13 Years of Catholic School

 

I came across this post on facebook the other day and immediately read it. Approximately 18 of the 20 topics are true to me.

I have great memories of my elementary school, St. Genevieve Catholic in Thibodaux, LA. The school was small {K-7}, and each class only consisted of 35 students. Now, the school has grown a lot more to include two grades of each level and Pre-K, but the school still carries the same traditions of many years ago.

This is me and my sister Colette in 1975-76. I was ready for my first day of 2nd grade.

I can still recall many of the songs that we sung on a daily basis. Some of the lines “I am a promise…”, “When I dropped my hotdog….”, and “Stand up an march” still bring me back to times of youth when things were just plain easy.

The 20 things were taken from the blog, The Bad at Cleaning Blog.

Check out the 20 things in this blog post:

1. You at one point compared who got the “better” ash mark on their head from Ash Wednesday. {Ron: Haha!}

2. You feel like a rebel when you wear colored socks. {Ron: The only time I got sent to the Dean of Students’ office was to call my mom to bring me a pair of socks. I wore argyle, and they were not allowed.}

3. When someone says “peace be with you” you say “also with you” without thinking. {Ron: I do this all the time.}

4. While you tell everyone that going to an all-girls school helped you focus on school and made you more intelligent, you secretly know it also made you more desperate and socially awkward. {Ron: Of course, I went to co-ed. LOL!}

5. You secretly miss having your clothes picked out for you 5 out of 7 days in the week. {Ron: I loved wearing uniforms.}

6.  You still remember the names of 30 kids you spent 8 years with…their parents, and siblings too. {Ron: Oh yes! I could name them all…Rachel Aysen, Lisa Arceneaux, Ben Legendre, Stephen Viguerie, Brett Naquin, Ray Boudreaux, Todd Broggi, Nicky Bordelon, Justin Rodrigue, Renee Miller, Monique Crochet, Margo Goulas, Johanna Tabor, Heather Zeringue, Randy Pekinto, Michelle Richard, Brian DeGravelle, Chris Benoit, David Diehl, A.J. Boudreaux, Shaun Toups, Troy Martinez, Julie LeBlanc, Julie Kerley, Michelle Kenyon, Kristie Vicknair, Thad Torres, Greg Picou, Amy Pichauffe….should I continue?}

7. You still feel like you need say your prayer before a meal really, really fast, so you can get to recess faster. {Ron: As a teacher in a private Episcopal school, I still do!}

8. You were shocked after you graduated to find out there were other translations of the Bible than the New American Version. {Ron: Who knew?}

9. You’ve been dressed up like an angel, a sheep, and a shepherd at least once (but probably three) times as a child. {Ron: Who could ever forget those epic plays at St. Gen?}

10. …and you had to sing. A LOT. {Ron: Every morning. You gotta love Ms. Cappel & Mrs. Judy Cooper.}

11. When at any non-catholic church or the train station, your right knee automatically buckles anytime you enter a pew, and you have to stop yourself from kneeling. {Ron: Oh! I still genuflect.}

12. You know how to fundraise and sell stuff like a boss. {Ron: Well? Instead I brought my supply of Super Crunch bars to my aunt’s beauty shop for her to sell. I hated the sale.}

13. Your non-Catholic friends think doing the sign of the cross is some complicated secret handshake and keep asking you to show them how to do it over and over. {Ron: J still comments when I do it as we pass in front of a Catholic church.}

14.  There was always some rumor about a dead saint body part, haunted room, or scary secret tradition (saying Bloody Mary into a mirror) at your church…that you totally bought. {Ron: Catholics… we believe it all.}

15. You know what “leave room for the Holy Spirit means.” {Ron: Aaaaaah, confession.}

16. You totally made up a sin during your first confession with a priest because you were in the first grade and didn’t understand what the heck was going on. {Ron: I think I made them up all the way through 7th grade.}

17. You dreaded stations of the cross day. {Ron: Yes! and Benediction.}

18.  You have strong feelings about nuns. {Ron: And I LOVE Sister Act.}

19. You are still bitter that you were not picked to play Mary during May Crowning or Jesus in the Last Supper. {Ron: No! But I was selected as Joseph in the Christmas play of my 7th grade year because I was Christian enough to attend a classmate’s party that only 5 people from the class attended. Truth: My mom made me.}

20. You talk more (aka are more traumatized) about your elementary school experience than anyone else who went to public school. {Ron: This is so true.}

Catholic school was a big part of my life and certainly shaped my attitudes and feelings today. I will always appreciate my days at St. Genevieve Catholic School and E. D. White Catholic High School.

March, march, march, y’all!