"I Remember" by Eva Claypool

I remember a few things from my years at Blessed Sacrament. Please understand that my memory is limited these days to short lists. Most of them are fond memories, some of them not so great, but good or bad, they have a place in my heart.
Does anyone remember the Nuns rewarding our good works by allowing us to play Bingo during class hours one year? I think it was in the 3rd grade. This stands out in my mind, not so much because of the rarity of the event, but because I won the Grand Prize. It was a "beeeautiful" ceramic statue of St Joseph. I know it was beeeautiful statue because all the Nuns gathered around me when I opened the box and ooooohed and aaaaahed. I had that statue for a long time and always cherished it.
I also remember our class sustaining allot of injuries. Many of which were mine. One particular incident for me, was on the playground. (who's idea was it to have a playground on a concrete parking lot?) I was playing Double Dutch and slid on the heels of my brand new Penny Loafers. I took quite a spill and hit my head really hard on the asphalt. When I regained consciousness, I stood up and everything was spinning around. Miss Crane ran to me to keep me from falling again, she had on that velvet poncho she always wore, that I thought was so cool. She took me into the nurses room and as I went to lay down on the cot, Sister
Theodore came in and insisted I walk around. I thought she was so mean because all I wanted to do was lay down. I later learned that she thought I had a concussion and was afraid I would not wake up. Sorry Sister for all the bad things I wished on you that day.
On a lighter note, I don't know what the guys had to watch and discuss on the day we had our so called "sex education" lesson but the girls lesson was a bit one sided. I personally came away thinking that a boy was not involved in procreation at all. A even bigger lesson was that you should never send a question to a nurse on a piece of paper that can be traced back to you. Especially if you start that letter with "this summer I started my period" blah blah blah blah.
You see, if you become "a woman" in the 4th grade, you might as well wear a scarlet letter on your chest. In my case that would have really stuck out, even then. Oh the woes of puberty!
Thus the reason I left in the 5th grade. Just kidding!!! I went to Lake Jr High School because it was just down the street from me and my parents were under the delusion that I no longer needed the sheltered world of Blessed Sacrament. They later reversed that decision by sending me to Andrean High School for my Junior and Senior years.
But I regress....It seems to me now, that although we were taught 7 days a week, things like materialism was a bad thing, we had a preoccupation with material things. Such as;
clothes-especially on Sunday!
shoes
45 records
long stocking caps-the more colorful the better. (you always new when a boy liked you, cause he would rip it right off your head.)
clackers
patten leather shoes (later to be replaced by saddle shoes or penny loafers)
glow balls ( again I want to apologize to Valerie for breaking hers by resting it on the top of my lap shade so it would absorb the light better and it exploded the bulb, thereby putting a whole in the ball and all the glow liquid ran out and ruined it.)
mood rings
flower power anything
I.D. bracelets
doilies or veils for church
These are just a few ways we expressed our individuality in a sea of blue jumpers and plaid skirts.
What a small world we lived in. As I look back at all the turmoil we watched on the 5 o'clock news every evening, with the war and protests going on, it was a real haven. So all in all, with the good and the bad, our world was quite a little haven for us to grow up in.
And that is how I remember Blessed Sacrament.

See you at the reunion,

Eva Claypool