Ask the Next Poster a Question...

Give it a try, you might like it. I didn't think I would but I am totally hooked now. I listen on my walk to the train in the morning (30 minutes) then during the train rides (45 minutes) and also on car trips. I travel by car a lot on the weekends with the dogs, and much as I love music, sometimes when it's a long drive, like 2-4 hours, an audiobook is a great way to keep me awake and interested.

Did you read a lot as a kid?

Constantly. To the point that my 5th grade teacher told my mother that I read "too much." My mother smiled and nodded and my parents continued to buy me whatever books I wanted, without ever censoring anything I read. I should note that this same teacher, a nun from the Sisters of St. Joseph, also told us that 1. the people at the White Hen Pantry were Communists because they put the fresher milk at the back of the display case, forcing people to buy the older milk first 2. she was once in a hurricane in which the wind picked her up and deposited her on the other side of a six foot fence, so gently that she was completely unhurt and, my personal favorite, 3. we should pray for the souls of the poor Catholic children who couldn't afford to go to St. John's and thus had to go to school with the hellbound Protestants and even, it was whispered, the Jewish kids.

Did you ever have truly sick teachers when you were a kid?

*I should note that at the time, the annual tuition at St. Johns was $90, payable in three installments over the school year, $30 each. And that the notion of hellbound Protestants bothered me since my Dad's whole family was Protestant and they seemed like very nice people quite unsuited for and undeserving of the inferno that awaited them. Took me years to realize that maybe Sr. Julian was wrong about some things...

No, I left all of it behind me many years ago and consider myself unenrolled in any formal religion at this time. My mom goes to Mass every day (since my Dad died 10 years ago). She hastens to assure me that for her it's a great reason to get up and get out and walk every morning. I know it's a comfort to her, so I'm glad it works for her. I'm also glad she never, ever says anything to me about my choice to withdraw from that.

(Your nun must have been from the same roundup of misfits that brought Sr. Julian into our young, impressionable lives.)

Did you have nuns who wore the long black habits with all the heavy veiling, and the white things on the chest? We had a couple of those left when I was a kid, but they were retired and spent their time gliding up and down the halls striking terror into our hearts. We were taught to stand and say "Good Morning, Sister Edwarda/Sister Adunada" when we saw them. But mostly there were lay teachers by the 1970s. And a few nuns who wore "normal" clothes but always had militantly sensible shoes on.

Do you know anyone who became a nun/priest/etc.?

Just one, senior year in high school. I think she delivered within weeks of graduation. Nothing about it was a secret, though, she stayed in school and graduated with the rest of us.

I was in Catholic school up until 8th grade when I went to public school. I remember being shocked, utterly shocked, in 6th grade that some of the boys and a couple of the girls were smoking cigarettes in the corner of the schoolyard at recess.

Did you ever feel like, when the nuns would give a talk about how there are good kids and there are bad kids, they always meant you when they were talking about the bad kids?

Back then, constantly! :ugeek: :ugeek: :ugeek:

Now, not at all. :twisted:

Are you a worrier?

Oh, yes...same as you.

Can you believe it is already November (almost)?

Not to long

DO you have any guilty pleasures ?

I don't really have any.. Really


Last time you went Roller Skating?

It was me!!

No it wasn't - that was a lie.

Why am I so cold??