Then there was the day at Our Lady of Prompt Succor that we were all marched out of our classrooms and onto the playground at the school’s main entrance. It was not announced as a fire drill. The entire school stood in lines and waited. After a time, we returned to our classrooms. Later, a story circulated that we had been marched out in the open to determine whether the school was harboring any black pupils. Who was doing the verifying I never heard.

Site of my first and only public spanking for eating my lunch during class time, and trying to impress Melanie Ybarzabel, my first grade girlfriend (tho she had no idea of that status, of course) “We’ll go see lites in St. Bernard And what they got that’s gone… Atlantic Thrift…Ain’t dere no more Drug store […]