Saturday, November 20, 2021
I went to Gesu and U of D High with Bill and Joe. Am so sorry to hear of Bill's sudden death. I don't know if Bill's family and children know this story about Bill but he was one of a trio in the big "Chicken Episode" at U of D High during our senior year..
We had a priest in training that ran study hour in the library and many of the boys would mess with him by making barnyard sounds during study hour.....mooing, braying, clucking, baaing, those types of things. The priest in training would try so hard to catch the offenders but never could. Well, late in the school year, Bill and Joe and I "hatched" a plan (I don't remember exactly who's idea it was) to throw some live chickens into the library during study hour! We bought four live chickens at a butcher shop on Livernois in the city of Detroit and brought them to the school.
The plan was that one of the Moynihan boys (I can't remember which) would wait in the library by the fire escape door and crack it open at the anointed time. The other Moynihan twin and I would be waiting on the fire escape and then throw the chickens into the library. The only problem was that while the one Moynihan boy and I were waiting for the door to open a retired priest, Father Foley, came along on his daily walk and stumbled onto us.
Father Foley; "What are you boys doing?"
Us; "Nothing Father."
Chickens; "Scratch, scratch, scratch" inside the cardboard box.
Father Foley; "What's going on here boys?"
Us; "Nothing Father."
Father Foley, after a long suspicious look, "No one is going to get hurt, are they?"
Us; "No Father."
Father Foley; "Well OK then, as long as no one is going to get hurt you boys have fun."
Us; "Thank you Father."
When the door opened we threw the chickens into the library and as they went flapping and flying and clucking on their way into the library we made our escape, running around the school to the front door just in time to see half the school racing up the stairs to see what turned out to be a huge commotion.....as you can imagine four live chickens would cause in an all boys school!!!
Unbeknownst to us, the 80-some-year-old librarian had grown up on a farm in the old country and after a ring a ring of boys had formed around the chickens like in a school yard fight, she marched in, grabbed two chickens by the feet with one hand and then the other two with her other hand and came down the the stairs carrying all four chickens clucking and flapping like crazy to the cheers, and as you can imagine, laughter of a good hundred U of D Cubbies!!!
To say that Bill and Joe and I were laughing ourselves would have been putting it mildly!
In any case, we all kept our mouths shut, including Father Foley, and despite the best detective efforts of the school disciplinarian, Mr. Gulock, to determine the chicken throwing culprits.....we never got caught!
Weeks later, however, during our Senior Breakfast, Bill, Joe, and I, during Senior Awards, were given "The Colonel Saunders King Chicken Award"! Enough time had passed though that rather than any disciplinary action being taken all that ended up happening to us was a few dirty looks followed by a number of head shakes, eye rolls, and then smiles from those in authority.
So, Moynihan children, now you know the truth about your father.
Rest in peace Bill. Thanks for a memory and story that I have told no less than a hundred times over the years. By the way Bill, say hello to Colonel Saunders for me when you see him up in heaven!
Timothy G. Mack
U of D High, Class of '74
tgsm56@yahoo.com
