Interversity.Org

Juniorate was a great time for me, even if I had to wear some 20 extra pounds of wool. I got good at it. I could dress in the morning in 20 minutes and no mirror! I had the routine down. The hat (cornette) was the biggest problem. It hurt my ears on the edges; I felt like I was talking down a tunnel all the time; and I had to wear it all day right up to bedtime. Then, I got to wear some very old people's stuff like a flannel nightgown (white) and a little white hat, well, more like a gang hat only it was to be rolled down over the ears.

In St. Louis, to live with its heat, to sweat, to get prickley heat all over, it was just part of being who I was. Problem: I knew who I looked like, but I had no clue as to who I was.

WE still had those 2 half-hours each day that we euphemistically called 'recreation'. That meant:walk and talk or sit and talk. On St. Vincent's day, July 19th, we got to play baseball with the kids from POSTULATUM. (Ah! memories of my black eye from back then.)

One thing I was definately sure of: I was not the kid from High School, for sure. I was so shy back then. I did do bulletin boards as part of the Student Council, but that was the limit to my art talent. I did take Art in High School from Sister deRicci, who was more concerned that we put the caps on the India ink bottles and used to call us "future mothers of America" which struck me weird. How did she know what each of us would be in the future?

In the Juniorate, I started to scribble, then draw, then I got good at it. I could draw angels and Daughters of Charity perfectly and Seminary Sisters and anything around me that I could see to draw. I never knew how good I was. Now I was illustrating the Christmas booklets for the 12 days of Christmas. I was drawing cartoons for the college newspaper. I was doing cutting of linoleum blocks and printing.

I was pretty good. Next came the writing about the pictures I drew. I learned something else: I wrote well. I don't mean grammatically, we all did that. I had heart/voice in what I wrote. So, the next thing released in me was the poetic muse. Even today, if I meet a former Daughter or a present Daughter they ask: written any new poems lately? I haven't really thought about poetry much since back then when the muse was set free. I just say, "some..."

Now, I went into play writing. Since we had to follow a given reading list, which I found to be a severe pain, I went after fairy tales and made them into plays. I knew my fairy tales well. I began directing plays I wrote on the college stage, that opened to the inside and to the outside. I learned about how to handle lighting on stage, and all about flats, how to paint, to hook, to move them in and out.

I have no clue as to how this welling up of creativity came to be, I only know it was.

Once I was editor of the college magazine, I could interview people. I think I told you all about that, but this time, I hooked a picture to this, so you can see what I looked like back then. I keep it so I can see what I looked like back then, as well.
(I'm the one on the right side and Sister Paul, who went to High School with me as well, is on the left.) Flannery O'Conner is in the middle without the Habit of the Daughters. She was 'real people' in many, many ways.

I hook another picture of what I looked like at age 24 because I don't recognize me. I could just as easily be looking at
Emmy Lou Kluzburger, for all the identity I had in my own head of myself. (This is in front of the Juniorate building.}