It was the Best of Times..........

It was the best of times ,it was the wost of times. This was another name for my years at a Catholic school.St.Paul's.

This will be an ongoing story about my years in the blue uniform and under the instruction of the Catholic Church and a wonderful group of Nuns.

We went to Confession at least once a week on Fridays or was it every two weeks?  Sorry but I just can't remember.  It was done during school hours so everyone had to participate. If you are not Catholic ,Confession is the rite that you used to confess your sins in front of a priest and ask for forgiveness from God. The priest gave you council and a list of prayers to say as penance. It was done in a small cubicle so the priest could not see your face.

Our teachers would prepare us every week by listing kinds of sins that most young children would be tempted to commit. I was a good son and caused my parents very little trouble. I did have a hard time some weeks trying to think of more than one or two sins I had committed. I don't know what other students did but I usually made a list of small sins and confessed to them. I did not commit most of them but it seemed safer to confess to a moderate list instead of acting like a saint in the confessional.

My  list of sins was fairly consistent. I would confess to sins like lying to my parents,  using bad language, and a few others. I always ended with confessing that I abused myself 10 times a week. I was not sure what that meant but it sounded good.  I always changed my voice in case the priest would recognize me. I copied the voice of Alfalfa from the Little Rascals on TV.

Because we were in a Catholic school we had no sex education.  I had no idea that self abuse was masturbation or the fact that almost everyone else did not consider it a sin but normal behavior.

In the 7th. grade a nurse gave our class a talk where I was able to connect self abuse and masturbation as the same thing. You must remember I was not always the sharpest tack in the box.

When I put two and two together I thought " Holy crap Gary you have confessed to masturbation hundreds of times to the priest.  He must think you were a little pervert."  Then I remembered my Alfalfa voice and relaxed. Alfalfa was the perv.

Later, as I grew I never confessed to any sexual act or dalliance. I figured I had already confessed to far too many sins I did not commit. That is why I have always been a big believer and supporter in Sex Education in the schools. Children should never grow up ignorant and always be armed with the truth and facts on every subject.