Today always brings back memories of my childhood. To begin with, it was a day my family all dressed up in our Sunday finest and went off – en masse – to church for High Mass. To see and be seen among the parish faithful. And to get to the Church early enough to grab the best seats.
Choirs and organs. Jesus rose from the dead. Amen.
Then, for the rest of the day, the house was filled with the smell of Posie’s cooking. And Tommy Makem & the Clancy Brothers.
Then a huge family meal with uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. And always a family priest. The regulars were Father Tom McCaffrey (dad’s cousin – tough name to live up to, so I didn’t), Father O’Neill (my dad’s best friend from Ascension parish, had a sleepy eye, loved his whiskey sours, ultimately made Monseigneur in one of the other borough’s parishes), Father Igoe (my mom’s younger cousin who wore sleeve garters and was actually a character who loved to wrestle and apply pressure points until we shouted in submission. He got his one Easter when he went to affectionately slap my mother on the shoulder and my ever vigilant and viscous whippet – she bit all of my friends at least once – Johnny Ladaris right on the crotch – leapt over mom’s shoulder and nailed his offending hand with a stigmata causing bite and knocked him down the stairway. (Cindy the dog is probably laughing in hell as I write this.) When we were older it would be one of the Jesuits my mom worked for over at Fordham. They all loved my mother like their daughter. Father Chuck Taylor, SJ – like the sneaker – was a repeat guest who was gregarious and interesting. Reminded me of Clarence the guardian angel from It’s A Wonderful Life. My money is on CT getting fitted with wings as soon as he passed through the veil.
Of course, layered in throughout that day were children binging chocolate eggs and rabbits. Sustained sugar rushes. Future trips to the dentist. Sibling thefts of chocolate stashes, jelly beans, and fist-fights when we were caught. Shreds of Easter basket hay that was as ubiquitous on everything as tinsel was at Christmas.
Of course, I recorded a memorable first Easter in the Mosholu house in Finding Jimmy Moran.
I always enjoyed the more pagan aspects of the holiday. Easter bunnies, eggs and chocolate.
My first stuffed Easter bunny I remember was a blue and grey (in my mind’s eye – I’m colorblind) good sized buster of a character I referred to as Rash Rabbit. I’m not sure why I called it that. I was too young to understand what a rash was, or doing any of the fun things to enjoy getting one. RR looked nothing like the other stuffed bunnies in the other sibling’s baskets. What I do remember is repeatedly tossing him over my head enough times to knock the huge overhead glass cover of the living room ceiling light loose and bringing it straight down on top of my much harder head, where it shattered – but didn’t cut me. An Easter miracle.
Unfortunately Jesus didn’t prevent the corporal punishment my father immediately inflicted over the destroyed glass cover or having to clean it up. I get it. JC’s father just allowed a whole lot worse to be done to him, and he survived it. Builds character. And Christ got an upgrade out of it. I got a story. Lesson learned. No more flying rabbits.
There was another childhood Easter when I did something to one of my younger siblings and, as punishment, had my stuff toy removed and placed upon the top of a tall glass door credenza. When my mother left the room, I scaled the credenza to retrieve my rabbit, only to topple it forward and on top of me. I was small enough to pass right through the front glass door as it crashed on top of me. Again, unscathed. Indeed, it was my passing through the glass into the interior of the cabinet that kept me from being crushed by the heavy piece of furniture. This time my mother was so frightened, my father refrained from corporal punishment. That was a biggy. True miracle.
He got his licks in plenty of times later. And I deserved every one of them. It might not have built any character, but it created a few. Love you Pop.
Well, for all of you of my fine, five readers that are Catholic or Christian, or Christian tolerant. Happy Easter. Follow Jesus’s teachings – be good, be charitable, be forgiving. Love one another.
Especially Pete Sheridan, the most Catholic, Catholic I know. If you get there before me, Petey, remember to leave Heaven’s back door unlocked. Or Dante will be right and I’ll end up where I should be, with all the other lawyers. The rest of your brothers at the dry bar just don’t have your religious exceptionalism when it comes to staying under the holy tent. So, I’m counting on you.
I’m going to go out and wish my kitties and other feral family – no not my brothers – a Happy Easter on my rounds. Claire and Honey will get their Easter candy – they love peppermints.
Hopefully, my son Luke’s NCSU will pull off another Easter Miracle and beat Duke.
Got all my chores done yesterday, so I will make this a day of rest.
And while we are all at it, let us make today a great one.
8 Responses
Happy Easter Tommy to you and Lisa.
May God bless you guys, your children, their spouses and grand children on this Holy Easter.
