We must have looked like a sea of blue, with all of the boys wearing light blue shirts and all of the girls wearing navy blue uniform jumpers over white blouses. The assemblies were directed by the principal, Mother Frances, a raw-boned Irish woman in her late thirties whose hair color was revealed only by the orange eyebrows that curved beneath the white cotton of her wimple. An imposing figure in her flowing black habit, Mother Frances was also vivacious and kind. However, at the first assembly I attended in 1961, she laid down the rules-no insubordination, no laziness, no playing the fool. She warned that “anyone who couldn’t behave like a dignified lady or gentleman” would “get it hot and heavy” from her.
Catholic School in New England2
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