Sister without Mercy

Talking about Jimmy Buffett got me thinking of my school days. Like I said before, if you were Catholic you had to attend a Catholic School. I guess they wanted the indoctrination to be complete. Anyway, nuns taught the classes back then. The Order of Nuns that taught us were the Sisters of Mercy. They wore the full burka garments. So all you saw of them was their faces. We always wondered if they wore anything under those. No one would dare ask.

The first seven years went pretty well. I had to endure some mental abuse, but avoided the physical punishment. My older brother wasn't so lucky. Then came eighth grade and the teacher for the class was to be, Sister Aden. Aden's reputation proceeded her. Everyone knew to look out for her and don't piss her off.   For some reason Sister Aden took an instant dislike of me. My theory is, I wasn't from one of the elite families of Mobile. Most of the kids in my class were sons and daughters of the prominent doctors, lawyers and businessmen of Mobile. My parents were unable to give donations to the school, as was expected . That's one theory. I have another but I can't share it on a public blog.  

Anyway, I tried my best to please Sister Aden, but nothing seemed to work. I felt like every chance she got she tried to insult me or embarrass me in front of my classmates. Now you might say,  why didn't you tell your parents what was happening? Good question. But then I will refer you back to my blog post, "Southern Fried Catholics". See, in the eyes of my parents, the Catholic Church could do no wrong. Priests and nuns were considered to be holy and godly. So if something happened to you in school it was always your fault and, God forbid, if you ever accused a nun of treating you badly. So I knew I would have to endure the abuse the best I could.

As the year progressed, things seemed to let up a bit. The insults and nasty little remarks lessened. Then came the "Lawn Party." I think lawn parties are strictly a Southern thing. It's an event where the school sets up booths and the parents sell a variety of things like cookies, cakes and cooked foods. Some booths had games of chance but you've got to understand it was all for the school fund. The lawn party are held on a weekend.

So that Monday, I arrived at school as usual and went into the classroom to put my books on my desk. Then something caught my eye. It was a box of balloons. The outside of the balloons had a multi-colored pattern. So I took one and blew it up. It looked pretty cool. So I grabbed a handful and went out to the playground. Some of my classmates saw the balloon and asked where I got it. I said "Here, have one." Soon there were about ten kids blowing up the balloons. Then from behind us came this blood curdling scream. "Where did you get those balloons? Those are Lawn Party balloons."  I froze in my tracks. I realized all my classmate were looking at me.

As I slowly turned around I saw a this image of a black robed creature running towards us.. Her face was red and distorted with anger. Her shoulder veil was flying in the wind. It was one scary sight. She came to a screeching halt in front of us. Still snorting like an angry bull, she said, "Who gave you those balloons?"  All my loving classmates pointed their fingers at me. I thought I was going to pee in my pants. But I had learned to endure. All the past abuse had toughened me. So I stood my ground. "So young man, you must be the ring leader?"  Not understanding what a ring leader was, I said in a confident voice, "Yes sister." I think her face turned a brighter shade of red.

With her teeth grinding she said, "My pretty boy, I'm going to get you and your little friend, Jimmy!"
She really never said that, but she did remind me of the "Wicked Witch of the West."  What she told me was to go to the office and that she was calling my parents. As it turned out, my mother had gone shopping with the next door neighbor, so she had to call my father at work. He showed up several hours later.

Sister Aden went on the attack. "Do you know what your son did? He is a thief! He stole the balloons! He stole the lawn party balloons!"  Honest to God, I'm thinking this sounds like the strawberries scene in "Mr. Roberts." My father was a gentle and kind man, slow to anger. He tried to reason with Sister A, telling her he would pay for the balloons. This infuriated Sister Aden further. "You don't understand, your son is a thief."  My father then said, "Wait a darn minute Sister. My boy is no thief."  Aden went into a tirade.  She raised her arm to heaven and said, " You have cursed in front of the Holy Eucharist! " Well, that statement was like throwing holy water on Satan. My father totally collapsed. He began apologizing and agreed to whatever she wanted. That's when she said, "I want him and his younger brother out of this school!  My father said, "Yes sister."  And my brother and I were taken out of school that day. I'll tell you the rest of the story later.