From the Photo Archive | 1979
By Paul Lundgren on Apr 16, 2009 in History, Photos
Thirty years ago, Bud James was one of the custodians at Laura MacArthur Elementary School. All the kids loved him.
Because I was so young then, my memory of Mr. James is fuzzy. What I do remember is that he used to sing all the time, whether it was at assemblies or just randomly in the halls while cleaning up puke. I don’t remember if he was good at singing, or if he was just a ham, but it was great either way.
Every kid should grow up with a singing janitor. Thank you, Mr. James.
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Golly, I wish we had Mr. James. At Harrison Elementary School in Omaha, we had Mr. Galardi. He wasn’t really a singing janitor as much as a tyrannical menace janitor. Once, he was wheeling a big garbage can down the hall past a line of students, and one of my friends leaned over a little to look in the garbage can. Mr. Galardi put him in a headlock and pushed his head farther down in the can and said something like “whad’you lookin’ at? Wanna get a closer look?”
Mr. Galardi was about 4 and a half feet tall, and had arms about 4 and a half feet around. Everybody was scared of him. I’m pretty sure that’s how Mr. Galardi wanted it.
BUD JAMES!!!!!!! I ABSOLUTELY remember him, very fondly indeed! What a total gem of a man – I remember him singing some lovely Christmas carol in the auditorium on some Super Friday before the holidays. ( a couple years prior to principle.. Vomachka was it?? ) He ended up marrying a widow neighbor of my parents after he retired, and was a sweet friendly man until the day he died. I loved that he eventually moved right across the street from where I grew up!
Jon Vomachka was a principal at Morgan Park Junior High. I don’t believe he ever worked at MacArthur.
Bob Hollingsworth was principal at MacArthur for many years. That’s probably who you are thinking of, Dizastress.
A number of the maintenance guys at St. Olaf College in the ’70s were named Bud, and so all of them were known collectively as the Budmen. What is it with this “Bud” thing and janitors?
Oh, Paul! I remember that he used to make a huge production by “accidentally” dropping those big metal trays on the cafeteria/gym floor. Oh what a great photo! Totally made my day!