Drawing the Line

Second only to lunch, the mid-point of the school day, the most anticipated moment was probably recess; a break, a breather.   The only time you could expect a change from routine.

1. 8 am morning prayers
2. Penmanship*
3. 9 am prayers
4. Religion
5. 10 am prayers
6. Mathematics
7. 11 am prayers
8. Reading, Grammar, English
9. Noon: grace before lunch
10. Lunch
11. Recess….YEAH!!!
12. 1 pm prayers (in case you did something at recess only the Holy Spirit could see!)
13. Geography
14. 2 pm prayers
15. History
16. 3 pm end of the day prayers

     *Penmanship, art, music & gym class would alternate

We were big on prayers…or, rather the nuns were very big on prayers.

Recess brought some freedom, but there were restrictions. It seemed as if there was a plot to keep us from having too much fun. There was this invisible dividing line, centered on the school chimney that separated the girls from the boys in play. There was no further discussion on it.

It was as simple as this: GIRLS SIDE E FBOYS SIDE.

Girls had hopscotch, jump rope and jacks.  Boys had dodge ball, running…but not too much running so as to not be able to ‘settle down’ once inside, and billy buck buck was NOT allowed! On both sides there was the staring back & forth to see what the other side was doing. Sticking your tongue out was always popular. The nonchalant passing of notes was popular with the older classes. The younger classes knew you’d get cooties!

Of course there were always the class characters that stood toe to toe on the invisible line with the daring look, knowing they hadn’t crossed the line…YET! The nuns knew that just by doing that you had already crossed a line! OOPS!

So, in hindsight, do you think we had separation anxiety in the playground? Boys side vs. girls side? Or, after hours of being together in the same classroom with pigtails and ribbons being dunked in inkwells, (you’ll have to ‘Google’ inkwells if you don’t get it!), boogers & gum placed under desks, rabbit ears behind our heads from the classmate behind us and spitballs shooting across the room, the nuns knew what they were doing! Do you think they were actually doing us a favor by drawing the line?! You know, the ‘Men are from Mars & Women from Venus’…the student version, before there was a book? Perhaps they thought “You’ll thanks us later”. “Enjoy the break”. The odds were that the law of attraction would catch up with us eventually….most of us married with children!

Or is it that the nuns remembered that they were once kids too!!! J  Go figure!

Thanks,

Cathy

PS: We actually needed all those prayers! Thanks again!