ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

I went to kindergarten at Norwood View School, the public school on the street where I lived. The only remarkable thing I remember about it is that a little girl who live directly across the street from me, whom I never played with, would grab my hand and bend my fingers back and make me cry. It was a traumatic indoctrination to school.

I went to Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School for grades 1 thru 8. The school had two first grade classes and one each of the others. All the teachers and the principal were nuns except for the third grade teacher. She was a twenty-something young lady named Maryanne Igle (not sure of the spelling) who we all thought was hot. I guess that, compared to nuns in full habit, anyone would look hot. All of the nuns lived in the convent at Regina High School nearby. One of the younger nuns would let a small strand of hair fall out of the hood of her habit. I think she did it just to dispel the rumor that the nuns had no hair at all.

The school was close enough that I could walk. In fact, everyone walked - there was no bus service. There was a lunch room but no hot lunches were served. You could pack a sandwich and buy milk (no soft drinks were available). I walked home for lunch almost every day. My mom would have something waiting for me. Almost all of the mothers with kids in the school were stay-at-home housewives. No one in our neighborhood had two cars - some didn't have one.

I was running for class president in the eighth grade and we were to give speeches right after lunch one day in December. We had a heavy wet snow this morning. I had to wear my rubber six buckle boots to walk back and forth to school. It was the first time I wore the boots since the previous winter. They were awful tight. The whole school was collected in the auditorium and those to give speeches were back stage. I tried and tried but I couldn't get off one of the boots. No one would help me or I maybe I was too embarrassed to ask. Anyway, I went on stage with one shoe and one boot. I made a joke of it. The kids loved it and I won the election. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.