Eventually it was evident that I could be trusted to obey the watchman and was
allowed to avoid the subway except when a train on the track would delay me. (In
1991 I walked through that same subway “for old time’s sake" and it smelled the
same as more than sixty years before!
My first-grade teacher was Miss Helen Birmingham, a short, sweet lady
whom my mother knew. My only recollections: Reading aloud “The Little Red Hen,"
I hesitated on a word and Zelda Miller (fat, black-rimmed glasses, bright and knew
it) piped up with the elusive word, “again." I played triangle in the rhythm band: I
wore a little white uniform, which my mother saved and it is still around today.
Miss Ort was my second-grade teacher. She was tall and had lots of hair. I
sat behind Dottie Lindsay who sneaked me a candy Valentine heart that read “kiss
me." I did. Sarah Louise Oliver told Miss Ort and she sent a note home. I have no
idea what it said, but I can imagine Mother being a little embarrassed, while Jeanette
was no doubt much amused.
Two whole school years and this is all I remember! But I was off to a good
start, as proved by my performance at Saints Peter and Paul’s.
ii - 1929-1933
Saints Peter and Paul’s School, Grades 3 - 6
By going to the public school I had not been able to receive my first
communion in the Catholic church, in which I had been baptized. In the parochial
school, children normally were prepared for this event during the course of the
second grade and in May participated in the beautiful ceremony of the first reception
of the consecrated bread and wine. In those days, at least in our town, the opportunity
for Catholic children in public schools to obtain the necessary preparation was not
available as it is today. My father, a Protestant, agreed when he married my mother,
a Catholic, that their children would be baptized and raised in the Catholic faith.
There was no alternative but to enroll me in Saints Peter and Paul parish school in the
third grade to begin in September 1929. (Had I not transferred, I might not have met
my future wife!)
The transition was not easy. It was a good four times farther to the new
school. Union Street was so close that I could afford to dawdle in my walk to school.
The habit had become ingrained and now I still dawdled - and was late every
morning. To make matters worse, I had to be at school an hour earlier than before
because the children were expected to attend Mass before classes began. Trudging
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