This is me with a friend of mine, but I don’t know exactly which one of them.
In 1929 I went to a Polish school by the St. Mary Magdalene church. It was Catholic, but it also admitted Jewish girls.
There was a priest and an altar in the corridor, but Jewish students didn't have to pray. Nor did they have to attend religion classes, and they didn't.
The priest played with us, I have very nice memories of him, he was such a kind-hearted man, he played ring a ring o'roses with us and sleeping bear and all.
The discipline was harsh, we weren't allowed to have curly hair, and my mother was often called to the headmistress for curling my hair, and she had to swear they were curling by themselves.
In winter time you had to wear the beret straight, never at an angle. We had to wear those sailor-collar uniforms and ankle-length pleated skirts, which we pulled up after school. Brown stockings only. Brown leather shoes.
A white hat with navy-blue ribbons, which had to be starched so hard to hold firmly. In fact, they were very nice, those hats.
That's how we had to dress in elementary school. You weren't supposed to run, you were supposed to stroll.
Each class had its stretch of the corridor and there you were supposed to stroll. In the summer, each class had its tree to stroll around, you weren't allowed to run around the whole field.
When my grandfather came to throw me candy over the fence, he had to aim well so that I didn't have to run for it.
