By Donald Moser
ADDENDUM B: Donald Moser’s Catholic Schooling
As the author of this book, I asked several men of my generation to tell their stories of Catholic schooling. The best essay came from Donald Moser, who today resides in Fond du Lac. The only caveat is that he attended school in the rural town of his birth, Nenno Wisconsin, located 27 miles south of Fondy. Also Donald was the only Boomer to contribute to this book. Donald grew up and went to Catholic school from 1955 to 1963.
Donald Moser’s Story in his own words. . . .
My dad Gilbert Moser served in the Second World War with the Army Air Corps . As a trained aircraft mechanic, he served in stateside air bases stateside during the entire war. He returned to Nenno after his discharge and married Lucina Thull who became Mrs. Moser, my mother. They settled down on a farm of eighty acres with a herd of twenty dairy cows. My family harvested hay, corn, and oats on sixty of those eighty acres. My dad Gilbert always had part-time jobs as well, working the night shift. Therefore, when I entered the seventh grade, I had to put in to two hours of early morning farm labor. I rose from bed at 4:30 a.m. and helped my mom Lucina with the mornings’ milking while my father Gilbert returned from the night shift and had to sleep in. He worked part-time as a welder on the second shift of a metal fabrication plant nearby in Menomonee Falls. The early milking time was to be sure I was finished in time to meet the carpool that delivered me to the door of Saints Peter and Paul School in Nenno, a hamlet of about one hundred people.
Nenno had two school systems at that time, one public and the other Catholic. Saints Peter and Paul educated about 120 students in any given year, divided up into three separate classrooms. I had three nuns as teachers over the eight years I attended Saints Peter and Paul school. Sister Nathaniel taught grades one through three. Sister Angelorum handled grades four, five and six; while Sister Kalis taught grades seven and eight. All were very dedicated, well educated, fair, and patient. Discipline was tight, as each nun ran a no-nonsense classroom, placing emphasis on reading, writing, arithmetic along with some art and music appreciation.
We students attended Catholic Mass on a daily basis. Manners, good behavior and citizenship formed part of our lessons. An American flag was in each room and students in each of the three classrooms recited the “Pledge of Allegiance” in the mornings. Technology was limited to overhead projectors. Because the basic necessities were provided by their primary religious order, the Sisters of St. Francis, these nuns earned very little pay, The parish of Saints Peter and Paul provided housing for them, which was located next to the school and church. Class sizes varied from fourteen to eighteen students. In the eighth grade, the school sponsored an educational trip for the upcoming graduates. Mine was a chartered bus trip with stops in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Our school was a two-story brick building, about 60 years old in the 1950s. A wall separated the two classrooms downstairs and grades four, five, and six occupied the one room upstairs. One class room downstairs contained the beginning three grades and the other one served the seventh and eighth graders. We often absorbed our information from two or three different grades at the same time through “osmosis.” That is, our teachers handled up to three grades so we would hear our nun while she taught other levels while we focused on our own grade’s lessons.
In my experience, I found that the nuns were very human. My generation of nuns did not use rulers as a disciplinary tool, even though those did during my father’s generation. I’ve heard from folks who attended public schools at that time who stated that the “ruler” was used there as well. The black gown that the nuns wore led to the speculation that they were all mean, which is far from the truth from my perspective. Yes, nuns could look formidable and cold in their strange black and white “habits” (uniforms) with their hair cut short and covered in starched cloth. Therefore, some fabricated stories circulated regarding their intimidating presence. Personally, my “daydreaming” in class was handled with a call to my parents. It was quite effective! Coming to my desk and getting my attention by rubbing my scalp vigorously happened on occasion.
In general, the nuns saw the good in all of us and sought to have us take pride in our abilities and make the best of them. The value of a strong work ethic was not lost on us students. This served me well throughout life. The nun I had as teachers saw something special in this little undisciplined farm boy, and their big smiles made me feel special.
The Parish of Saints Peter and Paul did not collect tuition payments from families sending their kids to its Catholic school in Nenno. Instead, “church dues” were expected to be paid by parishioners according to their individual means. Considering the large size of many Catholic families at the time, the parish’s educational outlays had to be quite large. For instance, Gilbert and Lucina Moser send all ten of their daughters and sons to the Saints Peter and Paul school. To my knowledge, no public funding was provided to parochial institutions at the time. My parents often complained that they had to pay double to get their children educated: once for the local county and township taxes and secondly through parish church dues.
We lived three miles from school. Private automobiles served the task of getting the country students into school on time. My family carpooled us Moser children to grade school with the kids of one other family near our farm, the Feucht’s. My grandfather (Emil Moser) drove several kids to school in Nenno in the afternoons in his 1951 green Chevrolet, and a neighbor (George Feucht) drove in the mornings in his black ’52 Buick.
I remember that the smell of tobacco products was prevalent in both vehicles. Incidentally, the Catholics in these heavily third-generation German communities frequently complained that the roads were where Catholics predominately farmed were bad. We tended to blame the numerous county board members—who were Lutherans—for making sure that the roads used by us Catholics languished in disrepair.
[Jon’s intervention here: Interestingly, this is the first mention of carpooling in transporting kids to school. Readers should take into account that young Donald Moser was a “Boomer,” and cars had become even more prevalent in the late 1950s than they were in the late 1940s. In my earlier generation, some high school students—including young women—were beginning to drive to high school in their own cars.]
Nenno’s Catholic school was located on a rather steep hill. For recreation in winter, we students engaged in a lot of snow sledding. The nuns themselves were no strangers to sledding. On weekends, they also took part in too. One young nun, Sister Juvenil, had an accident and ended up with a leg cast for quite a while. Fortunately, she had a sense of humor, which was a good thing for she took her share of kidding. We students played softball during warm weather as our main intermural team sport because our school building had no gymnasium for basketball and gymnastics.
On graduating from Catholic elementary school, I attended the public high school in Campbellsport. Others of my former parochial classmates finished their high school studies in nearby towns such as Hartford, Mayville, and Slinger. My high school class in Campbellsport numbered around sixty graduates, as I recall. As for organized sports, we farm kids had our first exposure to football and basketball in high school. Many farm boys like me could not participate in high school sports due to family farm work responsibilities. Many of us had to get- home in the afternoon to help milk the cows. Nonetheless, high school coaches appreciated our sturdy bodies and felt fortunate when some of us could participate in football and basketball because there was no need for weight training with farm boys!
High school girls participated in intramural sports but not in the inter-scholastic leagues. Schools did not sponsor girls basketball, baseball, and/or volleyball teams until Congress passed Title Nine legislation in 1972 that prevented discrimination of female athletes in public schools.