All Saints Day...The Morning After.

Most Christians, especially Catholics, celebrate All Saints Day today. It is a day to remember all the people believed to be in Heaven. All of the well-known saints have their own special day but today is mostly a remembrance of all the countless unknown people who quietly lived good lives and who have gone before us. Growing up as a good Catholic boy I also remember this day as a day off from school. In those days Catholic schools had their own schedule that differed from the public schools. Being the day after Halloween all the Catholic kids in my neighborhood would get up and survey the neighborhood to see whose pumpkins got smashed and what neighbors had toilet paper in their trees. My childhood was a “Leave It To Beaver” environment. Everyone in my neighborhood knew everyone else. All the children had a Mom and a Dad in their house. I didn’t know what divorce was. No one’s mother worked outside the home. I can only remember one woman who had a job and it was probably as a secretary in a “Mad Men” environment. This woman had one child and my mother took care of the child while she worked. Keep in mind that my mother had six of her own children. I was the oldest. On Halloween night there seemed to be hundreds of children going door to door. Some children played tricks but they were mostly harmless. When we all got home we would pour all our candy on the floor to see what we got. The days of my childhood seem difficult to imagine. Life today is so different. My children grew up in a different world than me and the world of my granddaughter is even more different. I guess it’s all relative. Chloe would probably be bored with my childhood. I am happy to have grown up at the time and in the environment that I did.