Nana Biography

In the seventh grade?

Oh yes, it was all very strange. From there I went – and I was a good student, I remember that. 

Did you like school? 

I like school. I liked to study, but I never got much encouragement at home, my mother always encouraged me, but my father never thought it was very interesting for a girl to go to school, and he really made that quite plain. And when I went away to boarding school, I think I told you about the convent. 

Yes.

I was there one year.

Now they took you from the school?

Yes.

When was this, in the seventh grade?

I’m just trying to think. I was 12 years old when I went to the convent.

So that would be around the seventh grade.

Yes, I don’t remember which grade, because they really didn’t exactly exactly correspond to grades today. However, I spent one year in the convent, and then I went onto high school.

This is still another school?

Boarding school in Virginia.  And this was where they had horses, you spoke French the whole time, I think I told you. Very strict, we were uniforms, we got up at a certain time, and we went to the gym and did exercises, we came back and took our showers, and we had, our beds made, we had breakfast, we had just a little time for everything, and we tour into the classroom and the school was tough.

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