Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The bells started this morning at 6AM and rang continuously until 6:45. That, along with the fireworks, was my "good morning" call. I needed to get up early so it was fine with me. The bells have been ringing all day and all kinds of celebrations are going on at Las Monjas church tonight.
Raised a Catholic, as a child we always looked forward to this day because we were off school (I'm being honest) AND it was the day that someone took us (my cousins and I) to downtown Chicago to see the decorated Christmas windows and decorations. It was awe inspiring. We also always had lunch at Marshall Field's in their "Tea Room. One time my grandmother took five of us to the Don McNeil's Breakfast Hour which to us was a very important radio show. I can still see the stage and the microphone and everything. That had to have been at least 55 years ago because I left Chicago when I was 10.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception was also my mother's birthday. She was a "converted" Catholic, which means she was REALLY a Catholic. We knelt and said the Rosary almost every night, it seems to me. So today would be my Mom's birthday - she would be 95, but of course she passed a long, long time ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

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