A cliché

I grew up in a very Catholic town (and in fact, have moved back here as an adult) filled with Catholic schools.  *Everyone* (at least pretty much everyone I knew) went to Catholic school and I was no exception.  I went to St. Paul the Apostle for grade school -- following in my mother's footsteps -- and then went on to St. Francis Academy -- a college preparatory school for girls -- again following in my mother's footsteps. 

Yes. . . I said for girls. 

The cliché begins.

Are you picturing wool plaid skirts?  (Actually polyester blend by the time I was in high school.)  White shirts with Peter Pan collars? You would be correct.  No boys to be found in the halls before or after school (well, unless you count band members who had practice first period.)  And our dean was in fact a Catholic nun -- Sr. Sue.  I have a vivid memory of her yanking on the tail of my blouse which was *gasp* untucked on one of the hottest days of the school year.

Then there was the ultimate cliché -- taking 4 years of Latin from Sr. Irene.  The final two years were spent translating Vergil's Aeneid from Latin.  Oh. My. God. 

What made me think of all this?   I just finished reading this:

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin is the retelling of the Aeneid from the perspective of Lavinia -- Aeneas' wife (or last wife, as the case may be).  It was an interesting read and I enjoyed the story which brings a very human perspective to Vergil's epic poem.

And best of all -- it is written in English.  Ha!

Comments

[rebecca]

oooooooooo, i don't know lavinia. and here i thought i was up on all my ursula k. leguin! thanks for the tip, may have to add it to my list of summer reading.