I know I listed in Part 1 of this little series that a good Catholic girl was always aware that death was close at hand and could strike at any moment. The nuns did not mean strike your neighbor. The nuns meant strike You...and, if not this instant, probably later today. You needed to be ready: Confession--recent. Mass--yes, just this morning. Underwear--clean, with a little bow on the waistband. Now that I'm 71, and attend a number of funerals each year, that subject isn't as horrifying to me as it once was, but it is a bit disconcerting. We may visit it later, but for now, let's just skip to the Communists.
The Communists...You must remember that second grade was my home away from home in 1951-1952. Actually, if my math is still decent, 9.3% of my life, up to that point, had been spent in second grade. The Cold War was raging, Stalin was in charge of Russia (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic), and was trying mightily to conquer as many eastern European countries as he could. I'm not sure we understood much of what was going on, but the headlines made us nervous and we knew the Communists were bad people and wouldn't stop until they ruled everything. Our way of life was in jeopardy and Dodge City was their next target.
Our teachers--nuns of all ages--weren't terribly well educated in those days. Most had attended Catholic grade schools and then entered the nunnery upon eighth-grade graduation. I don't know if they read newspapers or news magazines, or just listened to baseball games. I say that because they were a bit weak on some of our subject matter and current events, but they knew everything about baseball. They were crazy for baseball. We were allowed to listen to the World Series during class. Most of the games were played in the afternoon in those days, and it was a great time. The nuns kind of relaxed a bit when the World Series started. They had definite favorites (the Dodgers were big) and I loved every minute of it even though I didn't have a clue as to what was going on.
In second grade we learned that the Communists were closing in on us. They were already in Dodge City (incognito and under cover) and could be living next door. Our best friend could be a Communist. (Now that I think about it, it's a wonder we had friends at all, considering they were Occasions of Sin as well as Closet Communists.) Or, if not our best friend, perhaps her Dad was the Communist. We were warned--again and again--that the Communists might come to our second grade door at any moment and demand to know if we were Catholics. Dear God! Who in Hell would be attending Sacred Heart Grade School if they weren't a Catholic? Of course we were Catholics. Communists especially hated Catholics. Apparently, they were fine with Protestants. Being Catholics, we were obligated to always tell the truth and if someone asked if we were Catholics we must say, "yes." If we denied being a Catholic, we were telling a lie, but even worse, we would be denying God and THAT WAS A CAPITAL LETTER OFFENSE. And, I know you remember what that means.
When they came to our classroom door, they (the Communists) would ask us one by one if our parents were Catholics. And, we would have to tell the truth. Knowing that if we told the truth to save our soul but kill our parents, or perhaps just send them to the Gulag, was way too much for a second grader. As a matter of fact, I'm so upset right now just telling this story, I have to stop!
Oh...It's all right. I'm OK again...but wondering. Did this go on every day as I'm remembering, or was it just once or twice during the entire year? I have no idea. I couldn't even guess. I loved my second grade teacher, Sister Mary Michelle, and I'm sure she was telling us what she believed...or was told to believe. But, why didn't our parents speak up? Why didn't they pull me out of there and let me go to Central School where I wanted to be anyway? That makes me think of today's Home Schoolers who honestly believe they are saving their children from the horrors of public education and dangerous teachers with dangerous thoughts. The Home School advocates are on a mission. A mission that is wide and deep and sometimes dark and just doesn't make sense to most of us. Maybe that's what our parents were doing. Saving our souls and, in the process, saving their souls. They were charged with raising their children in the faith. They were charged with raising good little Catholics.
So--who would I have been if I had been allowed to attend Central School? I would still have been crouching under my desk avoiding the Atomic Bomb destruction resulting from a Communist attack, just like the little Catholics down the street would have been. But, other than that, the Communists would have left us alone. They, of course, would assume that a public school was filled with Protestants and that would have been enough for me.
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