12th Grade

And I hit the beginning of my senior year in high school running. Tan from having been a lifeguard during the summer, and well-fed from having worked at the Posada Mendendez Restaurant as a busboy on summer evenings, I was quickly assigned the job of high school yearbook photographer. When my classmate, Thomas (we called him Tom but I learned years later he didn't like that), noted my little, beat-up 35mm camera, he offered to have his dad, a professional photographer, help me out. And help me out, Mr. Jackson did! He loaned me a much better camera, and allowed me access to his garage darkroom, where he taught me to develop film and make prints of negatives. And that made the photos on this page (and, indeed, pretty much every photo and image on this site) possible.

My first assignment, and admittedly also practice to get used to the new camera, was to get some photos of the campus itself. I would be documenting my senior year pretty thoroughly—not only for the yearbook, but for myself as well. (And now, dear reader, for you!)

In pride of place in the middle of the main lawn, is a statue of an angel and a child. When asking online, I was at first told the angel is St. Michael, although in Christian iconography, St. Michael is usually shown in battle armor, not a soft robe and not with a child. Still, he is supposed to be God's Protector so I guess it isn't too far a stretch to say he's protecting the kid he has taken, so to speak, under his wings.

However, the statue is a quintessential Guardian Angel; the child is the angel's charge. In fact, our high school yearbook—the one I was taking these photos for—was named The Guardian.

I always found the grounds of St. Joe to be peaceful and pleasant, and I'm sure the statuary, cleverly placed for maximum appeal, provided a large part of that.

In the corner of that same expanse is a statuary tableux representing the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima. In 1917, three shepherd children, Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, reported visions of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal. The apparitions occurred on the 13th day of each month from May to October 1917. During these visits, the Blessed Mother, referred to as Our Lady of Fátima, is said to have revealed to the children three secrets, now known as the Three Secrets of Fátima. These events have since become one of the most significant Marian apparitions in the Catholic Church.

And she looks nice among the azaleas when they bloom.

Spoiler alert: Years later, my first novel, The Lady From Heaven, presented the Marian apparitions as actually being visitations from a humanoid alien for mysterious purposes not necessarily for the benefit of mankind.

In any case, Mary was well-represented, even gracing the retired nuns' garden with her alabaster presence.

You know what's odd, though, that I didn't see? Any statues of St. Joseph. You know, Mary's husband, after whom the school was named. We students never went into the nun's convent space; maybe they had one there.

They did let me up on the roof, because pictures, and wow! What a view from there. Of course, St. Augustine had never been known for high buildings; our skyscraper, the Exchange Bank building, was only six floors.

This also gave me a gorgeous, end-of-day shot of the tennis court across the street. Also part of the campus, the tennis courts were used by the nuns and by the boarding students. So, not me.

But I didn't care. I didn't have to play tennis. I was the photographer! This would be my year!