HESCH HISTORY

 Reminding ourselves of stuff we've almost forgotten...

I was reminded the other day about "early mass" when we were kids.  On school days, it was simply "mass" but on Sundays, you had the choice of 6:30 or 8AM.  The LATE mass (9:30?) was only for very devout Catholics or real dolts who'd slept thru the earlier masses.  They were on their way to hell anyway.

No, we weren't all that holy--it was that, to receive communion, you had to fast from midnight, remember?  No solid food, just a little water if you absolutely had to.  I think that rule was messed with by moms who said "liquid" was permissible cuz they were the ones who had to deal with cranky hungry kids.

Made by the janitor

On school days, after mass, we had bottles of milk to break our fast.  Did we have cookies or graham crackers too?  I don't remember, but I do recall getting to punch the tops of the milk bottles once in awhile.  There was small chunk of sanded wood with a drinking-straw size piece of pointed metal sticking out of one side.  YES, 6-year-olds were trusted with such a thing, and DUH--no one got hurt.  A case of bottles was 6 rows of 6 bottles.  The lucky kid that day tried to go fast, but to hit most bottle tops dead center.  Thing is, you never got the chance to practice much--we're talking 40 kids taking turns--so your turn came around every eight weeks.  Then a straw was stuck in each bottle...OMG, no one washed their hands first!  Horrors.

Yeah, 40 kids, one nun.  And some kids were better than others--at marbles, or math, at running or batting, at reading or telling a joke, or singing, or art...  and we never ALL won an award--what would be the point?

"Self-esteem"?  It certainly wasn't the parents' or nuns' job to make us feel GOOD about ourselves. And ya know, we turned out anyway.

Next time, let's talk about bike riding, and pin curls, and kids working around the house, ok?