Ma's friend Marcy
was the first Irish Catholic
hired to teachin a small
Jobs were hard to come by
during the Depression,but so were good teachers
in small
The principal told her:
"You're by far the best candidatebut these people don't know many Catholics,
particularly the Irish kind.
If hired you must be the best Catholic
that you possibly can be."
Marcy got a dispensation from her confessor,
a Jesuit most likely,to join the Protestant Grange
and learn their secret signs.
She slept upstairs with a hot brick
to warm her feet in the winterin a small