“Recent columns about altar boys reminded me of an incident with my son at St. Pius X,” says Richard “Rick” Mink, of Metairie:
“Pre-schoolers would be dropped off before Mass for Sunday instruction. Monsignor Doskey would instruct the teacher to bring in the children with their drawings and he would talk to the students and place the drawings on the altar. He would then send them to find their parents.
“I was raised Protestant, and married a Catholic girl from Eunice. I had not attended Mass before my son was born.
“At the first Mass with our son, then about 4 or 5, when everyone kneeled, I didn’t.
“Then loud and clear my young son announced to the entire congregation, ‘Daddy, you are supposed to kneel.’
“Needless to say, after that I kneeled every Mass until my son graduated from Jesuit High.”
It ain’t me, Dad!
Another “kids in church” story, this one from Mariano Hinojosa, of Baton Rouge:
“Many years ago, our pastor delivered a dramatic sermon filled with references to fire and brimstone. He repeatedly reminded the congregation that the wages of sin was death.
“My father always wanted to know if we were paying attention during worship service, so on the drive home he quizzed my 6-year-old brother.
“He said, ‘Richard, what did the preacher say today?’
“Richard responded, ‘Dad, he wasn’t talking to me.'”
Dusty trails
“The submission about going barefoot and the melting tar on the streets reminded me of my own childhood,” says Tony Falterman, of Napoleonville.
“We didn’t have tar on our highway; it was a graveled road, and the best place to walk was along the sides of the ruts created by the traffic (very little).
“There, the dust accumulated and was cool to our bare feet.
“Shoes were only worn to school and church, so a pair of high-top tennis shoes lasted a long time.”
Botany 101
Thomas Murrel, of Church Point, says, “In one of your latest offerings, the reader wondered about the name of the grass stickers. They are called ‘picons.'”
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