Boarding school in Newport Vermont

The year was 1964 And I was nine years old. My parents and I got into our old station wagon for the very long 12 Hour drive to Newport,Vermont. my parents had decided to send me to Catholic boarding school because I was being bullied at the local public school. It was during segregation and both my parents were very political and thought that sending their nine-year-old to Vermont would help integrate. When we arrived in the town we saw there was one Woolworths, one hotel, and one diner. We got out of the car and everyone in the street stopped to look at the black people coming into their town. Some of the people told us they had only seen a black person on television And there were no other black people in the entire town. After lunch we drove up the winding pathway to The school which was on top of a mountain Near a lake. The school was all stone surrounded by trees and there was a church next-door. I was taken up to the dormitory where 31 other girls from all over the country were brought by their parents. I was the only black person in the school and in the town.

I spent three years at Sacred Heart school. On one adventure coming It was 1964 And I was nine years old. My parents and I got into our old station wagon for the very long 12 Hour drive to Newport,Vermont. my parents had decided to send me to Catholic boarding school because I was being bullied at the local public school. It was during segregation and both my parents were very political and thought that sending their nine-year-old to Vermont would help integrate. When we arrived in the town we saw there was one Woolworths, one hotel, and one diner. We got out of the car and everyone in the street stopped to look at the black people coming into their town. Some of the people they are told us they had only seen a black person on television.After lunch we drove up the winding pathway to The school which was on top of a mountain. The school was all stone surrounded by trees and there was a church next-door. I was taken up to the dormitory where 31 other girls from all over the country were brought by their parents. I was the only black person in the school.

I spent three years at Sacred Heart school. On one adventure coming home I took a 12 hour bus ride from Newport Vermont toNew York City. On my bus ride the bus driver’s son said to his father “why do I have to sit next to the N---er?”

One June when my parents came to pick me up to bring me back home it started snowing. The airport closed in September and didn’t open again until June because of the weather. We got snowed in for two weeks and nearly ran out of food. It took snowplows that long to clear a path because the snow was up past the doorway. Snow is still not one of my favorite things.

Our beds were all next to each other with curtain surrounding them and you had to make up your bed so stiff that Sister Henrietta could bounce a quarter off of it. I went to mass every day even though I was not Catholic but Baptist.

At school I was treated mostly like everybody else except one little boy called me the N-word. The nuns were having none of that and called his family in. In front of the entire student body they pulled down his pants and beat him with a paddle which had holes in it to let his meat run through. when I later left the school to go to high school I went to another boarding school in Portland Maine where I was the only black person in my high school.

Going to school in New England and then coming home to New York was always a big shock. Newport Vermont was a very small town. one night there was a fire and we all got out of bed and went outside in the snow in our pajamas. When we were allowed to come back into the school we had to get on our knees and pray for the safety of the school for about an hour before we were allowed to get back into bed. At school I took piano lessons, I learned how to knit and crochet, and I learned how to ice skate.

School was not all fun and games, Sister Henrietta slapped me one time because I wouldn’t wear what she wanted me to wear in church. I told my mother and my mother called the mother superior and told her that if that sister hit me again she was coming to the school and going to hit the sister because I was an obedient child and you don’t slap me. The other thing that happened at school was I had the flu and was put in the infirmary. When I got over a fever they sent me outside and callEd my mother. My mother asked where I was and I told her I was outside playing. She asked what the temperature was and they told her it was a brisk 20 below zero.

i will say that boarding school was one of the best things that my parents did for me. On the top of every piece of paper I writ’s for school I had to put “all for the glory of God”. My family is not Catholic but I attended Catholic school for seven years. I did not become Catholic too much guilt. But later I did become a Episcopalian which to me is Catholic light.

What I got out of boarding school was the ability to get along with a lot of people. I also got a well rounded education. Halloween at school was always a party since we didn’t go trick-or-treating, I came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, spring break and summer vacation. My parents called me weekly and sent me care packages. I got home sick occasionally but all in all I handled it well so by the time I got to high school being away from home was the norm.

