Down the road, a mile away from where I lived, up on the hill, stood a white catholic church, one house where the pastor of the church lived and another house where the nuns lived. The nuns job was to teach the students that went to school at the small brick schoolhouse, which was located on the same property near the houses. The nuns, were a site to see, they wore a long black gown called a habit, It went all the way to their ankles and all the way to their wrist, with a big rounded stiff, starchy collar. A white rope was tied around the waist with a rosary attached. A long black veil with a white stiff cap that cover the head, ears and side of head, no hair was allowed to be seen and the only skin allowed was the skin on their hands and face. I often held imaginary images in my mind of how they would actually look like, such as their hair and body without their habit on and with normal clothing on. Vanity was a big issue for the nuns in the Catholic faith at that time.
The school housed 8 grades, first though eighth. There were four classrooms, two grades per room and one nun teacher per room. Including myself there was 10 kids in my class, three boys and seven girls. The school 's main focus was teaching music and religion. It was mandatory for everyone to attend mass at church, every day upon arrival to school and just before any classes took place. Then on every Friday we were march off to the church to confess our sins to the priest. Once a week the priest would come to your class room and delivered a message about God and love that was long, and drawn out, which left me confuse with no understanding of the message. Religion class was of utmost importance, we were graded on memorizing all of the prayers and the catechism word from word.. Teaching what the prayers and the catechism meant was not in the teacher's teaching plans. We were taught how to read music, recognize musical instruments and their sounds, to know the names of the composers of classical music, like Mozart and Bach, and how to sing. The students of the school were the choir for the church. I went to so many funerals, that my family doesn't have enough toes and fingers to count how many. These funerals made me feel curious about life and death but also very fearful. Perhaps it's because of how confusing mortal sin was to me, and not understanding God's love and if I was worth his love. . For a preteen youngster, seeing a funeral procession with a casket and crying people was a overwhelming experience. A memory that stay etched in a mind, forever.
During recess, the girls was not allowed to play with the boys. Each class had their own designated area on the school grounds to play. There were no intermixing with other grades or with boys. A playground of swings, slides and merry-go-round was available for the really little kids. Softball was the game of choice for the older kids. Sliding on the snow was the preferred activity during the winter months. Cardboard boxes was a popular item to use to slide down the hill. It was not unusual to form a chain with your classmates by locking elbows' before pushing off. The trick was to see if you can get to the bottom of the hill without breaking the chain.
A checkered red/green jumper with a white blouse was the uniform worn to school by the girls. The boys wore dress shirts and brown or black dress pants. On a regular basis the nuns would check to see if the jumper worn by the girl was not too short, by checking if the skirt hem of the jumper touched the floor when the girl knelt on the floor. If it did then it was long enough and if it didn't then a note was sent home to have the hem lowered. The mini style was in at this time so most of the girls in my class decided to get clever, by practicing in the privacy of their own bedroom, learning how to slouch while kneeling to make the skirt hem touch the floor, without the nuns noticing the slouching. Some girls got pretty good at it because the skirt hem of the jumper was above the knee and she was able to convince the nun that the hem actually did touched the floor while kneeling.
One day when I was probably in the 6th grade, one of my classmates decided to draw a picture of a naked women. One of the nuns found the drawing and demanded to know who drew it. No body would tell, therefore the nun decided to give us a long lecture about impure thoughts. We were told how to take a bath so not to provoke impure thoughts. A quick wash and a quick dry without taking a look at your body. Keeping your eyes close maybe? There were to be no looking in the mirror at yourself either. From that day forward, whenever I took a bath, I would hear those words spoken by this nun, and wonder if I was going to go to hell for the way I was washing myself and if I was provoking impure thoughts.
I thought that the ideal of a religious school was to teach you how to have a personal relationship with God. To know God's love and forgiveness. To learn how to have faith, hope and love. The eight years I spent going to this school, taught me how to be afraid of mortal sin and intimidated by God. I was taught in a black and white viewpoint. Instead of learning how to listen for God's voice in my heart. I was taught how to listen to the you should not do this or that and you should do this in my head. I was afraid that I would go to hell if I did not follow God's rules exactly and perfectly. I did not hear anything about being saved though faith. I did not understand what faith meant until, way into my adult years and then only, after seeking counsel with a catholic priest because of the effect of what I learned though the teachings of my teachers about sin and hell
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