All things being equal......... well never mind.

I think it was the third grade.  We were at recess.  I am sure I was being obnoxious, that was my way of telling Gwen that I loved her; that she was the light of my life; that where she would go, I would follow.

Well Gwen saw my adoration as annoying.  At some point, to give me a subtle clue to her deep desires for me, SHE HIT ME.

Being the sauvé gentleman that I was at that tender age, I hit her back.  One of the nuns saw the whole incident.  I was called into the school.  My memory is of a mature woman talking to me about the differences between man & women, boys and girls.

When this new educational tid bit was over, I was asked "So do you think you should apologize to Gwen?".  I know for a fact my response was "Well sister if she didn't want to be hit, she should not have hit me!"  I am sure I was in tears to sell my side of the exchange.

So for a week I was prevented for going to recess.  Oh yeah, I had to write 4 Million times "I will not hit girls".  Yeah, the nuns were biased.

And you're still trying to determine the difference...lol  Here is a story I remember from recess.  It was when we were in the old school, can't remember what grade.  We were playing football on the shell area next to the old court that still had light poles up.  John Caillavet took a pitch on a sweep and and was knocked into one of the light poles.  It had a nail sticking out of it and it punctured his head.  Lots of blood.

I remember when I broke my arm in 5th grade and Dr. Kent wouldn't let me play baseball on the concrete during recess (although how I thought I could play baseball with a cast more than halfway up my arm is a mystery), but my all time clearest memory is playing kickball at recess during 3rd grade.  I kicked the ball and took off for first base when all of a sudden, time seemed to stop and I saw everyone turning to stare.  I turned to check out what everyone else seemed frozen by and to my horror, I saw the ball I had just kicked go sailing onto the top of Sr. Raphael's head almost knocking her entire veil off.  And to make it worse, she was talking with Fr. Joe when the ball hit her head.  I knew I was dead, but Sr. Raphael took her hands, cupped the whole veil, wimple thing and shoved it back onto the top of her head (it had been knocked down to about nose level).  I had the sense to walk over to her (and to a glaring Fr. Joe) to say, "I'm sorry, Sister."  She endeared herself forever to me when she replied, "Don't worry, dear.  It was an accident."

One of my memories during PE on the concrete court outside of the old school was when Patricia Rigler slung the bat  after hitting the ball.  The bat flew right across Geralyn's mid section knocking the wind out of her.  The look on Geralyn's face scared the heck out of me.  I know that must have been the worst pain!  Needless to say, we all got a good lecture on how to drop the bat after hitting the ball.

From all of your stories I am surprised that Geralyn survived St. Mary's.

Remember Mrs. Tilley's house in the first grade.  Sometime during the year John Gauthier went into the bushes, came out and convinced us that the "Purple people eater" had landed, spoken to him and was scheduled to come back and get John to take him with him--wherever he came from.  How lame ... but at the time that was horrifying.

I'm surprised that Geralyn survived St. Mary's on many levels, not the least of which was the baseball bat in the stomach!