A Boy's Perspective
Life in the German St. Vincent Orphan Home,
Normandy, Missouri 1933–1944
By Carl M. Bauer
The classic definition of the term orphan is "a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents." There are other instances in which children are considered orphans, however, and that was the case with Carl M. Bauer and his siblings. During the Depression, children were sometimes relinquished to orphanages when their parents could no longer care for them. Often the hope was that this would be a temporary placement. In Carl’s case, when he “graduated out,” he went back to live with his mother and was able to help support her by working.
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| Exterior photograph of German St. Vincent Orphan Home in Normandy, Missouri. From German Saint Vincent Orphan Association Centennial 1850–1950 Souvenir Program. Nies-Kaiser Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. | |
Introduction
June 2007 marked the 157th anniversary of the founding of the German St. Vincent Orphan Home (now called the St. Vincent Home for Children), and the German St. Vincent Orphan Association. The Home is located at 7401 Florissant Road, Normandy, Missouri; it was previously located at 1421 Hogan Street in St. Louis. The Association, an incorporated body founded in 1850, has successfully conducted the affairs of the Home since that year. Others may give the history and development of the Home over the many decades since its founding; my account here will attempt to give a general overview of life at the Home, for children dispossessed of one or both parents during the mid-Depression years of the 1930s, into 1944.
I was registered at the Home in mid-1933 at the age of three, along with one younger and two older brothers, as well as two older sisters. A younger sister was also placed in the Home several years later as a toddler. During those years, I lived as an institutionalized orphan, experiencing early development at the nursery and kindergarten levels, the first- through eighth-grade years, and then graduation from the Home in June 1944.
As I look at the Home today, with its vast instruction and curriculum changes, its modified boarding accommodations, its restricted and structured places of accessibility, its drab and lusterless appearance in certain areas, its aura of unhappiness, and the very small number of children there (fewer than 40, whose admittance is no longer factored by orphan status, but usually rather by court order), I remember with profound sadness the Home as it used to be, as it was when I was a child there for 11 years. How happy and meaningful those years were for me and so many other orphaned boys and girls who passed through its doors.
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A group shot of boys in grades 1 through 8 living at the German St. Vincent Orphan Home in 1937. The author is standing in the first row, second from the right. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer.
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I remember the love and attention given by the Sisters of Christian Charity who served as surrogate parents to well over 200 children at any one time. When I entered the Home in 1933, there were approximately 100 boys and 100 girls, plus the nursery and kindergarten children. I remember the playmates who became close as brothers, the friendships developed for a lifetime, the deep religious feelings gained through daily Mass, religion instructions, and special seasonal Catholic Church festivities. I remember how clean and neat we kept our bedrooms, playrooms, dining rooms, classrooms, bath and washrooms, and all living and activity places. I remember much and miss the Home as it was then. We loved our Home, the Sisters, the maintenance staff, the women lay volunteers, and our fellow orphans.
Nursery and Kindergarten
Life in the nursery-kindergarten for a scared, bewildered three-year-old boy was made less stressful through the mother-like attention of Sister Alypia, my first surrogate parent. My arrival at the Home must have been a traumatic one. Finding myself in a strange new place, with strangers all about, the Sisters all dressed in black habits, and my older brothers and sisters nowhere to be seen, I must have been a real handful for dear Sister Alypia. I really do not remember my arrival, but I do have special memories of the three years I spent under Sister’s care and love.
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| The Home’s youngest residents pray before going to sleep in their cribs. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 106th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1956. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. | |
The memories are many: hiding behind Sister’s apron on Halloween when the older boys and girls in the Home, dressed to frighten, came to the door and by the windows, some stomping baseball bats on the ground and yelling and screaming, literally scaring the wits out of the young children in her care; ripping apart old rags and cloth to make “straw” for the annual Easter baskets; drinking our milk from aluminum cups; attending daily Mass in the chapel balcony and wondering why we could not have the little round white cookies that the older children were receiving at the communion rail; taking our daily naps on the wooden benches in the playroom area; being especially quiet during the annual Religious Retreat periods; daily alphabet and numbers training in the kindergarten classroom; the beautiful decorated tree and nativity scene in the classroom at Christmas; the large music box with its steel records, playing mostly patriotic music.
