[Magdalen] Thanksgivings Past.

[Grace Cangialosi]

Well, if you had seen the location of those churches, you would understand...

One Sunday I was preaching in the smaller church and noticed that folks seemed more distracted than usual and really weren't making eye contact. As soon as I finished, one of the women said, "Grace, we really weren't ignoring you, but that mouse has been running back and forth on the altar!"
I turned around just in time to see it take a dive off the end and disappear!
That was the same church where we would arrive on an April Sunday every year to see a long blacksnake skin draped over the rafters. The problem, of course, was that folks were worried about where the snake was, but we never saw it. After we had vinyl siding put on, we never saw the skin again.

The worse problem at the church where the mice raided the corn was that little ring-neck snakes would come in under the door. They're very small and totally harmless, but I had a couple of parishioners who were quite phobic.
So part of the drill in the summer was to do a snake check on Sundays before I left for the early service at the other church.  I'd go row by row down the pews and usher out any snakes. Most of the time there weren't any...

But then there's George, the blacksnake, who lives here on the property and first made his presence known in my dining room. He's lived outside ever since!

> On Nov 30, 2014, at 12:22 AM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> It's a bit distressing to think of mice running around in your church, but
> it is -- in a way -- a nice touch.  Those tiny little things were able to
> have their own little thanksgiving celebration. Mice are so tiny, it's a
> wonder that something that tiny can function. Same with the tiny birds!!
> 
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
> for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
> on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente
> 
> On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 8:02 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> David, your description of the Thanksgivng decorations at church made me
>> smile at a more recent memory. The mountain church where I was vicar for
>> 9years had a similar custom of decorating with gourds, Indian corn, etc.
>> for the Thanksgiving Eve service. Decorations were placed across the stone
>> re redid at the back of the stone altar and along the communion rail. Since
>> the woman who did it worked so hard at it, I let it all remain through
>> Sunday, even though the colors clashed a bit with the Advent hangings!
>> One year I came in on Sunday morning to discover that mice had eaten most
>> of the Indian corn, leaving neat cobs right where they had been and a
>> scattering of kernels on the altar! It only happened that one year, for
>> some reason...
>> 
>>>> On Nov 27, 2014, at 2:53 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
>>> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I was remembering this morning so many Thanksgivings from the past.
>>> 
>>> For so many years in West Central Wisconsin, I would do the three  piece
>>> suit and go down to the traditional Choral Eucharist at the local Christ
>>> Church
>>> Cathedral at 10 AM.  They had developed a tradition of decorating  the
>>> high altar with colorful gourds, pumpkins, corn, apples, grapes, etc. -
>> the
>>> produce of the autumn harvest.  This could be trite, but it was  actually
>>> really well done.  Even the high altar Tabernacle (front and center
>> where
>>> a Tabernacle should be!) was banked with this decor.
>>> 
>>> Then I remember the 8 Thanksgivings I spent with my Aunt Helen in
>>> Chicago, and the fun of taking the Badger Bus to the North Shore RR
>>> Terminal in Milwaukee, and thence down to Howard Street and on foot
>>> over to Ashland just at the city limits.  Thanksgiving dinner was at  my
>>> Aunt Nora's in Monee, just at the Indiana line, and via the "IC", the
>>> Illinois Central Railway - another fun excursion.
>>> 
>>> Then the Black Friday in the Loop and riding the packed escalators
>>> in Marshall Field's and taking in the wonderful windows of the main
>>> store on State Street.  Aunt Helen had to work at the Lee  Gilbert
>>> Jewelry store on South Michigan Ave., so I was on my own.
>>> 
>>> The Sunday for me was initially at the grand First Methodist Church
>>> in Evanston, and then eventually at the cavernous Saint Luke's
>>> Episcopal in that City.
>>> 
>>> Such fond memories.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> David Strang - who wouldn't be able to dress up in a three piece suit  if
>>>                     I  wanted to at this time.
>>