German dancing -- only to find out that the Community Center thought they were the entertainment for their annual banquet.

Fifty years later, wearing a sharp brown suit, gold tie and his son's Christian Brothers Academy class ring, Mr. Cahalan sits back in his chair, remembering.

"The League had class," he said, holding the gavel he got in 1954, when he ended his term as president of the group. "The League meant a lot to me. It was an amazing time. Don't ask me what happened to it. It was a product of the times. And times change, I guess."

(On Oct. 7, nearly 100 members of the original Catholic Young Adult League will celebrate their 50-year reunion with an 11 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Colonie. Reservations are closed for the luncheon that follows. For information, call Marge Mailloux, 233-7767.)

(9/25/03) [[In-content Ad]]