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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Da Devil Made Me Do It

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

So there I was, at 7:05, a.m. haulin' it on into church, and when I rounded the corner to ascend the steps, there were three small girls, none over 6 or 7 at most, staring stricken at the door. I'd wondered a) where was mom/dad whomever was, and 2) if the door stop had been kicked out. #2 was not the case, so as I reached for the door, their mom came out and looked at me with a slightly panic stricken look.

She asked me: "Do you have any extra head coverings?" [Her waiting daughters were all bare-headed.] I can tell she MUST have been slightly panic stricken, because she'd ask me, of all people, who wouldn't wear a head covering in church if a gun were pointed at her head. "No [said I rather casually]" and then I said, "there are usually a few extra on the little table", and she said "not today." Sure enough I doubled checked after sticking my head in the door. No. Not a peptobismal pink or windex blue one in sight .. to say nothing of the more sedate black or white (I thought she might have missed a black or brown one. Church being kind of dark in the a.m.)

I cheerfully tried to reassure her, thinking that perhaps she could take a joke, and said "I think they'll be okay though, none of them are married and subject to a husband." She looked for a flash of a second as if I said "your mother wears army boots." Well....I went and sat down, and absentmindly wondered if she was a) going to forego Mass altogether, b) Kleenex 'em or 3) come up with something else.

At Communion time I noticed eldest daugher one had something borrowed from, apparently, a passing Muslim woman with an "extra" and really little kids 2 & 3, had been found winter jackets with hoods that were put up.

At least she didn't subject them to #2 -- I'd ALMOST said "back in the day, the killjoy nuns who hated us made us wear Kleenex" but I didn't want to take a chance of anyone else being traumatized for life, because had that been her only recourse, other than chancing men looking at them in a way men should not be destracted by "alluring" 4, 5 & 6 year olds, I think she'd have preferred to Kleenex 'em.

8 comments:

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

Thinks the kids should of just went in uncovered. Although I'm in favor of the practice, I'm NOT in favor of forcing women to veil against their will, it should be freely chosen :)

gemoftheocean said...

Frankly, I was a little concerned for their safety when I first saw them. I would NOT have left them unattended for no matter how short a time, I was relieved when their mom came out right away...but it seemed really silly to leave them outside [heaven forbid the church would have caved in had they had heads uncovered] while she took even that short amount of time to seek around for headcoverings!

[Because had she NOT come out, I would have waited with them. She should have brought them into the entryway with her!

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

Right, the kids should of went in the entryway anyway.

As I often say, Traditionalists worst enemies are themselves :p

Packrat said...

And you are right, the mom should not have left the children. I may be out of line, but wouldn't God just be pleased that the children were at church - regardless of what they were or were not wearing? We get so hung up on "trivial" things.

Anonymous said...

Karen, interesting point about married women. I may be wrong but in orthodox jewih tradition isn't it only married women and widows who wear veils and wigs to cover their hair?
What was the tradition in the Church with mantillas? Did kids wear them?

gemoftheocean said...

Mum, when I was a little kid, little girls didn't wear a mantilla, as a rule. Not in the NE of the US anyway. [Warmer climes may have had a different custom.] Hats, scarves, dreaded beanies (which were part of school uniform for girls), yes. Friggin' Kleenex, yes. But mantillas? Not til Jackie Kennedy wore one anyway.

And they for sure didn't wear floor length skirts and dresses. I still don't know what the "Duggar girl/lady" thing is all about. Whatever.

IIRC some extremely Orthodox Jewish women wear wigs over their own good hair. Whatever. I don't get the shellfish thing either.

J Curtis said...

This lady is an imbecile. She should have thought about the head covering long in advance. The is such a thing as being TOO legalistic

gemoftheocean said...

JD, anyone can forget...but geez, if she'd forgotten, it's really NO BIG DEAL. Sheesh. Take them in sans headcovering and just go to MassQ!!!

[Now, if they had been in bathing suits....]

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