This is 1958 and I still have this Santa Claus and yes he is still in great condition; I not so much.
Italian cowboy at our Napoli villa, actually mountaintop suburb overlooking Napoli, Vomero, 1955:
My first grade Atlanta St. Anthony everyday school uniform, 1959-60 school year.
Italian cowboy at our Napoli villa, actually mountaintop suburb overlooking Napoli, Vomero, 1955:
My first grade Atlanta St. Anthony everyday school uniform, 1959-60 school year.
My everyday play uniform, East Point, Ft. Macpherson, 1957. Apartments gone and Walking Dead now filmed here!!!!!
My favorite Italian eatery in my hometown of Napoli, 1956, and boy do I love that Italian wine from my mother’s region of Tuscany!
13 comments:
Wonderful pictures of a wonderful family. I hope you still have those six-shooters, you may need them to fend off the "liturgical loonies."
Heh! You were a cute kid. Happiness for your parents, no doubt. I wish there was audio of a little kid in cowboy regalia speaking Italian.
These are adorable, Father! And you still look the same... (-:
I spoke southern Italian with a Napoli dialect! Not even my northern Italian mother understood me!
Father McDonald,
I wanted to share with you a "brick by brick" story. We have a lake home in Indiana and there is a small parish nearby where we attend Mass when we are there. The late pastor was very orthodox but his ars celebrandi was like many priests of his vintage, banal, a real snorer.
Tonight we experienced Mass with the new pastor, a priest who appeared to be in his early 30s.
From the moment we walked in, we beheld some very nice changes.
1) The priest was vested in a gothic style rose chasuble for Laetere Sunday and was properly vested in every way. The former pastor was into very, badly made vestments that looked like bathrobes.
2) To my delight, there was a dressed chalice on the altar, and the ugly free standing altar was covered with a beautiful antependium and there was the Benedictine arrangement. I almost fell over. That simple change gave the sanctuary a simple, yet elegant, dignity.
3) Altar boys!
4) The sermon was orthodox and he cited St. John Chrysostom throughout the sermon.
5) The Roman Canon was used which really shocked me because it was the Saturday anticipatory Mass.
6) The offertory bells were back!!!!
7) The level of participation from the congregation was better as well.
As I observed this young priest saying Mass, it made me think he was familiar with the EF. When I picked up the bulletin on the way out, my observations were correct. I saw in bulletin that the EF is now offered there once a month!!!! I plan to contact the pastor on Monday to see if I can help when I am there.
I can't begin to express my joy. This was probably the best OF Mass I have experienced outside of St. John Cantius in Chicago (of course I have not been to any of your parishes).
I feel blessed that I have a wonderful liturgy to attend when I am not in Chicago.
Deo Gratias!
Bee here:
TJM, I had to look up the word "antipendium" and discovered it is what in English is an "altar frontal." Delightful!
Thanks for expanding my Latin vocabulary pertaining to the sacristy.
And so glad for you this young priest is orthodox in his saying of the Novus Ordo Mass. That in itself is a huge blessing.
God bless.
Bee
Bee,
Thanks for your kinds words.
I was delighted to learn that our new pastor, ordained in 2015, was asked by certain of the parishioners to provide an EF and he (unlike the ungenerous "liberal" faction of the clergy) went to be trained in Chicago at - drum roll please - St. John Cantius!!!!
God Bless!
Tom
Father
My family and I spent three years in Aviano Italy in the early 90s back when I was flying Chinooks and we truly loved Italy and it’s people. We lived on the first floor of a two story family home and the Italian family upstairs even though they hardly knew any English treated us like family and adored our young son especially with his blonde hair. A lot of wonderful memories.
Your father looks very dignified. Beautiful family. It looks like lots of love.
Father McDonald,
A personal question if I may, although you may have told us this already. Did your father learn to speak Italian?
My father must have had a crash course in Italian. I doubt that he knew any before he met my mom in 1944/45 and my mother spoke no English whatsoever, although working in an US army hospital in her hometown,she must have learned some English. My parents married in Italy on Dec. 1, 1945 and basically stayed in various parts of Italy until 1956/57 when we came to Georgia.
Father McDonald,
Thanks. It must have been a very interesting household. I hope your family was able to return to Italy from time to time. An absolutely beautiful country - and you can get a great meal even at a gas station! I remember a gas station which had a little diner near Positano. The food was terrific.
December 1 was my late mother's birthday!
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