When I had children of my own my oldest daughter went to the The Ethel Walker school in Simsbury Connecticut which looks more like a college campus than a high school. I wish I had gone to that school because it was so impressive and in 1993 it cost $20,000.my husband and I both worked overtime to send her there. Ethel Walker prepared her for college and she attended Bard. I am a firm believer that all teenagers should go to boarding school and be around their peers. I think that nine years old was a bit too young. I wouldn’t send my nine-year-old away but if I have grandchildren I hope they will go to boarding school especially someplace like Miss Porter’s or Ethel Walker.home I took a 12 hour bus ride from Newport Vermont toNew York City. On my bus ride the bus driver’s son said to his father “why do I have to sit next to the N---er?”

One June when my parents came to pick me up to bring me back home it started snowing. The airport closed in September and didn’t open again until June because of the weather. We got snowed in for two weeks and nearly ran out of food. It took snowplows that long to clear a path because the snow was up past the doorway. Snow is still not one of my favorite things.

Our beds were all next to each other with curtain surrounding them and you had to make up your bed so stiff that Sister Henrietta could bounce a quarter off of it. I went to mass every day even though I was not Catholic but Baptist.

At school I was treated mostly like everybody else except one little boy called me the N-word. The nuns were having none of that and called his family in. In front of the entire student body they pulled down his pants and beat him with a paddle which had holes in it to let his meat run through. when I later left the school to go to high school I went to another boarding school in Portland Maine where I was the only black person in my high school.

Going to school in New England and then coming home to New York was always a big shock. Newport Vermont was a very small town. one night there was a fire and we all got out of bed and went outside in the snow in our pajamas. When we were allowed to come back into the school we had to get on our knees and pray for the safety of the school for about an hour before we were allowed to get back into bed. At school I took piano lessons, I learned how to knit and crochet, and I learned how to ice skate. My piano teacher’s name was Sister Teresa and she lovedme. She loved me so much that one day she came in to class and saw that I had passed the test with an A and she said “did my angelface do that,? Well angelface stuck so for three years I was called Angelface.

School was not all fun and games, Sister Henrietta slapped me one time because I wouldn’t wear what she wanted me to wear in church. I told my mother and my mother called the mother superior and told her that if that sister hit me again she was coming to the school and going to hit the sister because I was an obedient child and you don’t slap me. The other thing that happened at school was I had the flu and was put in the infirmary. When I got over a fever they sent me outside and callEd my mother. My mother asked where I was and I told her I was outside playing. She asked what the temperature was and they told her it was a brisk 20 below zero.

i will say that boarding school was one of the best things that my parents did for me. On the top of every piece of paper I writ’s for school I had to put “all for the glory of God”. My family is not Catholic but I attended Catholic school for seven years. I did not become Catholic too much guilt. But later I did become a Episcopalian which to me is Catholic light.

What I got out of boarding school was the ability to get along with a lot of people. I also got a well rounded education. Halloween at school was always a party since we didn’t go trick-or-treating, I came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, spring break and summer vacation. My parents called me weekly and sent me care packages. I got home sick occasionally but all in all I handled it well so by the time I got to high school being away from home was the norm.

When I had children of my own my oldest daughter went to the The Ethel Walker school in Simsbury Connecticut which looks more like a college campus than a high school. I wish I had gone to that school because it was so impressive and in 1993 it cost $20,000.my husband and I both worked overtime to send her there. Ethel Walker prepared her for college and she attended Bard. I am a firm believer that all teenagers should go to boarding school and be around their peers. I think that nine years old was a bit too young. I wouldn’t send my nine-year-old away but if I have grandchildren I hope they will go to boarding school especially someplace like Miss Porter’s or Ethel Walker. My youngest didn’t have the grades to go away to boarding school but she needed to because she needed the structure.