[Ax]

I guess I'm a real geezer. I remember the passing of Pius XII, the elevation of John XXIII, his passing; the elevation of Paul VI, his passing; the elevation of John Paul I, his passing; the elevation of John Paul II.

I was fortunate enough to have been stationed in Rome in 1978. My good friend and I were walking up the Via Conciliazone, toward St. Peter's, one Sunday morning in October. We saw smoke begin to arise from the chimney and felt that we were witnesses to history, but the smoke turned out to be gray. A few evenings later, I was returning to the Embassy from a chow run, when I heard the Italian guards in the courtyard yelling "E' il polacco! E' il polacco!" (It's the Pole!) Cardinal4 has a framed photo of himself on the rope line at his school's audience very soon into John Paul II's papacy.

[cajungirl]

If Pius died sometimes in the fifties, I remember it and I think the confusing smoke was then.