School Life
On the day after Labor Day, 1936, I was escorted to the first/second grade classroom, along with the other boys and girls eligible to advance from kindergarten to the first grade. The day after Labor Day always signaled the start of the new school year for all grades at the Home. During this time period, Sister Alvira taught grades one and two. Subjects included spelling, reading, basic arithmetic, drawing, penmanship, and much more. With penmanship, Sister would very painstakingly hold the hand of each student in turn as necessary, to form and write each letter of the alphabet, and to connect the letters to form words. We learned correct and neat penmanship in this manner, and to this day I’m sure that my penmanship mirrors Sister’s, for which I am extremely grateful. Sister Alvira was a very patient, skilled, and dedicated teacher.
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| Students display their artistic ability in a watercolor paint lesson. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 107th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1957. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. | |
All four elementary-grade classrooms held two grades each, first/second, third/fourth, fifth/sixth, and seven/eighth grades. Boys and girls sat on opposite sides of the room, and one Sister was assigned the task of teaching all subjects to both grades separately, a responsibility handled expertly by all of the Sisters concerned.
Along with being excellent teachers, they were equally adroit disciplinarians. (They were, after all, Germanic-trained, and at times discipline was necessarily enforced and “administered,” but with restraint and kindness.) During my stay at the Home, Sister Alvira, as mentioned previously, taught grades one/two, Sister Gilbert (since renamed Margaret Mary), grades three/four, Sister Specioza, grades five/six, and Sister Meinulpha (later appointed Administrator and Mother Superior of the Home), grades seven/eight. While we did not suffer with homework, the hours of study during class periods were intense and thorough. All graduating classes were as fully prepared (if not more so) to advance to high school, as students who received a normal St. Louis Public School elementary education at that time.
Most of the children educated by the Sisters of Christian Charity at the Home went on to achieve success in all of the high-powered professions. Some of the children developed an avocation to a religious life and became nuns and priests; others succeeded as educators, business executives, lawyers, doctors and dentists, law enforcement officers, local, state or federal government officials, and many other important professions. Many returned as military heroes of several of our wars; some did not return. (The very first World War II casualty from St. Louis was a boy raised in the Home: Frank Funk was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.)
Boys in grades one through four were called “small boys,” whereas those in grades five through eight were “big boys.” Both groups occupied separate playrooms and lockers for clothes, toys, and other personal items—two boys to one locker. One became a “big boy” when he advanced to the fifth grade, on the first day of the new school year. The Home had its share of friendly hazing, and upon becoming a “big boy” the upper-class boys chased us, caught us, and then applied a short whipping to the seat of our pants—a few good whacks and it was over. We all had our turn at it, and it was no big deal; no one was ever really hurt.
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Rev. Robert Slattery, resident chaplain, awards a diploma to a student for graduating eighth grade at St. Vincent. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 108th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1958. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. |
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Graduation from the eighth grade was a very special event. I don’t know about the girls, but the boys could leave the Home for one day with a parent, relative, or guardian several weeks before graduation. The purpose was to buy and have fitted our very first-ever long pants suit to wear at the graduation ceremony. Graduation was always held on the second Sunday in June in the chapel, as part of the Mass service celebrating the annual Anniversary Day celebration of the founding of the Home and Orphan Association. (From kindergarten until graduation day, the boys wore knickers, which buckled just below the knees. We all felt very grown up walking down the center aisle of the chapel, in full view of all, wearing our new suits with long pants.)
