“It’s Saturday — should I just sit down and do nothing or lay down and do nothing? “
The wind is blowing. The top branches of the oak trees are swaying. It is a lovely day, a sunny day. The temperature is 74°. My house, though, is cold. It holds the night chill. I had to put on a shirt with long sleeves.
When I was a kid, Saturday was my dad’s chore day. In the morning, he’d collect his cleaned and starched shirts at the Chinese laundry up town, and he’d leave his dirty shirts until the next Saturday. He’d get a trim at the small barber shop just a short way up the street from the laundry. He’d sometimes drop-in to visit a few friends at some stores uptown. In the summer, when he’d get home, he’d mow the lawn and rake the grass. My father loved his lawns. In the fall, he’d rake leaves across the lawn, down the grassy hill into the gutter below the lawn and the sidewalk and then rake them into piles for burning. The gutter was the safe place to burn them. I remember the smoke billowing into the air and the sweet aroma of the leaves burning. On another fall Saturday, once it started getting cold, my father would climb a ladder and remove the screens from the windows. He’d then carry one storm window at a time up the ladder and replace the screen. The screens were stored in the cellar.
My parents had moved off-cape when I was in the Peace Corps. I’d visit for weekends. In the summer, my father always showed off his lawn to me. It was cut in a pattern of rows. It was his pride and joy.
Saturday has always been my favorite day of the week, a play day. When I was a kid, it meant Saturday mornings in front of the TV and Saturday afternoons either at the matinee uptown or on my bike all over town and even into the next towns. When I was in Ghana, Saturday was a day to shop either at the market or to one of the kiosks lining the road. Some Saturday nights the Hotel d’Bull in town showed a movie in the courtyard though I always sat on the roof where there were tables and a few chairs. When I was teaching here, I never did school work on a Saturday. It was still my play day.
I retired nineteen years ago. Since then, I always say every day is a Saturday.
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September 2, 2023 at 4:23 pm
Hi Kat,
Today is not to going to be as warm as yesterday. The high temperature is only predicted to hit 96°. My daughter and spouse are enjoying the cooler temperatures in the pool.
We are nowhere close to the leaves turning and falling from the trees. Here, that won’t occur until the middle of November. That’s close to the average date of our first freeze.
Saturday was also my favorite day until I turned 12. Then I had to attend Sabbath morning services at our temple in preparation for my Bar Mitzvah. Once that was accomplished, making my parents proud, I rarely graced the doors of a synagogue until my own kids began their Bar and Bat Mitzvah studies. There’s a famous story, about a synagogue that has an infestation of mice. After several exterminators fail to rid the place of the mice, the assistant Rabbi purchases a large wheel of cheddar cheese. He places it on the pulpit and all the mice come out and start eating. He then Bar Mitzvahs them, and they immediately leave and never return. 🙂
Except for the right wing evangelical Christian churches, organized religion in this country is struggling to attract and maintain members. The Catholic Church is having great difficulty recruiting priests and nuns. I personally believe that one can be spiritual without having to attend prescribed worship services. Also, and can be charitable without supporting a religious institution.
September 2, 2023 at 9:28 pm
Hi Bob,
Tonight is already getting cool. We are down to the mid 60’s. Tomorrow will be the hottest day in a while, 80°. It will go down to the 60’s tomorrow night.
The Cape is the last part of the state to have the leaves change. We stay warmer later in the year, the opposite of spring when we stay cooler than the rest of the state for longer.
HaHa, that is a great story. With a few changes it could reflect the Easter-Christmas services in local Christian churches. For many people they are the only times they go to church, Christmas especially.
I attend mass usually only for weddings and funerals. I used to be more faithful but that was a long time ago. I believe that being charitable is an essential part of being human. We owe it to one another.