About once a month we could hear a boy being paddled in the room next to ours, and once an eighth grader was paddled at an assembly for pulling a fire alarm, but the paddle wasn’t displayed when Mother Frances visited the third grade girls.
However, it would reappear one day in late April. Spring fever was rampant. The last traces of snow had disappeared, and the weather was warm enough to allow us to play outside with only a light sweater over our uniform jumper. Before the final bell at 3:00, we were squirming in our seats. When the bell would sound, we’d head straight to the schoolyard for a round of jump rope. On a particularly warm Thursday I had to stay after class for blackboard duty. I wiped the board, went outside to pound the erasers, and returned them to the classroom.