An insightful, engaging telling of Catholic elementary school days during the Depression, as the author remembers it. Meet neighbors, family and friends in this humorous, inspiring collection of tales.
Excerpt
My first day at school is indelibly stamped on my psyche. It was a traumatic event, the first step of my journey toward adulthood.
The experience of starting first grade was undoubtedly more daunting in the 30s than it is today. Day care centers and nursery schools were still institutions of the future. In our school there wasn’t even a kindergarten. So I went right into the first grade, cold turkey. And this is how I remember it:
I am on a bus with my mother. (My father is not there, having gone to work as though this was just an ordinary day.) The bus ride is fun; but I am a little leery about what awaits me at the end of it. Until now, I had no complaints. Life had been good to me. I spent the days playing with my dolls, cutting out pictures from the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, and talking to my friends, some real, some imaginary.
Now I am entering a new phase, and it is not by choice. But my mother says it is something that happens to everyone. I am six years old, and therefore must go to school.
Who invented it? Maybe that is one of the things I will learn.
Copyright 2010 Sophia Zufa. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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