Never one to miss jumping on a bandwagon, I saw the posts by Eleventh Hour and Jerome Prophet listing their Blessed Sacrament teacher roll call ... and I had to share mine.
Now, I have to be honest with you. I could only remember a few names. So I went through my "school days tub" and found an envelope full of those collage sheets. Remember the ones with pictures of everyone in each class? Well, I cobbed the names off of those.
So ... without further adieu ... my Blessed Sacrament roll call:
Sr. Ann Marie was principal when I first
enrolled at Blessed Sacrament in 2nd grade.
She looks vaguely familiar.
Sr. Suzanne took her place a few years later.
I remember Sr. Suzanne much more than
Sr. Ann Marie ... but then again people who
attended Woodstock seem to have more memories
of their experience than I do of grade school.
Mrs. Crowe - 2nd Grade
Again, I remember next to nothing
about her. I'm not discounting that
this might be some sort of
"Manchurian Candidate" conspiracy ...
Mrs. Bochenek - 3rd Grade
The only thing I remember about
Mrs. Bochenek was that she taught
me how to draw a tulip. At this
point, you are probably assuming
that I'm a functionally illiterate
idiot who is drooling on her keyboard.
Sr. Louise - 4th Grade
I seem to recall that she was kind
of a hard-ass. Is that acceptable?
To call a nun "hard-ass?" Again,
it's fuzzy ... so she might have
been Snow White and Mother Teresa
wrapped up into one for all I know.
5th Grade - Mrs. Mosley
Now, I do remember Mrs. Mosley.
I liked her a lot ... even though she
called my parents when she found a copy
of "The Thornbirds" on my desk.
6th Grade - Mrs. Hyman
I have no idea who this person is.
I have no memories of her ...
or her name. But she is
on the picture ... and she signed my
report cards. So I'm beginning to
suspect I must've had head trauma at
some point in the 70's.
7th Grade - Mrs. Wear
I vaguely remember this woman. I
think she was a new teacher?
It seems like she always had a nervous
air to her ... as if she was afraid
that at any moment we would stage
a coup and overthrow her.
8th Grade - Mrs. Aiello
While I don't remember much, I
do remember a time when Mrs. Aiello
wasn't pleased with me. I told her
I wanted to use Monica as my
confirmation name ... in honor of
St. Monica, the patron saint of
unwed mothers. Even then, I was
honing the fine art of being a smart ass.
Just in case you're wondering ...
I ended up using "Ann."
Note: Looking up these names has made me seriously doubt my mental capacity ... and I've come to the conclusion it's a wonder that I can find my way home each night.
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
Mary Hopkin - Those Were The Days
Damn - Don't scare me like that!
ReplyDeleteI open your blog and suddenly find Sister Ann Marie looking at me.
I haven't had a fright like that since 1974.
But how 'bout that, we had the same 4th grade teacher (Sister Louise). Mt class was in the rectory basement that year ('69-'70). Interesting experience. Due to our location we were once allowed to go upstairs and watch an Apollo "moonshot" with the priests.
-Dave
The Eleventh Hour
LOL ... sorry ... I guess I should've posted a warning in the subject line! :)
ReplyDeleteSo, since you had Sr. Louise, was she really that tough or am I just not remembering her correctly?
Like ... I remember 4th grade was when we had to memorize our multiplication tables ... and it seems like she just rode our asses about the whole thing.
See, now we weren't allowed anywhere near the rectory ... not because of priest abuse or anything like that ... but because they told us it was the home of the priests and we had to be quiet and respectful. LOL
There were other teachers that I remembered ... and sure enough they were on my report cards. Like ... Miss Amrheim and Mrs. Donath ...
Mrs. Donath scared the crap out of me. The first day we were in class ... she introduced herself to all of us by saying something along the lines of ....
"Don't tell me you like school. If you say you like school that either means you're not trying hard enough ... or I'm not doing my job."
EEEP! Intimidation ... what a great way to start the school year.
Also ... as a side note ... in that picture up there, doesn't Mrs. Aiello look like Peggy Hill?
ReplyDelete...and now Mrs. Wear is the Principal (sister of a friend of mine.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bssbruins.org/faculty.htm
While I'm not a BS grad, most of my HS friends were...gleasons, mandevilles, owens...then got to know hendersons...BS folks are good peeps!
I always thought Sister Louise was a soft-spoken sweetheart (for a nun, that is).
ReplyDeleteThe meanest, badest nun on my list was Sister Edna, my 5th grade teacher. Yikes, she was an old-school, can of whoop-ass of a nun. 100 years old, but still. I once saw her dump a full waste basket, pencil shavings and all, over the head of a boy who dared try throwing a balled up piece of paper into the basket from his desk.
I also remember Sister Edna banishing one young lad to the coat room on a regular basis for various misbehaviors. That boy grew up to become a blogger from Jerome. But I don't want to name any names.
-Dave
The Eleventh Hour
woo! Bandwagon time!!
ReplyDeleteCourse, I didn't go to BSS, so none of you guys know these teachers....
Early childhood- Mrs. Triangle, Mrs. Porcupine, Mrs. Pineapple. (I'm fairly sure these aren't the real names...but this is what I thought they were at the time. Hey, as a early childhood kid, what do you expect?)
Pre K- Mrs. Columbus
Kindergarten- Mrs. Columbus
1st- Mrs. Grosball
2nd- Mrs. Metzger, Mrs. Blain(?)
3rd- Mrs. Owens
4th- Mrs. I. Jackson
5th- Mrs. Hopper
6th- Mr. Emerson
7th- Mr. Mings
8th- Mrs. Waldhauser
9th- Mr. Reagan
10th- Mr. Seiler
11th- Mr. Auble
12th- Mr. Seiler (but actaully I had independent band at that time, so I was never in HR)
Dave,
ReplyDeleteNot coat room, but cloak room.
And yes I spent lots of time in that room, but it was safer back there than in Sister Edna's classroom.
I recall how at the end of each class she would wait at the door, and slap the crap out of the little boys who had caused her trouble.
She had a very good sense of hearing for such an old woman, and she must have had a keen sense of memory too, because she'd know just who to slap, how many times to slap, and how hard.
She must have had it all worked out like some mad scientist, some secret formula on how much pain to inflict.
She was a real fright!
I'll have to post something on my blog about Sister Edna.
And SAM (Sister Ann Marie), I liked her, but she was strict.
At first she seemed to want to be liked, but she rapidly turned into a very strict Principal.
I recall her freaking out, and having kids locked up in closets - that kind of thing.
I guessed I lucked out, and was never targetted by her.
JP
JP,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, but I figured no one would know what I was talking about if I called it a "cloak room".
SAM once busted me for allegedly throwing a baloney sandwich. Actually, I was the one HIT with the sandwich. She was new as principal and I guess didn't understand the difference between victim and perpetrator yet. She let me off easy though, noting that it was my “first offense”.
-Dave
The Eleventh Hour
Collegeone, I do know some of your teachers. I know where you went to junior high/freshmen year. What year did you graduate??
ReplyDeleteMrs. Waldhauser is one of the reasons I chose to become a teacher. She was awesome...hard, but very good, and good to her students.