Starting the day at St. Albert’s was pretty much the same. It always started with a prayer as the students faced the Crucifix front and center in the class, then a simple shift of the feet and students were facing the American Flag in the corner with hands over their hearts as they pledged allegiance to the flag. On special occasions and weather permitting the students would sometimes do this outside during the flag raising ceremony which made for a very memorable moment. With that the students would take their seats. Sometimes there would be an announcement from the Principals office. These always began the same way … “May I Have Your Attention Please” the voice would sound over the p.a. system. It was always followed with a second “May I Have Your Attention Please” and once the office was certain everyone had settled down, they would proceed with the announcement.
Long before “The Blues Brothers” coined the term “penguin” for a Catholic Nun, the little friends were using the term behind their backs at St. Alberts. The class would often hear Mark O and a group of little friends going “quack, quack, quack” after Sister Vincent walked by. A penguin, of course, does not “quack” but this was 1967 and the popular Batman television series featured Burgess Meredith played a Penguin going “quack quack quack” as he waddled around in the show. This especially applied to Sister Vincent who was relatively small and had a big nose, very similar to the Arch Villain Penguin in the television show. The boys had to wait till Sister Vincent was out of range to do their quacking as she was not afraid to administer a spanking to both boys and girls in her class.
Sister Vincent was very kind for the most part, and there was fun in her class, especially with craft projects. One day, Sister Vincent had all the students bring in beach balls from home. Cathy C remembers bringing in a huge beach ball that day for her project. The beach balls were inflated, and twine was tied twice around the beach balls forming an X at the top and the bottom. The purpose of the twine was to shape the beach ball into looking like a pumpkin. Next flour and water was mixed, newspapers were torn in strips and dipped into the mix, and laid over the beach ball. This was done several times and then the pumpkins were put aside to dry overnight.
The next day the students came in and deflated the beach ball and pulled it out of their paper Mache’ pumpkin. The students painted their creations with orange poster paints, then the pumpkins were again left to dry and then finally taken home. Many of the students remember these pumpkins lasting years after first grade as they were pretty well made.
On a normal day Sister Vincent had to supervise forty first graders. Now imagine each of those forty students with flour, water, paint, etc. and coming out of it with a pumpkin that the kids could take home for Halloween. This was a testimony to Sister Vincent as she would be the only teacher who would teach the first grade during the entire eight years the little friends attended St. Albert’s.
These early first days in Sister Vincent’s class set the tone for many of the little friends regarding their relationship with the nuns. First, it was funny to make fun of them, so long as they did not hear you. Second, if they did hear you and you incurred their wrath it would not be pleasant for you. Three, and the most important lesson learned, that every once in a while if you listened and did what the nuns said, you might learn something very valuable and end up with something really cool – like a paper Mache’ pumpkin for Halloween.