I hope all their baskets are filled with all the Easter goodies, chocolate bunnies, jellybeans and marshmallow Chicks.
I mentioned to my son-in-law last night that I couldn’t help but remember all those holy Saturdays that included boiling of the eggs that would later be dyed and decorated in anticipation of the Easter bunny hiding them first for my children and then as the years past my grandchildren to hunt and find on Easter. With God’s blessing the tradition will continue with my great-grandson but I think we will have to give him a couple of years before he grows and grasp the idea of finding those dyed eggs.
I hope the Easter Bunny has chased away all the snow from Casa Claire and the beautiful spring sun shines brightly on all around you and your furry family.
Happy Easter Tom!
Happy Easter, Tom!
I have a fav Easter-related McCaffrey memory to share. One Sun. late afternoon, I was either up at the courts of the park. When I thought I smelled the scent of tomato sauce in the wind, with a hint of cigarette ash. I followed my nose to your parents house. When I strolled into the kitchen thru the back door, there your dad stood — stirring a huge pot of his “homemade” spaghetti sauce, with his Popeye forearms powering the spoon around in the pot and a cigarette in his mouth with a long ash clinging to the end.
I took a quick look thru the doorway to the living room to see who might be there. And your dad said, “Go right in, BC. It’s just the usual cast of characters.” I looked back and thanked him. And happened to notice he was still stirring, not surprisingly, but …. there was no more long ash on his cigarette? Looking back, I have to believe that was the secret to his every Sunday secret sauce. Possibly a military secret, because I think I remember he was a cook in the U.S. Navy.
But anyway, enough of the background, and on to the actual Easter part. When I walked into the living room, I noticed a good number of the family seated quietly (a rare occurrence in that house), a movie screen set up and a movie projector ready to go. The Mrs. told me they were watching old movies from when Tommy and his sibs were little. How could I resist? So I settled in to enjoy the show.
As she started the next reel, she told me this was from Easter when Tom and Eddie were an age I don’t currently recall. But I think I remember them being around maybe 6 and 7, give or take a year.
For the longest time, this reel mainly consisted of lengths of footage showing stand-still poses of all 5 kids facing the movie camera wearing their Easter Sunday best and standing tightly packed together in different spots in nearby VanCortland Park. For example, there were all 5 standing in front of a huge oak tree. Next, all 5 standing in front of some boulders. Then in front of a tree beginning to flower. On and on like that. And these were silent movies from before sound was added to consumer movie cameras. So the silence in this case was deafening. I’ll be honest, I began to look for an exit. I was working on some story that would provide me with an irrefutably urgent need to leave. And still allow me to return for the special Sun. night spaghetti that Mr. McC was working on in the kitchen.
But the next thing I knew, the tightly packed McC brood of all 5 members who had now been standing inside a semi-circle of big rocks in the movie on the screen …. EXPLODED into ACTION!!! It was as if someone dropped loud fireworks right in the center of them or yelled “Shots fired!” or something like that.
All of a sudden, all 5 went from just standing there staring into the camera …. to running away, as if on queue. In all different directions! And away into the woods! So the movie camera was left focusing on the now empty semi-circle of rocks, followed by scanning around looking for any sign of life with none to be found.
Upon seeing this on the movie screen, everyone in the room erupted in hysterical laughing, myself included. But I had to ask. What the heck happened in that scene?! When she could catch her breath from laughing so hard, Mrs. McC explained.
That movie-making outing was the family’s first, after Mr. McC bought the movie camera. And the kids were only accustomed to standing photos using a traditional camera taking still shots. So they did as they had always done — stood wherever they were told and faced the camera. But then Mr. McC got totally frustrated and yelled “For the love of God, it’s MOVING pictures!! SO MOVE, DAMMIT!!” And so they did — all in their own direction and into the woods out of sight of the camera.
Happy Easter, everyone!
And that, dear readers, is how the Broadway original “Into The Woods” was launched…. in the woods of Van Cortlandt Park along North Broadway in scenic Riverdale….
Buona Pasqua to All!
HAPPY EASTER!!
You too, Renee! Looking forward to your character making its debut in WTLLM on April 16th.
Okay, I am in tears from laughing so hard. You see, the added benefit of a lifetime of BC is his memory. And for that, I am eternally grateful he spent so many meals at our tables. Of course I do not ever want him contributing to any biographical documentary.
Happy Easter everyone – Mikey, Petey, Eileen and BC – and including Cam Torrens, and amazing writer whose writing establishes he gets family. Check out his Tyler Zahn Novel series. Highly recommend.
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