“‘Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.”
Gloomy is the best I can say for today. It was late last night when I heard the rain start. It wasn’t a dramatic storm with thunder or lightning was rather quiet and gentle. I could almost hear each drop as it fell on a leaf or the deck. When I woke up, it was still raining, still a quiet and gentle rain. Since then, the rain has stopped. Everything is still except for one raucous crow.
I didn’t go to the dump yesterday. I didn’t feel like it, but today we’re going. I have collected all the recyclables from the cellar and put the trash bags by the car. The rest of yesterday’s to-do list got finished. I felt quite accomplished. I even filled some bird feeders which were not on the list. I’m thinking some sort of a trophy would be nice. It should be engraved.
My first grade teacher was a menace. She scared the heck out of me. Her name was Sister Redempta. She was really old, at least to my six-year-old eyes. Her habit was black and white. She wore blinders on each side of her white coif (I looked up what that was called. I always just said headpiece). It wasn’t until I was a little older that I realized that coif gave us an advantage. The nuns had to swivel their heads back and forth to catch us so we had a bit of time to do whatever. Every nun I had in elementary school kept a handkerchief up at the end of her sleeve. A bit of white always showed. That’s sort of gross when you think about it. We could always hear the nuns coming because the giant rosary beads they wore around their waists made a lot of noise. It was like an early warning system. I had more good nuns than bad throughout my elementary school years. Considering it was baby boomer time and some classes were huge, with 30 kids, you’d think discipline problems, but there were none. Our parents would have killed us.
When I was in the seventh grade, the habits were changed, and the blinders were replaced by what looked like small visors. Now the nuns could see everything. They had the advantage. That was a sad day for us.
My aunt is a nun. That’s all I’ve known her as. She used to wear habit. Now she wears regular clothes. We all call her my aunt the nun as if she has no other name.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: blinders, changed habits, coif, dump run, first grade teacher, gloomy, handkerchief, my aunt the nun, nuns, nuns' habits, rainy, raucous crow, rosary beads, to do list
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August 27, 2013 at 12:47 pm
That picture brings to mind a Halloween party I attended a few years back. The theme was “Good or Evil?” and my creative friend couldn’t decide which to be, so she went as both: she was a nun from the front and a French maid from behind, complete with fishnet stockings and a feather duster.
My seventh grade nun was a terror. Sister Blandina. Her father was a boxer and she inherited his build. She never shied away from physical punishment, tho the boys fared worse than we did. She quickly put an end to my by then fading vocation.
August 27, 2013 at 3:56 pm
Clueless,
That costume is pure genius! I once went as a nun but never thought of a dual role.
After Sister Redempta, I had a lay teacher then Sister Eileen Marie who was about the nicest person in the world and a great teacher as well. My dog used to follow me to school, and she’d let him sleep on a mat in the classroom.
The nuns I had in high were the best of all.
August 27, 2013 at 1:25 pm
This all sounds ver exotic for me growing up in a mostly stricht protestant country and a very lutheran protestant as well. I remember when I saw nuns for the first time in my life, I must have been seven or so and they came driving in a small car. I was amazed that they were real and that they actually drove a car 🙂 Still haven’t seen many nunns but I have seen monks since there’s a monastery in the village we had our summer cottage. There are only three or for monks there but those are the only ones I’ve ever seen 🙂
Last day of summer today they say. Tomorrow a low preassure will pass and after that we’ll get it a bit warmer again but not as warm as today. So I’ll enjoy this evening as much as I can 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
August 27, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Christer,
Every town when I was growing up had a parochial school and nuns. In the old days, they had to travel in pairs and could not visit their families at home. Now you’d never know who is or isn’t a nun. They wear regular clothes, even pants now. Most of them do still wear a cross but that’s it.
We’re still in summer. Today was humid after the rain and uncomfortable.
Have a great evening!
August 27, 2013 at 1:42 pm
Hi Kat,
I did some things yesterday. I didn’t remove the laundry from the dryer. It’s been down there quite some time so I really should. But I keep finding clean clothes up here so I’m not in dire enough straits yet. 🙂
There were nuns in the Episcopal church but I didn’t see them very often. When I did, they were always from some far away place because they were all missionary nuns come to seek donations or other aid for their particular work.
Today started cloudy. It should have rained but it didn’t. It needs to. Rocky and I have been to the lake for some walking and photography. And that’s about all I’ve done.
I guess I should go empty the dryer so I can say I accomplished a chore. 🙂
Enjoy the rest of the day.
August 27, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Hi Caryn,
My laundry is also still in the dryer. I’m toying with bringing it upstairs, but as long as I have underwear, I don’t need to go get it.
They sold the convent so I don’t know where the nuns live now, probably an apartment. I do know they’re still around.
We got the rain most of the night and it is also predicted for tomorrow. The day has been thick with humidity and dark with clouds.
I wen to the dump-I did my chore!
Enjoy your evening!
August 27, 2013 at 9:47 pm
When I was a little kid in Brooklyn my grandmother lived on the same block as the Catholic school. I was always curious about the habit worn by the nuns and robes worn by the brothers as they walked by the house. In the summer I wondered how hot they must be under those long dresses and headgear.
When I moved to Texas in 1953 I didn’t see many nuns since I was living among a sea of Southern Baptists and Methodists. There were a smattering of holy roller churches sprinkled around town. Catholics and Jews were in the minority. An elderly man in our apartment complex stared at my forehead one day and asked me if I had them removed. When I asked what he was talking about he said the horns. He believed that Jews had horns. Maybe he wrote the lyrics, “I don’t care if it rains or freezes long as I got my plastic Jesus up there on the dashboard of my car. I can go a hundred miles an hour long as I got the almighty power up there by my pair of fuzzy dice”.
Of course in segregated Dallas I never saw many blacks because they were relegated to their side of town. My only contact with them were the maids who rode the bus daily to our side of town to clean our houses.
Today was less hot but more humid with some rain showers around the area. A big high pressure ridge is building over the middle of the country south of the Canadian border. It will bring us another heat wave for the holiday weekend.
August 27, 2013 at 10:56 pm
Bob,
I wondered the same think about the summer, but the material the nuns wore was pretty light weight, but they definitely had layers.
Our town had very few Jews, and I was 13 or 14 before the first temple was build. There were churches on every corner near up town. Four of them were a block apart.
My town had a few Black families but that wash’t very many. The town was mostly Irish and Italian.
We had a thick, humid day with a cloudy sky. It was warm but not intolerable. Thunder showers predicted for tomorrow.
August 28, 2013 at 1:04 am
“Only” 30 in a classroom? My baby-boomer-filled elementary (Our Lady of Victory) had 60 in most grades. And with one small classroom per grade! My memories of nuns are not fond. I’m sure there were good ones; I just never encountered them.
August 28, 2013 at 9:58 am
Jaybrid,
Each grade had two classes so the numbers were at least 30 students in each class. We even had classes in the rectory cellar as we had run out of space.
My high school nuns were much better than those in elementary school.