Unlike the boys who left the Home on graduation day, the graduating girls were required to spend one additional year at the Home, rounding out their homemaking education. Some girls were pleased with the arrangement, most were not. But there were no future regrets that I am aware of, based on the word of my two sisters who learned much from the additional training.
Dormitory Living
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Example of a dormitory at St. Vincent. The children made their beds daily, lining the beds up in a straight line down the room. From German Saint Vincent Orphan Association Centennial 1850–1950 Souvenir Program. Nies-Kaiser Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. |
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The dormitories were located on the third floor, and naturally in separate wings of the building. From the very first night in the dormitory for the first/second grade boys, to the night before leaving the Home upon graduating, we group-prayed, with a long, memorized prayer, on our knees, by the side of our beds. As with the classrooms, each dormitory held two grade classes. I remember one summer when the dormitories were being painted, the beds from the room being repainted were lined up in the hallway, as many as could fit, and some boys would be able to sleep in those beds. Leftover boys were forced to sleep with either a brother or a friend in another dormitory, in one bed, head to foot. Smelly feet didn’t help the situation!
Stories about Sister Flaviana alone would make wonderful chapters in any book. She was, in fact, supervisor over the maintenance staff, and she was always affectionately called “the boss” by the staff and the children. She let you know at all times that she was in charge of everything. Of course, no one ever called her “the boss” to her face.
Most of the upper-grade children on both sides of the Home learned to tell the identity of many of the Sisters by the cadence of their key ring bouncing against the long rosary hanging from the sash at their waists as they walked along. We skedaddled if the “wrong” Sister (some were more liked than others) was coming around a bend in the hallway or approaching a closed door.
Of course, we had the daily ritual of making up our beds, with chairs and beds in an exact straight line down each side of the long room, floors swept and dust-mopped and all appurtenances dusted and polished. No military barracks anywhere could have been more ready at any time of the day for a command inspection than were the dormitories of the German St. Vincent Orphan Home during those years.
Finally, I remember looking out of a dormitory window facing Florissant Road at night during the Christmas Season, and seeing the decorative lights in windows of the private residences across the road. They were the most beautiful lights I had ever seen, and I stayed on my knees for what seemed hours looking and being completely fascinated by them. At the time, it was my wish to be able to live in one of those homes.
Work Assignments
Children in all of the grades were assigned specific chores to be accomplished each day, with work assignments changing every six months. When the day arrived to announce the assignment changes, we waited with eager anticipation, and some trepidation, to view the work postings to find out what our new assignments would be. Teams were assigned to the dining rooms, playrooms, halls, stairways and landings, dormitories, the auditorium and chapel, and bath and washrooms. The most dreaded work assignment was the dining room, as it meant picking up the food in large containers from the kitchen, serving the food at each place-setting, cleaning up after meals, washing and putting away the dishes, and setting places with dishes and utensils for the next meal. All of this took time—valuable playroom and playground time. The changing of work assignments every six months assured that each boy and girl received thorough training in all work areas during their stay at the Home. We learned to work together as a team. Of course, the girls were assigned chores in their side of the Home and the boys in our side. The classrooms and auditorium-chapel areas were relegated to the boys, and the girls handled the laundry, sewing, cooking, baking, and nursery-kindergarten assignments.
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| All children had chores at the home. Girls were assigned tasks such as cooking, laundry, and sewing. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 106th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1956. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. | |
Most of the bigger and stronger boys were given additional assignments assisting the maintenance men with picking fruit and grapes, spading flower gardens, grass cutting, snow removal, and other tasks as required. Working outdoors was not only fun, it beat the drudgery of indoor “woman’s work.”
Saturday was the most important day of the week, as this was the day we received our “pay.” Pay in this case was a handful of hard candy left over from Christmas donations to the Home.
All functions, including work, were controlled as to start and finish times by the ringing of a rather large handheld brass bell. The appointed Sister would stand in the hall outside of the chapel and toll church time, mealtime, playtime, school time, and bedtime. The bell could be heard in all areas of the Home.
