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On the day Sister asked me the Jackie Kennedy question, I happened to be wearing a pink linen dress with cap sleeves. I suppose it could be said that my DRESS was Jackie-esque, but I was not wearing a headscarf or a mantilla as JKO did, I was wearing a doilie (I guess the real name is a chapel cap).

Your rememberences of growing up Catholic in the 50's and 60's are much like my own. I seem to be 5-10 years younger than you, so I had the unfortunate experience of having everything go kaflooey on me right after First Holy Communion. Back then we had a tradition for everything, and with those traditions came the opportunity to learn about God and His works and sacrifices, the saints, the miracles and mysteries, and the history of our church.

Today it's much harder to do that since many of the traditions are completely gone.

For example:

I've been trying to get our parish to bring back the Sodality. When I was a girl, we LOVED being in the Sodality. We had important tasks to perform, like decorating the church for feast days; we were part of every procession -- the most important was Easter Sunday. On Easter, all of us girls dressed in white, with the little ones not yet able to receive Communion wearing flat blue ribbons on their heads, with the first communicants and those not old enough for Confirmation wearing white flat ribbons, and those who had been Confirmed wearing short white chapel veils. We all wore Miraculous Medals strung on blue satin ribbons around our necks, and we all carried beautiful Easter lillies in the procession. (The boys were all altar boys and they were ALL in attendance for the Easter Mass and procession.) We knew what everything meant, we knew why we were doing it, and we ejoyed both being a part of the celebrations and serving the church.

So far, I haven't gotten anywhere with the parish. Mostly what I hear is, "Why would the girls want to do this? They are already participating as altar servers."

*** SIGH *** I've got a long way to go...

Regards,

I had the unfortunate experience of having everything go kaflooey on me right after First Holy Communion.

Right -- didn't start going on me until high school and college. I'm so glad I at least got some of the old Holy Week services; the parish we were in was small and poor, so the seventh grade and the eighth grade girls were the choir (I'd never be allowed in a choir where you actually had to be able to sing!). We sang Holy Week -- in Latin, of course. I loved it.

I was wearing a doilie (I guess the real name is a chapel cap).

LOL...funny story, I don't know if you know but I use to be Catholic. I now attend an independent Baptist Church.

Last year we were attending a different church, no one there at that time knew I use to be Catholic. I get a bit irate sometime when I hear Catholics bashed in these churches (really, I do:) and this church seemed to be especially bad about always naming the Catholics to come down on. Anyway, I had contained myself up to this point, but in Sunday School this lady who knew nothing about Catholics started talking in a rather condesending tone about the ladies wearing doilies on their heads. IMO, doilies are table scraves, her comment was " the catholic ladies wear these, I don't know what you call them, doilie thingys on their heads,"

I turned to her and said "those doilie thingys are called hats, catholics were at one time required to wear hats to church"

She said "Oh no, they're these round lacy things that look like doilies,"

I said I know what you are talking about, I was born and raised catholic and they are called HATS!",,there was an audible gasp from the rest then silence. then an OH, well, OK. Then the subject changed. LOL...it was really rather funny. Shortly after that for various reasons we did not make that church our church home:)

Becky