second grade..
second grade..
Second grade had me going to Catholic school. The school was a couple miles away (but less than 3, I am nearly sure) My teacher’s name was Sister Rita Stein and she was the coolest nun I ever met. Her class was very nurturing for me, I have little but good memories about that year. Sister Rita was a bit progressive for a nun in that she didn’t wear the whole “habit” thing. I think she sometimes wore the headgear, memory fades, but she definitely didn’t wear the black smock etc like you see in movies like Blues Brothers (not to worry, there were such nuns: my third grade teacher was such a being)
in catholic school we had to go to church once a week as a class. I don’t know how many masses the priest did, but it’s not like the whole school went to them (at least not all the time). Catholic mass never included any wine in my experience, but in these masses the priest had both the usual pressed hosts that i’m sure you’re familiar with, but he also had a bread that was dark brown and resembled a big ginger cookie. He broke that into many pieces, but only the girls (who sat on the stage left side of the altar) got that bread. I always felt cheated, and i remember once for some reason i managed to get to sit on the “girls’” side of the church to get the “special” host.
between 2nd and 3rd grade I had my brush with organized sports. There was a parish baseball league that my folks signed me up for. My team was caled the Athletics, like the Oakland team, and we weren’t that good. In particular, I sucked so bad they put me in right field and the highlght of my season was i hit a double once, but really most of the time i was praying for a walk. Ok, so maybe i wasn’t “praying” for it.
One other thing I remember about this school: they had these “fluoride” treatments that were supposed to make your teeth stronger. I dont remember exactly how it worked other than I had to sit there in the room near the office with these cotton things in my mouth. I don’t remember how they applied the fluoride, but apparently it had to dry completely, thus the cotton compresses.