In those days, the men were ordained but then had to return to the seminary for a few more months to finish their education before being assigned. In that interim they could say
Mass but could not hear confessions. As he lay prostrate on the floor of the Cathedral
during his ordination ceremony, Msgr. Leo recalled that when he was about four years
old his father told his older brother "Bud" that when he became a priest he would buy
him his first chalice. Little Leo told his father that it was not Bud but he who would
eventually become the priest. His father told him it would be a cold day before he would
be ordained. The 21st of February turned out to be quite bitter and stormy and many
people didn't even make it to the ordination due to the weather. It was indeed a cold day
just as his father had predicted!

During the summers between the years of school in the Minor and Major
Seminary, Msgr. Leo worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant, did various
neighborhood jobs such as cutting lawns and bringing wood to stores earning
one cent for each piece he delivered. He worked at a lumber mill and did dry
walling and roofing. It was even more backbreaking work in those days
because they didn't have the equipment that exists today.