HESCH HISTORY: "Some little girl must be making her first Communion"

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

"Some little girl must be making her first Communion"

In the 1950s and early 60s, like thousands of other families, we'd go for Sunday drives as entertainment. Gas was cheap and Dad liked to drive, and we had time. There was rarely a plan, so it was always an adventure. Sometimes we'd end up near Buckman or Pierz from a direction we'd never been before, sometimes out at St Johns to see the progress on the Abbey Church building; sometimes we'd find a lake, roll up our pantlegs, and play in the water while dad talked to a local fisherman. Occasionally, we'd stop for ice cream, but frankly, I only remember that happening once ☺.

A memory came up this week when I emailed Bruth, out in Oregon. On those rides, if we went past a parking lot with more than 5 cars, Mom or Dad would often remark in a sing-songy voice about First Communion guests. We'd all groan...but it was funny, too. The biggest hoot was once when we approached a junk yard near Sartell, the line popped up before mom realized the cars weren't just parked there. Every junk yard after that, WE'D say the line. It was a hilarious family joke.

Since Bruth fixes foreign cars for a living, he has a small fleet of his own. Here's what he wrote back:

"A funny thing happened the other day. I've acquired quite a bunch of old BMW cars over the past few years. There's a whole row of them in front of my garage. Every day I come out of the house, around the corner, see them and take quite a bit of pleasure in the sight. As you might expect, they all have names. Townsend has this interesting history, Paoli provided parts which are now on Maller, what the hell will I do with Onion, Nino should really get worked on one of these days, etc. The other day, I came around the corner, same as usual, and into my head popped "some little girl is having her first communion!" And I could hear the usual denials in all of your voices.... I laughed out loud!"