Identification Numbers
All of the children were assigned a personal identification number when they entered the Home at either the nursery-kindergarten level or at the grade-school level. The number assigned at the lower level remained with the child until the first grade; that assigned at the grade-school level remained with the child until graduation or otherwise leaving the Home permanently. I remember my number in kindergarten was 8, and upon entering the first grade it was changed to 74. My brothers were numbered 52, 83, and 59—Edward, Lawrence, and Vernon, respectively. (I can still recall from memory over 50 numbers and the names associated with them of boys I knew at the Home.) The numbers were sewn on labels or indelibly marked in the clothing, including stockings (no one ever wore socks there), underwear, shirts, ties, pants, sweaters, coats, jackets, gloves, and caps.
It is not difficult to understand why a numbering system for clothing (and for other uses) was so important and necessary. Sorting of laundry items alone for hundreds of children would otherwise have been a nightmare.
Playtime
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Girls play outside during recess at St. Vincent. From German Saint Vincent Orphan Association Centennial 1850–1950 Souvenir Program. Nies-Kaiser Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. |
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In winter, playtime was limited mostly to sledding, snowball fights, and building ice forts. When it didn’t snow there was skating, football, and basketball. In the playrooms we had card and board games, comic books and other reading material, and one of our favorite pastimes, model airplane construction. We never lacked for toys, and there was always a roomful of playmates. We really felt very fortunate to be in such an environment, and deeply missed it after we left the Home. (Consequently, almost every Sunday at least 10–15 recently graduated boys [and girls] visited the children still in the Home, playing various sports with them depending upon the season.) In the summer, there were various baseball and handball games, cowboy, Indian, pirate, and cavalry games, a hide-and-catch-me type of game we called “pow-pow,” ragball games, roller-skating, rubber-tipped dart-gun games, and several types of made-up games. I remember one such game when opposing teams started out with one team approaching the other team, faced each other in a line, and the following words were yelled: “Here we come!” to which the approached team would respond, “Where from?” and the responses and questions continued: “New York,” “What’s your trade?” “Lemonade” “Give me some,” “Ain’t got none,” Make some.” I think the idea was to then perform a pantomime act that was to be guessed by the approached team, after which the team roles were reversed. It was fun at the time.
The girls had their side of the large playground and the boys their side. No mixing of boys and girls at play was allowed. Brothers and sisters could meet and visit with each other, but in a designated area at the outside back of the chapel, in full view of everyone, in the very center of the playground.
Special Days
Visiting Sunday
The second Sunday of each month was known as Visiting Sunday. That day, the children, all dressed in their best finery and clean as a button, waited for parents, relatives, or guardians in the playrooms after the noon meal, to be called when our visitors arrived. In cold or rainy weather we visited in the auditorium or on folding chairs in the hallways. When the weather permitted, we waited in our respective pavilion until our visitors arrived, and we sat either on benches around the tree boxes or on folding chairs and long benches scattered about the large playground areas. A Euchre Card Party was held semi-annually for fundraising purposes, and those occasions became “special visiting days” for the children.
Lent and Easter Sunday
Lent through Holy Saturday was a special time of prayer devotions. It seemed as if a holy peacefulness descended on everyone in the Home—Sisters, the children, and even the maintenance staff. We felt especially close to Jesus at that time and really dreaded the pain and agony that we just knew He would again be suffering during the Holy Week of Easter. I remember one year, while I was in the first grade, at about 3 p.m. on Good Friday, at exactly the time that the Sisters told us Jesus had died, the sky became green colored and very dark, lightning flashed, thunder cracked, and the wind came up quite suddenly. We honestly felt Jesus’s death as surely as those on Calvary and in the Jerusalem Temple in His time did, and we held tight to each other.
