| |
Picture Credits:
"I have had playmates, I have had companions;
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school days;
All; all are gone, the old familiar faces."
-Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834)
-From "The Old Familiar Faces" (1798)
Where are all my classmates? I search wistfully through my memories to the days of my youth, my grammar school days. I remember my many friends. I remember their names; their faces. We played together, fought together, talked, laughed and cried together. I thought these many friendships would last forever. But no, they remain just memories.
If I had to select a certain year, or a particular day from my elementary school days, I would have to start with my very first day at school. I attended the Roman Catholic School on Washington Avenue, between 183rd and 184th streets in the Bronx, from 1952 through my graduation in 1960. I was barely five years old when my mother brought me to meet my first grade teacher Sister Florence. I was scared stiff! I had never been away from home before, not even to kindergarten, so I wasn't at all prepared for such a radical change in my daily routine.
The morning went without incident. Toward lunchtime, however, the class broke for recess. Sister announced, "We're going to recess now," and everyone seemed to know what it meant and what to do. There were perhaps twenty-four boys and maybe twenty-two girls in that first grade class. We all lined up in the hallway and marched down the corridor. I hadn't a clue as to what recess was or where we were heading. As we walked down the hallway I began to panic. Next thing I knew I had bolted down the stairs out to the street and home as fast as my legs could carry me. I didn't have far to run since our apartment was around the corner.
My mother, shocked, cried, "What are you doing home?" I replied frantically, "I don't want to go to the hospital!" Yes, that's what the word recess meant to me. Perhaps it was related to the fact that just a few months earlier I had gone to the hospital to have my tonsils removed. While I was there I tried to make a run for it. I was hog-tied by one of the nurses with a harness and strapped in a crib. Many children in the 1950's had their tonsils removed unnecessarily. It was a traumatic experience to say the least. Subsequently, my mother dragged me back to school where I still wasn't convinced it was a safe place to be.
Sister Florence took me in hand and tried her best to reassure me that everything was fine. Eventually, like everyone else in class, I fell right into the daily routine. I received my dog tags and scapular, got the proper inoculations and health exam. Uniforms were required in all parochial schools in the city. The boys wore a white shirt with navy woolen pants and maroon tie with the monogram SOS (School of Our Savior). We jokingly thought it meant 'Save Our Souls.' The girls wore a white blouse, maroon vest with bow tie and a knee-length skirt of the same color. The younger grades wore maroon knee-high socks, while the higher grades wore sheer stockings and penny loafers. The attire was very proper, very traditional.
Each morning on my way to school I dropped in to meet Richard A. who lived on the floor below me in my apartment building. We walked a short distance up the block, around the corner to mingle with our other classmates on the sidewalk outside the main school building. We'd chat, play games, and generally horse around until the nuns summoned us to get ready for class. We would then assemble by grade in neat rows, lined up by height; the girls in one line, the boys in another. Vinny T. was the shortest and naturally in the front of the line, I was somewhere in the middle. Annette H. and Patricia L. brought up the rear of the girls line. They towered over everyone. The nuns, dressed in their black habits, would stand in front of the groups ready to lead us into the building. Once the bell rang, off we marched, not a peep out of any of us. This was the customary procedure throughout my eight years at Our Savior.
_______________________
The photo above is the Church and Rectory of Our Savior as it was about ten years ago. It hasn't changed a bit in over sixty years. This shot is look south down Washington Avenue toward 183rd Street. The classes assembled right in front of the building and marched into the huge double door entranceway. There was a garden in the foreground (with a full size marble statue of Jesus with outstretched arms). The garden is now a parking lot.
Next Chapter: Inside the Classroom.
____________________________________________
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Book
|
|
Welcome !
