Walking past Room 607, Merritt Hemenway slowed his gait and narrowed his brows. Something about this seemingly mundane spot had diverted his attention.
He paused. It was morning at Bishop Amat Memorial High School near La Puente, where Hemenway is the principal.
For just a moment, he was a high school senior again. It was Nov. 22, 1963, and he was in third-period physics. Msgr. Thomas Kiefer, the school's founding principal, had just gone on the classroom intercom to announce that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Soon everyone could hear the student body president's voice, leading the school in the rosary.
Just as quickly, Hemenway snapped back to the present.
"Ah, it brings back memories," he said.
This sort of time travel happens frequently at Bishop Amat, where nearly one third of the staff -- 23 of the 80 teachers and administrators -- are alumni.
Dave Caro, the band director, sees his younger, slimmer self playing the piano in student theatrical productions.
When dean of juniors and performance groups moderator Sue Marquez admonishes girls for dress code violations, she remembers being upbraided herself for wearing a too-short skirt.
At football games, business teacher Tim Murphy's body is in the stands, but his mind sometimes dashes onto the field, back in the uniform of the Bishop Amat Lancers.
English teacher Emily Jones, walking down the hall, feels a little zing of nostalgia when she looks up to see that she is standing in front of her old locker.
This is a place where, at any given moment of any given day, someone, somewhere on campus is experiencing deja vu.
"I figure someday I'll graduate," said Murphy, who did, in fact, graduate in the class of 1976, "but I'm in no hurry for it."
At Bishop Amat, they seem to take the opening lines of the school song seriously:
Hail Amat High School
We'll remember you,
Dear alma mater
We're steadfast, loyal and true.
Bishop Amat isn't unique. Many public and private high schools and quite a few elementary and middle schools have teachers or administrators who are also alumni.
It's almost a natural progression in small communities, where there may not be many choices for would-be teachers. Even in large metropolitan areas, where teachers could wind up at any of hundreds of schools, it's common for them to drift back to the places they know best.