Easter Sunday was a very joyous day for the children. First of all, there was the Easter Mass in the beautiful chapel, with the altar and sacristy brimming with Easter lilies and the choir singing triumphant Easter hymns. After Mass, we went to our respective dining rooms for breakfast. There, at each place setting, were multicolored eggs, chocolate cream eggs, chocolate and marshmallow bunnies, jelly beans, and a goodly assortment of other Easter candies. During the previous night, the Sisters had prepared each place setting, and each child received a very generous portion of everything. That afternoon was also a very special visiting day, and parents, relatives, and guardians brought additional Easter “presents.”
May Devotions
Each evening during the month of May, we attended “May Devotions” in the chapel after the evening meal. We said the Rosary and other prayers to the Blessed Mother and sang hymns honoring her. I especially loved the hymns “On This Day Oh Beautiful Mother” and the “Ave Maria.” I truly loved May Devotions, and didn’t mind in the least sacrificing an hour of playtime to observe them.
Anniversary Sunday
The second Sunday in June was the most important day of the year at the Home, especially for the boys who were graduating from the eighth grade, as they were going to be leaving the Home at the close of the festivities and celebrations that day. The graduating girls were not leaving, since they were required to spend one additional year at the Home.
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| The boys of St. Vincent learn to shine their shoes. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 106th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1956. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. | |
We were all dressed in our very best knickers, shoes, white shirts, and ties, with the boys, of course, wearing their new long pants suits. The Anniversary Day celebration did not deviate from form, format, or schedule over the years. It began with a Holy High Mass in the chapel at around ten o’clock in the morning. The front pews were occupied by the boys and girls in the graduating class, with the rest of the pews holding the Sisters, the maintenance men, parents, relatives or guardians, and visitors. The rest of the children occupied the long side balconies and the choir loft. The chapel was packed each Anniversary Day, with many people lined up against the side walls. The service was beautiful, and several times over the years I was selected to serve as one of the acolytes assisting the priest. The service ended with everyone singing, first in English and then in German, the powerful and glorious hymn, “Holy God We Praise Thy Name.” The feeling was always so intense and emotional.
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Children of the kindergarten, first, and second grades perform for the audience at the home’s annual installation dinner. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 108th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1958. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. |
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After the chapel service, the children gathered in the boy’s pavilion, with the girls and boys on opposite sides. There was always a group presentation of songs rehearsed for the occasion, and individual performances by selected and talented boys and girls of poetry, stories, or songs. All of the visitors were seated on benches or folding chairs facing the pavilion. After the performances, we joined our family members and commenced having a wonderful day.
The Home was open to the general public on Anniversary Day. Classrooms, dormitories, and playrooms were available for inspection, so that anyone who cared to do so could see where the children lived, worked, studied, and played throughout the year. The classrooms, especially, displayed all of the fine work and accomplishments of the children, and the teaching Sisters were available for discussions.
In those days, close to several thousand visitors came to the Home on Anniversary Day, including alumni, parents, relatives, interested visitors, benefactors, and people living in areas adjacent to and surrounding the Home. Almost all Catholic parishes supported the event and even provided many volunteers to serve wherever they were needed.
No Anniversary Day celebration would have been complete without the Anthony De Martini Band. From the opening Grand Parade around the grounds and through the main building until the final number at closing time, the De Martini Band played a major part of the day’s celebration each year that I was in the Home.
Independence Day (July 4)
During the period of time that I was in the Home, there were no city or county ordinances against the selling and use of fireworks. We had no way to buy fireworks ourselves, so we had to rely on parents, relatives, or guardians to bring them to the Home for us prior to the holiday. The Sisters would then distribute the fireworks to the children on July 4. I cannot remember any grade-school-age child ever being left out of the distribution of the fireworks, as probably plenty were donated to the Home to give to the children whose folks could not afford them. The younger children were happy with their sparklers and cap pistols, and in all of my years there I never knew of any child being injured because of handling fireworks.
