When the temperature reaches the 40’s, I celebrate the coming of spring. Those shoots in the front garden are the harbingers. Soon enough spring flowers will return color to the garden. I am so tired of browns and grays I can barely wait for the yellow of the dafs, the deep purple of the hyacinths and the earliest of all, the crocus.

When I was a kid, I had a spring jacket I loved. It was blue and it zippered. It had no lining, no added warmth. I’d beg my mother to let me wear it on a warmish winter’s day. She said no every time I asked, but she did let me remove one layer, the sweater under my winter coat. I conceded. When I was an adult, I bought a spring jacket. It was gray with a zipper and no lining. I wore it on the first warm day, but I admit I was chilly. As usual, my mother had been right.

Every day this month, we’ve gained 3 minutes of sun. The streetlights come on later. When I was a kid, that meant we could stay outside longer in the afternoons after school. That meant summer was getting closer. 

I found a small black book called My Sunday Missal behind some books on the shelves in my bedroom. The front cover is loose and faded. Only the letters sal can be seen. On the first page at the top, my name is written in green ink, in cursive. Below that is the phone number Sto6-3021. I don’t remember when that was our phone number. The book has prayers and a mass calendar through 1949. One of the neat pages has a drawing of the altar with every part labeled. One of the new ones for me was the exposition throne at the top of the altar. Mass prayers are in both English and Latin. I found the copyright 1940. I also found bookmarks, missal marks. One is cut from a larger piece of paper. It has just the face of Christ on the cross. He has blue eyes, the reddest of lips and a small beard on his chin, artistic license I figure. The next one is a picture of Mary on the front and a prayer, The Memorare, on the back. I don’t recognize it. The last one is a card with a Prayer of St. Ignatius on the front and an address on the back for the Society of Jesus with a phone number. The number is Ken 6-3611.

This book is a piece of my past I didn’t remember. It is well worn. I found a spot for it in the living room among my treasures. 

This entry was posted on February 25, 2025 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.