The Girls Go to Catholic School

Shoes polished, lunch boxes packed with bologna sandwiches and electrified with anticipation for the first day at Catholic School the girls posed with little sister Julie for a picture before the big yellow bus lumbered down Clinton Ave. and swallowed them into a sea of unfamiliar faces.  There was comfort for Betty in not being alone,  Bonnie, however, was in her element and charmed first the bus driver, then the boy across the isle.   

More than half of the bus occupants were let off at Eddy Elementary, just a block away from St. Mary's Catholic School.  The twins went there for kindergarten, separated into the two classrooms.  That now seemed worlds away as the girls stepped off the bus and entered the inner sanctum of Catholic education.  Past the flagpole, up the concrete stairs and through the double doors the girls ascended.  The brown linoleum gleamed and their nostrils filled with the smell of floor wax and pine cleaner.  We were met by, Sister Lorenzo.  It could not be called a greeting.  What was remarkable, was her size.  She was just a little taller than the tallest boys in the class.  She had thick coke bottle glasses that made her eyes look extra big and buggy.  She rarely smiled,  this was serious business.  Despite her diminutive size, fear quickened our pulses.   Under the habit, gleaming white with a black veil that covered every bit of flesh, except her hands and face, beat a heart dedicated to the tutelage of these impressionable minds and soul.  When her hands weren't pointing to admonish, or instruct, they were either hidden under the long white scapular* or fingering the over sized rosary draped from the black belt circling her waste. 

  Maybe I should call it Comic Faith.  Catholic Schools across the country gave rise to many comedians.  I would like to share some of the more amusing stories gathered from our eight years with the Sisters of St. Dominic or when I tell stories, "the Sisters of Show no Mercy."   See the nun in THE BLUES BROTHERS if you are unfamiliar with the old fashioned nun.  It can be found on youtube.

*Scapular:   A symbol of affiliation to an ecclesiastical** order, consisting of two strips of cloth hanging down the breast and back to the hem at the ankles and joined at the shoulders.

**Ecclesiastical:  Pertaining to the Christian Church or its Clergy.