Ma gets out of Troy.

Mary Donovan moved from Troy to Pittstown when she was about 11 ot 12 years old. Her older brother Timothy had died when the scaffolding broke at the shirt factory building where, at the age of 18, he was working to support his then fatherless family, their father having succumbed to TB when Mary was less than a year old. Their mother learned of Timmy's death in the paper, communication being what it was in the early 1900's. When she finally received the death benefit, $200, Ellen wanted to move her family out of that city she associated with the death of her eldest child, so she bought the house in the country. There Mary and her older sister Helen attended the Cooksboro school. Helen (Ellen) was a docile and cooperative student. Mary was not. She was often reminded throughout her school years that she "was nothing like her sister Ellen."

Dance with the Broom Not!
Mary at age 11 was at her adult height of 5 feet, 9 inches, the tallest person in her class, and taller than the teacher. That height was very unusual for women of her generation; all through her life, it was difficult for her to find dresses long enough, and women wore those "housedresses" at all times, never pants. So when Mary moved to her new school, she was already conscious of her height. That along with being very poor (no social services for single mothers then) and being in a new school made her feel awkward and easily embarrassed. On one of the first days in her new school, the teacher led a recess session, during which she played the piano, and when the music started, the children were all to find partners to dance with. The person left without a partner was to dance with the broom, the utilitarian broom kept in the one room schoolhouse. Mary, not knowing any of the other students besides being unfamiliar with the game, was, predictably, the child left standing alone, and was ordered by the teacher to dance with the broom. Mary may have been too tall for her age, painfully poor, friendless and socially inept, but there was absolutely no way she was going to dance with any broom. The teacher was just as determined that she was going to do exactly that. And so began a strife-ridden schoolyear for Mary. I don't know all that ensued, but one point my mother made clear----she never did dance with the broom.

Those nuns...
All the Donovan kids attended Catholic school when they lived in Troy. When they were dismissed from school, they were to walk in pairs to the end of the block, and then go their individual ways. When Matt was about 12 or 13, he was in the process of walking to the end of the block when a hay wagon passed by. He jumped on the haywagon to hitch a ride. A nun-teacher saw him and tried to get him back in line by pulling his ear. It must have been very painful, because Matt instinctively slugged the nun. That was his last day of school. He never went back, and they never went looking for him either.