First, as a few of my classmates prepare to celebrate the 55th anniversary of our graduation, I've encouraged them to come to our reunion with special recollections of our time together. I have so many memories that I've decided to write them down and share them via email and Facebook for them.
Secondly, I've never shared much about my schooling with either of my daughters or my grandsons. I hope this may become a part of a family lore, and may surprise them as their schooling was very different from mine.
Everything that follows should begin with, "The way I remember is...".
I entered elementary school sometime in September of 1953. The school was Blessed Sacrament School. It was attached and under the supervision of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Binghamton, a working class neighborhood, at the time, in Memphis, Tennessee. My teacher was Sister Mary Gemma, a relatively young member of the Sisters of Mercy. She wore an old fashioned habit like this.
By coincidence, Sister Gemma passed away recently as one of my classmates noted in an email that circulated among us.
What was first grade like? School began with 8:00 am Mass every day. We had the three R's of course. But we were taught a fourth R--Religion. In Catholic schools at the time, religion classes were taught every day.
Religion class involved a text called the Baltimore Catechism. A catechism is not unique to the Catholic Church. Other denominations have their own. Our early years involved a stripped down version. A catechism is a series of questions and answers that involve what you believe as Catholics.
For example, "Who made you?" "God made me."
Every day, our religion assignment was to memorize a number of these questions and answers. I do not remember what the stripped down version for first graders of "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was. Something about impure thoughts (whatever those were).
I could memorize easily, so I could fire these answers back. I was so proud.
One day, Sister Gemma called me to the front of the room. Russell Caccamisi stood there with her. "Russell tells me you two were talking in church this morning. Were you?"
I actually didn't remember but better to confess. "Yes, sister."
"Then I want both of you to write from 1 to 200." Writing numbers was our standard punishment.
I didn't know what 200 was. We'd never learned anything past 100. So I wrote to 102 on a guess and handed it in. She explained I had to do it again.
Sister Gemma started an after school program called "Expression." It would be too much to call it a drama class; she just taught us that, when reading aloud and in public, you needed to do more than drone on. I don't remember which other members of my class attended Expression. I do remember that my mother got it into her head that Sister and the class would love to hear me sing "Over the Rainbow." I cringe in recollection of the event.
The first and second grades were taught in a small building catty corner from the rest of the school and the church. The school cafeteria was also located in that building. The second grade teacher was Mrs. Lowery, an older lay lady.
When the second grade was taught religion, Sister Gemma took over that class and Mrs. Lowery came to the first grade to teach Phonics. Phonics was a way of learning reading and spelling by learning the sounds the letters make. We learned about long vowels and short vowels, silent e's, consonants. I believe that's what made me a really good speller. The phrase we learned was "sound it out."
Spelling bees were a big part of my elementary education. In the first grade, there was one girl, a blond, who usually beat me. Her name was Linda Pounders. She was so smart that, when we started the second grade, we learned that she had been promoted to the third grade. I was jealous and relieved. Now, I could win all the spelling bees.
Except there was a new girl, another blond, Terry Reedy. She was smart, too. She could beat me, too. Fortunately, she moved away after a few years and I had relatively smooth sailing after that.
Back to the first grade. Sister Gemma identified a few of us who seemed pretty good at arithmetic. I remember a few of us, as well as first graders from other Memphis schools, attended a special mathematics day at Christian Brothers College, also in Memphis. I really don't remember much about the day other than it involved some new learning techniques. We used bottle caps. More about Christian Brothers later.
In those early years, I remember recess after lunch each day. It usually involved Mrs. Lowery leading us in songs that involved physical motions to accompany the words. "Here we go loop de lu, here we go loop de la." Oh, and the hokey pokey. I think there was the hokey pokey.
One day Sister Gemma, during religion class, told us how the Catholic Church didn't allow Catholics to marry non-Catholics. I went home and asked my mom if that meant she and my dad weren't married. (Dad was raised Lutheran and never converted.)
I never attended kindergarten. So, unlike subsequent generations, I did not know how to write or read when I entered school. However, I did take to school. I succeeded at pretty much everything except penmanship and art. I still can't draw a decent stick figure.
Then came second grade. I really liked Mrs. Lowery as a teacher, we were still in the small building across the street, and we still had Sister Gemma for religion class. I remember the big event that year was making our first confession and first communion. Of course, we had to have the first before we could do the latter to make sure our souls were clear of any trace of sin. Of course, one might ask how sinful a seven year old can be.
Both of these teachers were major factors in giving me a love of reading. I also have two parents who were life long readers. Next time, we'll discuss the third grade and Sister Gonzaga (sometimes referred to as Sister Godzilla) and the fourth grade and Sister Bernardo, one of my absolute favorites.
But, this is enough to chew on for now.
Can't wait for the next post.
ReplyDelete