At lunchtime in Holy Child School we went downstairs to a big room which was partly below grade but had high windows on one wall. There were spartan benches to sit on as we ate our brown-bagged sandwiches. The walls, floor and ceiling were painted and there was a corner room containing two high windows. We could buy milk at one window if we had three cents. Certain kids lined up at the second window to be given a free sandwich and milk. We never questioned what this was about but later realized that they were from poorer families. Children of any parishioners could attend the school without tuition or charge of any kind.
As soon as we had done with the mouth-stuffing ingestion functions we headed for the stairs to the yard. One stair led to the boys' side and one to the girls'. The entire yard was luxuriously furnished with concrete pavement, chain-link fencing on two sides, and brick walls on the other two. No seating, no tables, no balls, no equipment. Well, we were allowed to sit on the wide stairwell leading down to the boys room. There was an imaginary line, a veritable Rubicon, separating the two gender sectors. To dare cross it drew the attention of whichever Sister or lay teacher was on armed guard duty. (Note: Actually, the monitor was not armed.)
We boys played games which required no equipment. Leapfrog required a number of boys standing in a row a few feet apart bending over at the waist. The rest would take turns by placing hands on each bent-over boy in turn and leaping over him continuing for the entire set of targets. After everyone has had a turn, a new set of targets would be selected. This highly precise operation would continue until some wisenheimer would deliberately land with a plop right on someone's back, knocking him over, and the ensuing ruckus signaled the official end of the game.
Another game was “Johnny-ride-a-pony” which required one boy to stand with his back to a wall and another to bend at the waist and plant his head into the others stomach as a buffer. One or two more also bent over in turn and placed his head against the butt of the first one and gripped his hips. Then individual boys would run toward the “pony” and using two hands on the back of the last in line to launch himself as far forward as he could to leave room for the rest. Once the pony was filled, the riders would wiggle and bounce to break the grips of the underlings. If that happened the whole thing would breakup in a maelstrom of recriminations, shoving and sulking. No fighting ever occurred because that was forbidden.
Another exercise in building team spirit was “Ring-a-leeveeo”. Two teams would form. One team would stand hand-in-hand across the yard to face the opponents. One by one, each of the opponents would launch himself at full speed against the line of joined hands. If he broke through, there was much yelling and cheering. If he bounced back, there was much yelling and cheering. This continued until it was time to swap positions and the yelling and cheering continued apace. Definitely, these were all games to sharpen the intellect and prepare us for afternoon lessons!
By sneaky peeks across the 'Rubicon,' girls could be seen behaving much more genteely. Hopscotch, with chalk-drawn boxes (the chalk ostensibly swiped from Sister's chalkboard) and rope-jumping seemed to be the main activities. It seemed mighty dull to us, but then again, girls were strange creatures after all.
Of course, if it was raining, we were able to stay in the aforementioned luxuriously-appointed lunch room. Whoever the monitor was for this scene from Dante's Inferno must have earned permanent exemption from purgatory--whatever that was.
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