Hey Andrew! I didn't know you were Quaker. When I was a member of the Carmel Junior Symphony Orchestra, we use to hold our rehearsals in a Quaker church in Carmel, Indiana. They were so nice to us. They opened the church up to us every week (I think we practiced on Tuesday evenings) and they would even have refreshments for us. This was before I joined the Carmel Symphony Orchestra. Ever since, I have always admired the Quakers. I know they disapprove of homosexuals, and nearly everything else I stand for. But I will never forget the kindness they extended to me and my orchestra when I was 11 or 12 years old.
Your post made me remember something else too. I remember being forced to attend Mass as a child. This was back when Mass lasted longer than an hour; more like two hours. Our church didn't have air conditioning when I was young (although they did get a/c later on). As you know, Indianapolis gets very hot in the summer, and we would sit for hours in that hot church frantically fanning ourselves to stay cool. Just before Mass began, men would walk up and down the church, poking open alll the church windows with long poles. It didn't help much.
Dad and I would have to wear our suits to Mass; mom and my sister would wear a dress, a veil on their heads and gloves. We would sit and listen to the priest ramble on in Latin (St. Matthew's was one of the last churches in the city to switch over to the vernacular Mass) and once we arrived back home, my sister and I were told to stay in the house so we wouldn't get dirty (just like your friend you told us about). I would go down to the basement and spend the rest of my Sunday afternoon playing with my lego or Lincoln logs.
I don't attend Mass anymore (nor do I attend any other church or religion) but Sunday's just always seem so depressing and boring to me; even now. I guess you can take the boy out of the church, but you can't take the church out of the boy, can you? Or at least I can't seem to shake the bad memories of it. Catholicism was rough on boys like me... especially back then. Unfortunately it hasn't changed much over the years.
Sundays suck!!

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