During the day, sometime after the noon meal, the Sisters distributed to each child a special holiday treat. It was a Holloway, a large hard-caramel sucker, that seemed to last forever. After the evening meal, we enjoyed a movie, sitting outside on benches (on folding chairs inside the auditorium if it rained). The movies were shown using a single projector, which necessitated changing to a new reel after the previous reel finished. We didn’t mind the wait, as we prattled excitedly about the movie as viewed up to that point. Sometimes, as punishment for a recent transgression, a child had to sit on the floor or the ground, at the feet of the supervising Sister, with his or her back facing the movie screen, for either one or two reels of the movie, depending on the severity of the incident. Movies then usually consisted of no more than three reels at the most.
Labor Day
This was the last holiday before starting the new school year. The main activity that day (along with receiving another Holloway sucker) was a series of races during the afternoon, held in the large park area, just for the children of grade-school age. There were sprint races, three-legged races, sack races, wheelbarrow races, among others. The boys and girls had separate races, and these were by age or grade grouping. On several large tables placed at the end of the race area there were dozens and dozens of small, assorted prizes, which were awarded to the winners and second place finishers, in turn. After the winners selected their prizes, the remaining prizes were distributed to the rest of the children. It was a fun day.
Halloween
During the year, odds and ends of old, discarded clothing, bedding, and other scrap materials would be collected and sewn together to make costumes for Halloween. (Yes, we boys were taught to stitch-sew, and we were even taught to darn the holes in our socks, which I could probably still do today.) There was no trick-or-treating in those days, and it would have been impossible to do so at the Home in any event. Some of the lucky children received face masks (we called them false-faces) from their folks, and with their homemade costumes they became a scary bunch of ghosts, spooks, and goblins indeed. Halloween consisted mainly of dressing in the costumes and face masks after school in the afternoon, marching around the playground scaring the little ones with yelling and screaming, and banging baseball bats on the ground. This went on for a few hours, just before suppertime.
Thanksgiving Day
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Children celebrating and enjoying cake in one of the dining rooms at St. Vincent. From St. Vincent Orphan Home Year Book and 106th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1956. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. |
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There were only two days during the entire year that we were treated to stewed chicken, mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, and pumpkin pie: Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. The meal was such a treat. The Sisters and girls who did the preparation for so many children really did an excellent job. We indeed felt blessed and very thankful.
Christmas
The happiest and most joyful day of all each year was Christmas Day. Christmas for us actually began several weeks before the big day, when we all boarded buses and went to downtown St. Louis to view the decorated and animated windows of the three big department stores, Scruggs-Vandervoort and Barney; Stix, Baer and Fuller; and Famous-Barr. We rode escalators to the ninth floor in Famous-Barr, where we filled the auditorium and were treated to a variety and magic show. After the entertainment, Santa appeared on the stage, and he handed out a wrapped present to each child. We all marveled at the escalators, and couldn’t get over being transported by moving steps.
On Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, we all attended a Christmas service in the chapel, after which we filed down to the auditorium, and on the way there we all sang the carol, “Oh Hasten Dear Children, Oh Come One And All.” There, the Sisters and children were treated to a Christmas pageant, put on by several children in the upper grades. The pageant was always written, directed, and staged by Sisters Gilbert and Alvira. After the pageant, we again lined up and marched to the classrooms. Both grades in each room lined up in front of the blackboards with the lights not yet lit. Suddenly, a Sister would turn on the lights and we all let out a loud yell as we rushed to our desks. At each place there was an open shoebox containing a large gingerbread cookie, a large rocking-horse cookie, a star-shaped sugar cookie, and a Christmas tree cookie. Also in the box were an orange and an apple, a bag of assorted hard candy, and other goodies. But the biggest surprise was the unwrapped toys and other presents placed on the desk, the seat of the desk, and on the floor around the desk. The presents had been delivered to the Home by parents, relatives or guardians, and by many others making donations during the weeks before Christmas. Each classroom held its own happy and exciting scene.
