This ID picture used to be my favorite from high school. Looking at it today, I'm not as pleased with it. When I was taken to shop for school clothes for my junior year, I was disappointed that the cuffed bell bottom pants from the previous year were not in the stores any more. My junior year was marked by the trouble I was in. My grades were OK as I recall. No, the trouble was that I smoked. Got caught smoking in the bathroom once and got caught returning to campus during the school day after smoking a cigarette. It was against the rules for us to smoke on campus and it was also against the rules to leave campus during the school day. De La Salle's campus extended for a two-block radius. Don't remember if I got caught on campus first and left campus the second time or got caught off campus the first time and took my chances on campus the second time.
I was in trouble at least one more time but I don't remember why. For punishment, the Christian Brothers, particularly the disciplinarian, liked to make us memorize and recite poetry. My first detention saw me recite Abou Ben Adhem. It remains my favorite poem. I look it up occasionally because I can't recite it any more. The thing about reciting poetry to Brother Justin was you couldn't skip a word or mix the words up because he knew the poems cold. If you messed up, you sat down and went over it for a few minutes until he was ready to hear you again. They got progressively worse if you had to see him again. The next one was Jabberwocky, which gave me fits. I couldn't stand it. It's Patsy's favorite and she CAN recite it. I can't put two words of that monstrosity together. The last was The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Yeah, he was tired of seeing me. Despite its length, this one was easier for me to recite than Jabberwocky. This was all first semester nonsense. I straightened myself out.
Just an aside: Brother Justin is the only person I remember showing the picture of me holding my twin baby sisters. "They're beautiful. They look just like you with their brown hair and wide open brown eyes."
Well, the things you learn on the Internet. I like DeLaSalle's method of discipline. Leave the parents out of it, let the child learn a poem that might have meaning in his later life, and then, above all, stay friends with the student. Makes a lot more sense to me than the way it's handled today. Today's discipline event must be handled in a legal way, with plenty of witnesses and layers of discussion, copies of the report to thirteen different officials . . . on and on. And still the schools are messy and troubled. DeLaSalle was never that -- am I right?
And the picture is another winner. A beautiful boy.
I don't know, Mom. Just two days ago, no one liked what I endured as a freshman at this same school. I don't think I ever considered Brother Justin a friend. He was De La Salle's Sister Catherine. He frightened and humiliated us way more than those seniors ever did.
Hey Rob, any chance you or one of the others would be able to scan in the picture you mentioned of you with the twins? I would love to see that. I should see if Laura can scan in or send to you one of the pictures we have of Mike's twin granddaughters. They are almost 2-1/2 now. They are fraternal, but they look identical. The only way I can tell them apart is that one of them has bangs in her hair. I think that one is Hailee (the other is Kylee). I'd also love to see cousin Mary's twins.
If they're sent to me, Joan, I'll be happy to post them. I was doing a great deal of that early in the blog's existence but got away from it.
As for that picture of me holding Angela and Christina, I'll look through my box of photos but I honestly don't think I have that one. They were infants.
Mom,
Do you know which one I'm talking about and do you have it?
No, I don't remember that picture at all. I will lift my one-ton box of miscellaneous material down from my closet shelf as soon as I can, or as soon as someone else does it for me.
On another note, why did you show Brother Justin the picture if he wasn't your friend? The word "friend" is loosely woven, from "not my enemy" to "I love this person" so I'm sure he fit somewhere in there, unlike Sister Catherine who definitely became "the enemy," due to the fear she inspired. Although I don't think you were every afraid of her, were you?
March of 1973 was my sophomore year. I think I showed it to him then. I had one girl in each arm. I don't remember how it came about. I just remember his reaction.
No, Sister Catherine didn't bother me. She wasn't my favorite but I didn't fear her like the girls did. Sue instilled the fear about Sister Catherine in the twins.
Rob, I remember the picture. I haven't seen it in forever. One of the twins might have it, though.
Did you have to remember all of the Mariner poem? I clicked on it and discovered how long it was? That Lewis Carroll poem surely qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment! What happened to the dull witted who couldn't memorize?
I rarely enjoy poetry and so that it was used as punishment makes sense.
SISTER CATHERINE!!!!!! In your stories I never equated Brother Justin to Sister Catherine. I was thinking the same thing as your Mom - I thought what a great punishment and out of it you got a love of poetry and a friend. Equating Brother Justin to Sister Catherine puts a whole new spin on your punishment. Believe me - Sue had every right to instill the "Fear of God" in the twins with Sister Catherine - she was being a good big sister. I'm sure all of you remember my "now famous" story about Sister Catherine. She definitely instilled "FEAR" in me. You brought back very bad memories with the mention of her name. She probably scarred me for life. :0)
I'm going to look through my box tonight or this weekend, Elizabeth. If I have it, I missed it the first haphazard time through the box. I definitely would have posted it had I seen it. Yes, I memorized and recited the whole thing all at once. I think I got it 100% right on the 2nd try. Once you recited it correctly, you could leave. Those who couldn't do it would leave at closing time (7PM or so) and come back the next day. It never happened to me but it did happen to others. I don't know how many times this would go on if they still couldn't get it. Yes, Lewis Carroll is not my favorite. I think we studied that silliness in English class, too.
In high school, poetry was not a "guy thing", Carol, and that's probably why it was chosen as punishment. It's effective and there are some benefits to the student.
I like some poetry but I wouldn't say I have a love for it, Barbara. For me, Brother Justin was worse but I suppose they both had some method to their madness.