NUNS’ POCKETS AND UNIFORM BUTTONS!

As readers of this blog are aware, anyone with a connection to St Patrick’s is invited (nay, begged!) to send us stories, anecdotes, pictures, or anything to do with school days at St Patrick’s. Well, anything that won’t get us sued!

 ELIZABETH MEANEY

These two delightful little anecdotes are from Elizabeth Noseworthy née Meaney.

This story will have meaning for those of you who went to school before the Nuns got rid of their old, all enveloping habits, and Elizabeth’s younger brother, Doug, is really the star of the story.

Elizabeth was in Grade Four and her teacher was Mother John. Remember Mother John? She of the no ankle socks in summer and no slacks in winter! One day Elizabeth’s mother came to school to see Mother John and Doug, who is seven years younger than Elizabeth, was with her. Now Mother John, though a little eccentric, was a kindly soul and she always had something in her pocket as a reward for a good child or a right answer. But do you remember Nuns’ pockets in those days? What pockets they were!

The nun’s hand would disappear into a slit in the side of her habit and down, down, down she would reach before finally emerging triumphantly with the object of her search. Well, this particular day, little Doug was to be the recipient of Mother John’s munificence. Doug’s eyes widened in wonder as Mother John’s arm was swallowed up by her ‘pocket’. Then, to his amazement, the Nun straightened up and held out to Doug a plump and lovely orange! As you can imagine, the child was delighted as well as fascinated. Elizabeth didn’t say what Doug’s lasting memory of the occasion was but she and her mother never forgot Doug’s comment as they made their way home. In almost awestruck tones the little boy said, “Mother John gave me an orange, out of her stocking!”

Elizabeth’s other story is from Grade Six and some of those who were in her class that year may well remember it because it caused a fit of girlish giggling that did not meet with the approval of our teacher, Sr Mary Immaculata.

Now, all you classmates of Elizabeth’s just cast your minds back to Grade Six and the usual procedure at noon. At twelve, we all stood for the Angelus, and then knelt for the Rosary. This was followed by various Litanies. Finally, we went home for lunch, or as we called it then, dinner.

Now that you have the picture, we are all kneeling and escape is drawing closer as forty plus girls whiz through the response, “prayferus”, “prayferus”. Of course, as we kneel there we all have our hands reverently joined in front of our chests. Between the thumbs of her joined hands, Elizabeth is unconsciously twiddling a button on her uniform as Sr Immaculata works her way through the Litany of Loretto. Sr Immaculata, who was probably omniscient, sees this and somewhere between “Seat of Wisdom” and “Refuge of Sinners” she shouts “Elizabeth Meaney”. To this she receives a fervent response of “prayferus”!  Needless to say, this is followed by a fit of giggling which only subsides when Sister fixes one of her best glares on us.

Thanks for these two little anecdotes, Elizabeth. It was great to hear from you and I hope your reminiscences will encourage others to share theirs with us too.