under the toes so that the hole in the back is hidden in the shoe. On
rainy days the stockings are soggy and we have to hang them before the
fire at night and hope theyll dry by morning.Then theyre hard with
dirt cake and were afraid to pull them on our feet for fear theyll fall on
the floor in bits before our eyes.We might be lucky enough to get our
stockings on but then we have to block the holes in our shoes and I
fight with my brother, Malachy, over any scrap of cardboard or paper in
the house. Michael is only six and he has to wait for anything left over
unless Mam threatens us from the bed that were to help our small
brother. She says, If ye dont fix yeer brothers shoes an I have to get out
of this bed there will be wigs on the green.Youd have to feel sorry for
Michael because hes too old to play with Alphie and too young to play
with us and he cant fight with anyone for the same reasons.
The rest of the dressing is easy, the shirt I wore to bed is the shirt I
wear to school. I wear it day in day out. Its the shirt for football, for
climbing walls,for robbings orchards.I go to Mass and the Confraternity
in that shirt and people sniff the air and move away.If Mam gets a docket
for a new one at the St.Vincent de Paul the old shirt is promoted to towel
and hangs damp on the chair for months or Mam might use bits of it to
patch other shirts.She might even cut it up and let Alphie wear it a while
before it winds up on the floor pushed against the bottom of the door
to block the rain from the lane.
We go to school through lanes and back streets so that we wont meet
the respectable boys who go to the Christian BrothersSchool or the rich
ones who go to the Jesuit school,Crescent College.The Christian Broth-
ers boys wear tweed jackets, warm woolen sweaters, shirts, ties and shiny
new boots.We know theyre the ones who will get jobs in the civil ser-
vice and help the people who run the world.The Crescent College boys
wear blazers and school scarves tossed around their necks and over their
shoulders to show theyre cock o the walk.They have long hair which
falls across their foreheads and over their eyes so that they can toss their
quiffs like Englishmen.We know theyre the ones who will go to univer-
sity, take over the family business, run the government, run the world.
Well be the messenger boys on bicycles who deliver their groceries or
well go to England to work on the building sites. Our sisters will mind
their children and scrub their floors unless they go off to England,too.We
know that.Were ashamed of the way we look and if boys from the rich
schools pass remarks well get into a fight and wind up with bloody noses
or torn clothes. Our masters will have no patience with us and our fights
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