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| Preschool children enjoy toys in the nursery, in the care of Mother Meinulpha. From St. Vincent Home Year Book and 110th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1960. Marvel Printing Co. Courtesy of Carl M. Bauer. | |
We then went to supper, but our thoughts were still up in the classrooms, and we could scarcely finish the meal. Ultimately, during the Christmas vacation period, everything was moved to our personal lockers in the playrooms.
Christmas Day began with Mass and then breakfast. After breakfast we all gathered in either our playrooms or the auditorium (I forget which), for a visit from the St. Louis Moolah Temple Shriners. Each child received a large brown shopping bag that contained a filled Christmas stocking just crammed with small toys, useful implements, and fruit, as well as a large bag of candy and another of assorted nuts (unshelled). Later, we had to give the nuts to the Sisters and we ended up having them in various pastries throughout the year.
Of course, Christmas Day was also a very special family visiting day, and the afternoon was taken up by the visitors going to the classrooms, viewing the presents of the children, and sometimes even adding additional ones.
It was good to be a child residing at the German St. Vincent Orphan Home at Christmastime during those years. It was such a happy time, what with the special Christmas dinner, the beautifully decorated chapel with its magnificent nativity scene, the overflowing desks in the classrooms, the trip downtown, the visit from the Shriners, and just being together with our family members and friends to help us experience the warmth and love so special at that time of the year. The Sisters of the Home and the friends and benefactors of the Orphan Association made sure that each and every child at the Home participated in Christmas to the fullest possible measure. God bless them all, each and every one.
Other Meaningful Days or Events
There were other very meaningful days and events that come to mind. Each year, during the summer vacation period, we were invited to the St. Louis Zoo and the Forest Park Highlands. That is, the fifth- through eighth-grade children were invited, as the younger children might have presented some difficulty to control. We left the Home early in the morning, riding in either green double-decked buses or a string of streetcars coupled together, depending on what travel arrangements were made for us that day. During the trip, we sang patriotic songs, but were too tired to sing on our trip back to the Home in the evening. It was very kind of the Zoo and the Highlands to invite us.
Also, once each year the Saint Louis University School of Dentistry accepted the older children for needed dental work, provided by students undergoing final training, supervised by their instructors. We all dreaded the trip, but knew that it was necessary.
Then there were the Friday night movies at the Normandy Theater, which was located on Natural Bridge Road, just a short walk from the Home. The boys and girls alternated Friday nights, and the following day was filled with oral descriptions of the movies, the exciting serials, and the coming attractions. I remember there was a special showing at the Normandy Theater exclusively for children from various institutions in the immediate area, including the Home, of The Wizard of Oz. I believe it was in late 1939. The Pictures Section of the Sunday Post-Dispatch published shortly after the special showing had many pictures of the St. Vincent Orphan Home children taken during the movie. You never saw so many children biting their fingernails at one time as were depicted in the photographs.
Conclusion
It would take volumes to record the many interesting experiences that happened to me during my 11 years in the German St. Vincent Orphan Home. There were good and bad times, sad and happy times, but the good and happy times always prevailed. We loved our Home; we loved the dear Sisters of Christian Charity, our ever-constant concerned and protective “parents,” and our fellow orphans, our dearest and best friends and companions ever. I left the Home with mixed emotions, happy in a way to be going back to my mother’s home, but with a deep sadness at leaving the Sisters and my friends.
Each child who passed through or graduated from the Home was in many ways deeply affected by the Sisters and priests who served there. The relationship between the religious staff and the children was always pure, holy and spiritually beautiful.
I’m sure that most of the Sisters and priests that I knew during my years at the Home are no longer living and have passed to their heavenly reward. I know that I can speak for the many hundreds, if not thousands, of boys and girls who were raised in the old Home on Hogan Street and the Home in Normandy, Missouri, who were privileged to know and be loved by them, that it will be a joyous reunion day in heaven when we finally join them there.