Tuesday, March 11, 2008

St Patrick's School, Erie, PA

During Lent at St Pat's the kids were given a little cardboard box about the size of an individual serving cereal box. It was our 'miter box', and during Lent our mission was to fill it with coins - pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, and possibly fifty-cent pieces. At the end of Lent we brought our miter boxes to school, and the nun and some of the kids counted the money. I think that for each $25 the class collected, we could buy a 'pagan baby'. The class also got to name the 'pagan baby'. Each student would write a name on a slip of paper and put it in a box. I remember one year Pat and I got the idea that we should get a 'good' name. We came up with Casper, and got a few of the other boys to also submit Casper. As the names were pulled from the box, they were announced and totaled. Casper got a chuckle the first time it was read. At the end, Casper was the winning name. The nun tried to get us to select another name, but the class united, and Casper it was.

A few notes:
St. Patrick's Day was always a 'no school' day, as was St. Joseph's Day (March 19).
It seems that we also had March 18th off (why go to school for 1 day?).
Whatever we gave up for Lent we were allowed to have on St. Patrick's Day.
Sr. Marie Sylvia was the principal.

My Teachers:
1st grade - Sr. Mercedes
2nd grade - Miss Burgoyne
3rd grade - Sr. Genevieve
4th grade - Sr. Mary Edmund
5th grade - Sr. Teresita
6th grade - Sr. Leonie
7th grade - Sr. Leonie
8th grade - Sr. Genevieve

The Class:

2 comments:

Rich said...

Willie said:
You had a big class - brings back memories - remember the telophone pole in front of the school yard?
On a day when it rained we would gather together and hold hands and get a shock.
I remember that the boy's restroom was outside on the east side of the school. It was always wet inside, and if you had holes in your shoes you would have to walk on your heel of both shoes - not me, but other kids had to, and
it sure made me laugh.

cmkavala said...

Enjoyed the pictures that one kid sure looked like bumpy calahan