Betting On Black: Catholic school kids are a different breed

If you went to Catholic school between the ages of 5 and 14, this will hit home. If you didn’t go to Catholic school, sit back and enjoy the journey. I was a Catholic school kid from kindergarten until a month into my senior year of high school. That’s a long time in Catholic school! My parents enrolled my brother and I into the Incarnation School in Ewing, NJ which was the same school that my mom went to. I don’t remember much about kindergarten but what I do remember is a lettered carpet that all of the students took naps on. I remember this because it was my favorite part of the day. Moving to 1st grade, I had a nun as my teacher and I was spooked. I’ve heard my mom talk about the stories of nuns being very disciplinary. Not my teacher! Sister Helen was awesome! I don’t think she would say the same for me because I met my best friend Karl in this grade and we wreaked havoc in her classroom.

Moving on to second grade, I met another best friend Bobby and if teachers thought Karl and I were “bad” together, Bobby and I took home first prize. Both of these guys are now super successful in their careers and are the exact opposite of “bad” kids. Now, I won’t go into detail on every grade but I can tell you a few things only catholic grade school kids know. We didn’t have lockers, we had closets where we hung up our jackets and put our lunch boxes. Those wooden closets were heavy as hell to open and they made a loud creaking noise. Wasn’t there a bottle of WD-40 laying around?  We didn’t move from classroom to classroom. We sat at the same desk and kept all of our books and supplies in said desk. A cafeteria? Not at my school. We ate lunch right at our desks. My teachers let us move our desks into squares so we could eat lunch with our friends. Yes, we had recess until we were in 8th grade. Public school kids are reading this and rolling their eyes but they are just jealous that we got to play basketball on a basket with no net and kickball on the blacktop.

In Catholic school, there was detention but it was rarely handed out. I was one of the rare cases to get detention a few times. Luckily our principal at the time was a huge Philly sports fan so I would sit with her and she would quiz me about Eric Lindros and the Flyers and if Ray Rhodes was the right coach for the Eagles. Not too bad, right? Instead of the very rare detention, if you were “bad..” you had to stand against the brick school building during recess and watch the others enjoy their free time. Myself and that brick wall became very good friends. Now, I wasn’t necessarily a “bad” kid. I did my homework, I tried to participate in class, I even tucked my yellow cardboard feeling polo shirt into my even more cardboard feeling grey pants. I just couldn’t stop talking to my classmates. I apologize to all of my teachers who had to deal with me talking during their lessons. I was kind of listening, I swear! I mean it makes sense that I’m a DJ on the radio that talks for a living.

Us Catholic school kids had to go to Church every Friday. I bet you any Catholic School kid could recite the words to “On Eagles Wings” or “Be Not Afraid.” Still to this day, I will randomly start singing “One Bread, One Body” and think to myself, somebody should remix this song. Then I tell myself “yo that is super sacrilegious, Donnie!” Where were we? Oh yeah. Catholic School kids… From the Flower Sales to Donut Days and McDonalds Day, to the Cinnamon chews at the snack cart with Sister Saint Zita, to the Book Fair, to our very own dances in our auditorium, Incarnation was our lives. Now, I don’t miss getting in trouble every day for talking in class but I do miss that feeling of knowing everyone and being a big fish in a small pond. I would go back to those days in a heartbeat. The only thing I ask is I don’t have to wear the Flynn O’Hara cardboard feeling uniform!