Come on, Pre-Vatican II, pupil desks in straight rows, and the Sisters is habits that hid half of thier faces, I am sure someone has some stories to tell of good ole' Saint Rose.

All through the lower grades, the nuns would punish and chastise the boys for misbehaving while the girls would get a pass. But in the later grades, I remember a number of times when the nuns would separate the boys and girls, and warn us that the girls would lead us into "trouble" if we were not careful. I used to wonder exactly what they meant by that and assumed the nuns meant the girls would make the boys steal cars or something!

Les.......I can't stop laughing at that!

I can remember helping Sister Marion Anthony with her food shopping at the old A&P on Orange Street.
On occasion I would help carry her or some of the other nuns groceries back to the convent.
Hey, anything that might help my grades right?
Well, this one time I carried the groceries downstairs and much to my surprise it had to be laundry day because hanging all over the basement on lines were the sisters stockings and under garments.
I've got to tell you that I have never gotten over that day and I'm probably going straight to hell for even sharing that day with the rest of you.

I can remember a few instances where I had the "privledge" of carrying Sister's bookbag from the school to the inner sanctum of the convent. I don't know why I was chosen or if in fact it was some kind of punishment or a reward. Not being a great student, it must have been punishment. Anyway, there was a nun in the kitchen who did not teach or ever leave the convent. I did not know who she was. She might still be there.

Didn't Sister Marion Anthony sneak smokes on the side? Seems I remember that, but they again my brain ws so addled from beatings from Sister Regina Pierre before they shipped her off to the loony bin, I might be mistaken.

The wackiest story I can recall offhand is when Sister Miriam Eucharia told us that when she came over from Ireland as a little girl she was expecting to find "Red Indians" in New York, but when she landed, she discovered "they weren't red, they were black."

Do lay teachers count? There was Mrs. Clark and her bizarre fascination with the Collier brothers, those psychopathic 1940s hermits who walled themselves up with newspapers in NYC.

I remember a certain little Irish Sister, I think her name was Sr.Rita Gertrude, who bought me candy every Saturday at the afternoon movie in the auditorium. She also had the best response for anyone who needed the bathroom-----"ah, go ferever ya go!"

Well, when I attended the second grade at Saint Rose in the early 90's there were two sisters still there/ Sister Joan Hornent, who was a Sister of the Sacred Heart, and my teacher, Sister Joan Lorraine a Missionary Servant of the Blessed Trinity. Sister Joan Lorraine would always have our homework on the front board ready for us toopy into our assignmentpads first thing in the morning. Then we would turn in all of our homework after monring prayers. The wierd thing is that she would have everyone's work corrected and returned by to our desks when we returned from afternoon recess. We never saw her sit down, nor did she ever step out of the room. Wherever we were she was there also. But when I went to Our Lady of Lourdes in West Orange, then I met Sister Margaret Ann my fifth grade teacher, who used to tell me best friend that He had the "eyes of a liar". She would also always find a reason to send a letter home to my parents, and before her and after her I was always the "angel" of the class. It was only after I left fifth grade that Sister Margaret and I got along.

I, too, had Sr. Rita Gertrude in second grade. She always threatened to sprinkle red pepper on our tongues if we talked when we weren't supposed to be talking, and,just to prove she could burn our tongues if she wanted to, she'd whip a little spice container of hot red pepper powder out of her bottomless pockets and wave it in the air. I don't believe I ever saw her actually carry out the threat.
She used to nod off while sitting behind her desk, We lined up by rows against the cloakroom wall (in second grade the "cloak" room was in the classroom itself rather than out in the corridor) and read aloud about Dick, Jane, Baby Sally, Spot, Fluff, and, this being the Catholic version, Father Brown. Each of us read a page, and Sr. Rita sat there apparently sound asleep. Yet, when the last person in each row read aloud, she would look up and nod for them to all return to their desks as the next row headed for the cloakroom wall.
I think I heard that when the powers that be at Convent Station decided to transfer her from St. Rose's she locked herself in her room and just refused to leave. So, they let her stay. I remember her as really being a kindly old woman who was all bark and no bite.

I remember one of the girls in our 7th(?) grade class was an outspoken sort who liked to challenge the nuns almost daily. This one day our nun got fed up and locked this young lady in the supply room. (I think it was in the hall near the elevator.) As you might now better understand the aging human brain and what with this nun being busy with 45 other unrulely students, this girl was soon forgotten and we were dismissed without the nun unlocking the girl! It wasn't until much later that her parents, seeing an empty place at the dinner table, decided to check with the school and low and behold, she was still in the supply room!