excerpt from:
Simple Pleasures of
Friendship
Divine Rights
Pat Gallant
The year was 1964 and I was a teenager. The Pope was not only coming to New York but was scheduled to pass under the windows of our classrooms on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. We were given strict instructions to return to class promptly after lunch, and not to join the swelling crowds of people. More precisely, we were not permitted to be late or cut class to see the motorcade.
Alas, the draw was too great. My friend and I opted to risk the consequences in order to see the Pope. Satisfied but afraid, we returned to class thirty-five minutes late, to be met by the ominous glare of our teacher. Her arm extended, and finger pointing to the door; she commanded, “To the principal’s office!”
The principal, Mrs. Sadie Brown, a wizened old woman in her nineties, listened quietly as we told of our indiscretion. She said nothing. Then, reaching to her desk, she scribbled something on a piece of paper. She folded the paper; speaking only to instruct us to hand it to our teacher. Safely out of view, my friend and I opened the paper. It read, simply: “Papal dispensation.”*******”If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun.”
Katherine Hepburn Pat Gallant