HUNGER

All too often, boardings schools have been cursed with the memories of horrible food, sometimes not even edible. The students of Holy Rosary were served boiled meat, potatos, a piece of bread, and a small cube of butter. The students referred to the grotesque meals as "mush." Although butter seems like a small thing that we don't consider a great value, the children in my book viewed it as money. It was grand to receive such a treat! Since the children had no money, they bartered and gambled with the cubes of gold.

Bet You One Butter

One tiny cube per meal,
Legal tender.
Want a favor?
Cost you two butters.
Make a bet?
Butters for one week.
If you got caught,
Cost you ten demerits.

Hell, some kids
Never tasted butter for a year,

But we bartered,

We bet.

We paid our debts,

With those tiny cubes,

Legal tender,

Mission money!

Another section of this chapter revealed the high school relationships amongst the boys and girls. Wednesday was laundry, a day that the girls would deliver a fresh set of clothes for all the boys. Upon delivery, the boys and girls would discretely switch off letters for the ones that they were crushing on. None of the prefects ever caught on to the secretive acts of emotion. Ever so often, the students were given a dance to socialize. Friday was shower day. The process of showering was almost humiliating. Giago describes it as "shower days, a fine-tooth comb, kerosene, deloused, delighted, deserted, by our lovely girlfriends, until the kerosene wore off." Most students didn't seem to mind, since they all went through the same process of getting a headful of kerosene. When the dances began, nuns were quick to pull apart two teenagers who were closer than an arm's length apart. Two warnings and the night was over for whomever dared to test the short temper of the nuns. Most often, the boys would stand on one side of the gym and the girls on the other, until, that one brave boy would make the first move and ask a girl to dance. After the dance was over and the days moved on, the children would begin passing love letters once again.

IN MEMORIUM

The devastation of losing a peer can be just as bad as losing a family member. In this section of the book, the author goes into detail on his accounts of friendship and fellowship of his past schoolmates who have past away. He describes a few close friends whom he was extremely close with throughout his endeavors at Holy Rosary. Beginning with how they were acquainted, the author describes one good memory and one bad memory. He then goes on to describe the life that they lived or were rumored to have lived. Some died at a young age, some at an old age. All in all, they were his peers, and although they had their differences they all shared a strong bond and camaraderie, knowing that they were all going through the same experiences. There was one particular boy that he mentioned. You would never guess, but he was the school bully! Omaha, once tagged as a runaway, was a boy with an extraordinary story. He picked a sunny, crisp fall day to make his getaway and as the sun fell, so did the temperatures. He was caught in an unexpected blizzard that night. As he tracked through the white out conditions, he came across an old abandoned car and climbed in the front seat to take cover. The following morning, a search party was sent out for Omaha. When he was found, he was rushed to Omaha, NE. That's where his feet were cut off due to severe frostbite, hence the name, Omaha. Upon surgery, he returned to Holy Rosary and from that day on he was carted everywhere in a little red wagon. Although he had no feet, everyone knew not to bother him. He was like an elephant and if anyone teased or tormented him, he never forgot. If you were one of the unlucky kids that did bother him, he would repay you with an unexpecting punch to the stomach and knock the wind out of anyone who dared. Mr. Giago never went into detail of how Omaha had lived out his life, but he does explain that he often checks the obituaries to see who was the next classmate to pass away. When he identifies a name listed, he is once again reminded of the dark secrets that will be kept for eternity with that classmate.