William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD

A FRESHLY STOLEN LOAF OF BREAD

Canon O’Toole gave the chits to the school
For acquiring the unsold old loaves
Sister called my name, and embarrassed me
my toboggan I took to Standard Bread Bakery

Fresh bread was cooling on the bread racks
so into my sled box that bread I packed
and on top of that I placed a few fancy cakes
Pies and doughnuts and squares made from dates

On top of the box I put a layer of old bread
To cover the goodies I had placed in my sled
I was seen by my school mate Jeannie O’ Quinn
As she loaded old loaves from the discard bread bin

I pulled my load home to my sisters and brothers
And swore them to secrecy – do not tell mother
I doled out the cakes and the doughnuts and pie
Some welfare benefits from a large family guy!

Jeannie told Sister about the bread that I stole
And I got the strap for sinning my soul;
a devil, I was headed for the fires of hell
I must go to confession, my sins to tell!

She yelled and screamed and seemed half mad
She told me that I would turn out real bad
Thank God the church it wasn’t too far
I worried in case I got hit by a car

Sister told me it was a mortal sin
And into heaven I’d never get in
I went up to Saint Mary’s rectory
To see if Canon O’Toole was free

Canon O’Toole listened, he heard my confession
Taking fresh, for old bread was a minor concession
I was angry because of the family shame
When Sister publicly called out my name

For penance say one Glory Be, one Our Father and then,
Give us this day our daily bread, it was really a venial sin
And do not worry about what Sister said-
Sure you’ll go to heaven, Billy, when you are dead!

The Story Behind the Poem: We had 9 children in our family, and the parish priest got welfare chits from one of his parishioners who owned the Standard Bread Bakery and he give chits to families who could use the bread brought back from stores where it didn’t sell – he gave the chits to my teacher who called my name out in front of the class to come up and get my welfare chit for stale bread. I wasn’t pleased.

The watchman was an old friend of my Father’s (my dad was from Ireland) – The watchman had a thick Irish accent and he waved me in and out of the bakery saying say hello to your Father for me now Billy and I suppose you’se are all in de best o’ health and give my regards to your Sainted Mother, bless her – now ye go along be a good lad now Billy. Did ye get your bread alright now Billy – ye did, sure ye did and de best o’ health to you and all in your house. You don’t hear greetings like that anymore. I think our world is a poorer place now when people don’t have the time to talk to a child.

Normally I would get the chit from Canon O’Toole in the morning when I shovelled the church steps but Father Eagan paid me my 10 cents that morning – I would get paid plus Canon O’ would give me a bottle of coke to take to school for my lunch. Fr Eagan gave out no cokes. But on this occasion, Father Eagen said early mass, so Canon O’ dropped the chit off to my teacher. There were several other large families who also got welfare chits, but they were not publicly announced. My mom would put the bread in the oven for a little while and it would start to bake and come out fairly fresh and she would make large bread puddings from it and it was a good source of extra food for our large family of hungry children. In a large Catholic Irish family like ours we had constant kettles of tea being made and great conversations and sing songs amongst the lads. Bean sandwiches, potato sandwiches and vegetable soup sandwiches were favourites along with large pots of spaghetti mixed with butter and tomato soup for sauce.

As I often didn’t have any sins to confess, I sometimes made up a few just to have something to confess and on this occasion, after being told that I had committed a mortal sin and was going to burn in hell forever, for taking the fresh bread instead of the stale bread, I rushed off to confession at recess and told my sins to Canon O’ who put my mind at ease. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since Cannon O” told me I was going to go to heaven; I sure hope he is right.