Happy Easter, Sorry About the Flashback

I wish I cd say I have new content 4 U 2day, but I can't. It's time 4 another reminiscence from Mike. Here goes:

April,

Formerly little sis. I remember just last year when my wife, my mother and my daughter went to church in Milborough all together for the first time on Easter. I had thought it was going to be an experience like I had remembered growing up, but it wasn't that way at all. If you recollect, my daughter was bored and restless and asked the question, "When do they get to the part where Jesus meets the Easter bunny?" Things had certainly changed since the time when I used to go to church with mom and dad and Lizzie.

I was thinking about that time back in 1980, which is possibly my first Easter memory. Dad was wearing a suit jacket that was way too small for him, and he was carrying Lizzie in one arm, while Lizzie was reaching her right hand out to dad’s chest because...hum!... I don't know why. The mysterious reasoning of babies, I suppose. As for me, mom was squatting down in order to button my shirt up to my neck in preparation for a necktie. Neither Lizzie nor I were making a fuss, which was unusual for us; but I think it was because we knew that day was a special day.

As mom led me into the church by the hand, I marveled at the beautiful stained glass in the church depicting a scene of a mother carrying a baby in her arms and both them with big sliced-up, circular things around their heads, kind of like pieces of pie. There was a man in a robe in the front and a choir behind him singing. The music was very beautiful and we took our seats, mom and Lizzie in front of dad and me, because there wasn’t much space to sit. Little Lizzie looked back at me with a smile on her face, which was either due to the music or it was due to messing her diaper. I am not sure which one; but I do know that shortly after that we were all sitting together on the same seat. I can’t quite remember why we did that.

However I do remember Lizzie chewed on a chew ring and I snuggled up to mom and dad crossed his arms so his elbow was stuck in my back. Despite this discomfort there was a smile on my face as I heard the man saying the words I remember to this day, "For Easter is not a time for sadness, but a time for rejoicing. Just as Spring awakens sleeping flowers and animals after a long cold winter, so Easter awakens us to the wonders and the love all around..." What a wonderful talk. I love it when people talk about flowers and sleeping animals.

After it was over, mom was putting on my outdoor jacket and as she did I said to her, "Is church open every Sunday, mom?" She replied, "Yes, Michael." as she pulled my jacket sleeves over my shirt.

This got me to thinking. Beautiful music. Beautiful stained glass. Great talks about sleeping animals and flowers and being happy. I could really get used to a place like this. So I said to mom, "Then how come we only come twice a year?" Unfortunately, I said that to mom right in front of dad and the guy wearing the robe, so the rest of the day was not as much fun. I guess they were a little embarrassed by that, because they liked people to think they went more often.

Last year, when we took little Meredith, I had this hope and expectation that she would be as impressed by Easter at a church as I was back in 1980. But it wasn't the same. The man in the robe kept talking on and on about Jesus coming back from the dead and what a great thing it was for sinners. There was not one word about flowers or sleeping animals, and as Meredith so correctly pointed out, not one word about the Easter bunny either. It was a complete failure as far as I am concerned and I think, correctly so, that last year's Easter will be the last Easter you will hear about a Patterson going to church. They have really let that place go to the religious whackos.

We might have to go to a church for Elizabeth's wedding, but I hope the man in the robe will keep the talk about Jesus and dead people to a minimum. The church really isn't the place for that kind of stuff.

Love,
Michael Patterson

Jeremy, I don't want U 2 worry I'll embarrass U and yr fam when we all go 2 church 2day. I know that the mother and baby Mike described in the stained-glass window wda been Mary and baby Jesus, and that they wda had halos around their heads, 2 show they're holy. Not random pie shapes. And that the guy in the robe was the pastor and the talk he gave was his sermon. C, I'm not all super-clueless like Mike. But I do come from a fam that hardly ever goes 2 church, so I won't try an' assume I know everything. I'll follow instructions and watch U 4 cues as needed!

Apes