I’ve written a little about my grammar school days before, so this post will combine that with some new angles inspired by two old photos I recently rediscovered.
My Catholic school went from first to eighth grade, and the teachers were often switched around from grade to grade. For example, I had one of my all-time favorites, Sister Barbara, as my second-grade teacher when she was still known as Sister Sienna.
Within a year, they let the nuns start using their real names. However, when I reached second grade, they had just made the move to allow them to wear a much less dramatic habit.
Prior to this, nuns wore long flowing robes and veils. All anyone could see of them was their face — from eyebrows to chin. Here’s a photo of me (taken by my Mom) as a second grader with Sister Sienna/Barbara (in her modern habit):
I amused my teacher and my mother that day when I stated with astonishment, “I didn’t know nuns had legs!” (In my mind, they didn’t walk; they floated.)
By the time the eighth grade rolled around, I was a major player in the cool crowd and my brain came in handy as I let my crew cheat off me during every test. They reveled in having a friend who could hang with them and still get straight A’s.
My favorite teacher once again that year was none other than (you guessed it) Sister Barbara. She drilled me about my “potential” more than anyone but I could also tell my style still amused her. Case in point:
She had left the classroom for a few minutes. We were supposed to be doing an assignment but somehow, most of the class became engaged in a debate about the correct spelling of “whore.” In those days, NYC street urchins pronounced the word as “hoo-ah.” So, you can imagine the wide range of misspellings.
Eventually, they turned to me. I had my back to the door as I sat on my desk instead of in my seat. “It’s actually W-H-O-R-E,” I loudly proclaimed.
I could tell from my friends’ mischievous grins that Sister Barbara had re-entered the room. I heard her before I saw her. “Giving out free spelling lessons, Mr. Zezima?”
As the room burst into laughter, I turned, flashed my dimples, and replied: “Well, you weren’t here and they needed help.”
Sister Barbara suppressed a grin. “I’m glad I can count on you. Now please sit properly in your chair.”
In between those two Sister Barbara stories came the event captured in the second photo I found. Above, I’m standing in the center — in front of my teacher.
In the fifth grade, Ms. Coughlin took us on the subway for a field trip to the United Nations. A UN tour guide took us all around the facilities and would sometimes quiz us. He couldn’t help but notice that it was me who quickly answered all of his questions.
After I correctly stated what UNICEF stood for, the tour guide turned to Ms. Coughlin and said, “You’ve got quite a student here.”
She casually replied, “This one’s a walking encyclopedia.”
That same year, Ms. Coughlin unilaterally decided that I would win the St. Patrick’s spelling bee and represent the entire school in a citywide contest. She was sure I could easily out-spell even the eighth graders… and she may have been right.
What she didn’t count on was this: I was way too shy to want all that attention. Plus, winning the contest would have branded me a dork forever.
After spelling a few words correctly, she gave me “penicillin.” I started: “p-e-n-i-c-i-l-l-” and then I looked her right in the eye and said “e” instead of “i.”
Ms. Coughlin’s face contorted into a mask of shock as I sat down with a self-satisfied smirk. Catastrophe averted.
Hey, even back then, I just couldn’t get aligned with Big Pharma.
********************************************************************
It would be deeply appreciated if you’d sign up as a paid Post-Woke subscriber. It directly enables this project to keep going and growing. You can find the link at the bottom.
Also, to support my ongoing mission of more than 7 years to help homeless women and other vulnerable souls on the streets of NYC:
Follow me on Instagram
Donate at GoFundMe
Make a monthly pledge at Patreon
Order items from my wishlist
Make a one-time donation by clicking here
Share all the links!
Thank you in advance!
...and then Google and Wikipedia arrived and put us all out of our «jobs».
Encyclopedic knowledge still occasionally comes in handy though.
I would like to know what year the photos were taken. Thank you.