Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Greatly enjoyed the day with Betty yesterday. I was a little late, as Jack B. stopped in just as I was preparing to leave. Pat was asleep (he goes back to bed everyday after breakfast), but Jack and I had a nice visit. I did have to regretfully tell him I was on my way to Betty's, so after 20 minutes or so, he left and I zipped down to Ventnor.
I brought Betty some clothes I outgrew (or in-grew--what would you call it when they're now too big?), some of which she can wear. Betty is attending her R.N. 50th Miseracordia Hospital reunion next week in Philly and showed me some fabulous pictures she'll bring. They were 8 by 10 black- and- whites, of the graduation ceremony and related situations. There was a picture of the class going into the church in procession, sitting in row with the nuns, and so on. Some were less formal--although obviously posed--of girls raising the flag and wielding fire extinguishers.
All the girls, including Betty, of course, looked impossibly young and, considering what nurses wear now, impossibly stiff. They all wore starched white "nurses' dresses," white stockings, and white shoes, along with their white caps. I think that was the day they dramatically switched from their student caps to full-fledged R.N. caps. Betty also brought the cap in question, as well as her sweater with the Miseracordia logo (it looked like a child's; it was probably a size 6 or 8). She showed me her first R.N. license, several other cards and papers, and one of her textbooks. Anyway, I know her fellow grads will love seeing her artifacts.
We went to a restaurant in Margate which Betty's kids had liked. I had C.S. with C., of course, and Betty a different salad. She had some bad tomato and cucumber in hers and the incredibly rude waitress and she had a loud argument when she pointed it out. Betty was told the manager wasn't in yet and called later to complain. We went to several stores after, including Boscov's, then I drove her home.
For dinner, I gave Pat a chicken potpie and just had some of my Caesar salad left over from lunch. I was pleased when Susan stopped over about 7:00, bringing her adorable little granddaughter, Sophia, 20 months, who's visiting with her mommy from Connecticut.
Oops! I forgot I was going to finish my long, boring treatise on weight control today. Oh, the hell with it--may in later days, if the spirit moves me.

3 comments:

Dee's Blog said...

What a wonderful feeling to get rid of your oversized clothes. There is no one that I can give mine to except Goodwill or Salvation Army as I am soooo talll.
I think a nurse in her whites with the white hat is the most beautiful sight. It's too bad they don't dress like that anymore.
We had one head nurse that I adored years ago. She alway wore her white uniform and hat, she called it "her dignaty" She also wore her blue cape, I admired her so much.`She also was the best nurse the Soldiers Home ever had.

iloveac said...

Rosemary,
I would love to see Betty's memorabilia. I did love wearing my uniform. One can tell you are the sister of a nurse. You correctly identified what we wore on our heads as a 'cap'. I cringe when someone calls it a hat.....it is NOT a hat. I understand everyone may not know this....but now you do....all 10,000 readers of Mimi's blog.

Giving up my cap was the hardest thing for me. It has so much history and nostalgia attached to it. Caps originally were designed to keep the hair in place. Each school developed thier own and eventually they became more of a school emblem than anything else. I think I selected my nursing school based on the cap...isn't that awful?
I thought Misericordia's was weird. St Francis' cap looked more like a nurse's cap to me. However having worked at both places...I probably made a mistake ...I would have liked Miseri better. St Francis was like being in a convent.

Mimi said...

I think Miseracordia was SUPPOSED to be like a convent, but judging from some of the escapades of Betty's friends, it wasn't. I knew about the cap thing--also that experienced people could identify where one went to school based on the shape, etc.

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