I went to Catholic school. I was taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame and Jesuit priests. I was not the kind of kid who felt it necessary to make a connection with the teachers. I just kept my head down and stayed out of trouble. My ambition during the day at school was just to get through it. Even so, the nuns had a profound effect on me. You learned your lessons, did your homework and behaved in class because the nuns allowed no alternative. Today's teachers, even nuns, would have a heart attack if they were asked to teach classes of 60 students. In retrospect, I can understand their no nonsense attitudes. The end result was I got a great basic education which has stood me in good stead throughout my life.
Down life's road, I married a Jewish man. Although his religion certainly had rules, it was not governed daily by persons so uncompromising in their educational and religious beliefs. He did recognize that my parochial education had been superior to his public education. He advocated Catholic school for our children. When my friends who had shared this life gathered, he listened with rapt attention and some disbelief at our tales of slaps, knuckle raps, coatroom lockups, and bits of humiliation dealt out by women with extremely disciplined lives.
My husband and I were fans of tag sales and garage sales. One day we were passing a school with a charity tag sale sign. It appeared the school had been closed for business. We stopped for a quick look. Once inside, I knew immediately it had been a Catholic school. I could see the faded spots on the walls where the crosses had been. When we entered the sale room we discovered the sale was being conducted by nuns. They were not the modern day, more fashionable women wearing cute little head-dresses. These were the original heavily robed, full wimple, bead rattling nuns of my past. While perusing a table of wares, one of the sisters was walking around offering candy bars for $1.00. I am not a candy fan, so I gave her the dollar and refused the candy. She explained that I was entitled to a candy bar for my donation. I once again declined with a "No, thank you Sister". Her voice became authoritative and she said "TAKE THE CANDY". My husband's version of the story is that my hand flew up immediately and took a candy bar.
He looked at me wide-eyed and said "I've never seen you react like that!" He was literally stunned watching the encounter. He had a momentary glimpse into my history. My husband recounted this event numerous times. He drew parallels to his experience in the military. We sent our kids to public school.
