Ethnically Exclusive Clubs

I remember the time one of my high school teachers asked what we thought about ethnically exclusive clubs.

Up went my hand.

"Yes, Rochelle?" 

"It depends," I said.  "If everyone in the club has the same ethnic background, for example, if all of them are of Italian descent, then that is a group of people getting together to celebrate a common heritage.  And that is something very good. But if it is, let's say, a "whites only" or "no Jews allowed" or "no Italians allowed", like some Country Clubs, then it's wrong, and, I think, immature. Clubs like that make me think of a bunch of little kids saying (I sing-songed the next part)

"Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!  We've got a club and you can't be in it."

Throwback Thursday

Originally posted on December 4th, 2010

Amusement Park
I grew up within walking distance of Coney Island, but even closer to my apartment building, 
just down the block and across the street, was a small, but to a child, wonderful, amusement park.
I can't count the times my grandpa and I would walk down there.
The place was understaffed, with the workers going from ride 
to ride. I can't remember a time when all of the rides were
running at once.  I remember waiting by, for example, the tilt-a-whirl 
(my all-time favorite ride)... and waiting and waiting and waiting
There was one particular ride which I'd never been on, and really
wanted to try . It's funny, considering how I longed to ride that
ride, that I have forgotten which one it was.
I was sooooo disappointed when the operator told me that I was too young.
"You have to be in school to go on this ride." 
I answered that I was in school, and the man scolded me for lying.
"But I am in school! I'm in NURSERY school!" 
Grandpa told him off for calling me a liar, and then we walked  over to another ride. 
As much as I loved going with my Grandpa, however, I longed for the time when
I would be old enough to go by myself. Like so many other little girls,
I wanted, oh HOW I wanted, to be thought of as a BIG girl.
But by the time I was old enough, the rides were gone.
"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."

Sunday Snippets-- A Catholic Carnival

Come one, come all, to Sunday Snippets ! Thanks to RAnn for hosting!  I've discovered some wonderful blogs here.  How about sharing yours?

Semper Gaudete!: My First Ash Wednesday (re-post)

Semper Gaudete!: Throwback Thursday

Semper Gaudete!: 2001 MFVA Seminarians

Semper Gaudete!: Archbishop Sheen is One Step Closer to Beatification
 
Semper Gaudete!: Books Read in the Past Week

Books Read in the Past Week

Books read for the first time are marked with a #

"In A Great Tradition
Tribute to Dame Laurentia McLachlan,
Abbess of Stanbrook" #
by The Benedictines of Stanbrook
(I am very glad to have this book.  Rumer Godden
wrote in In This House of Brede: "All of the characters
in this book are imaginary, but many of the episodes
are based on fact; some are taken from the life and
sayings of Dame Laurentia McLachlan and Sister Mary
Ann McArdle of Stanbrook Abbey."
"In This House of Brede,"
by Rumer Godden
[fiction]
{Sunday Books}

"The Imitation of Mary In Four Books" #
by Alexander De Rouville
Revised and Edited by Matthew J. O'Connell
[devotional reading, Catholic]
(one chapter a day; more on Sunday)

"Our Miss Boo" #
{carried over from last week}
"Time For Us" #
by Margaret Lee Runbeck
(In "Time For Miss Boo", two books in one volume)
(openlibrary.org loan)
(Thyra Ferre Bjorn mentions Margaret Lee Runbeck on
page 139 of "Mama's Way," which is why I wanted to
read her books.)

"Lily Rules!"
"Rough and Rugged Lily"
"Lily Speaks!"

by Nancy Rue

[children's fiction, Christian, (Protestant,

no denomination specified.) ]

"Under the Lilacs"
by Louisa May Alcott
[fiction]

"The Small Rain"
by Madeleine L'Engle
[fiction]

"My Name is Brain Brian" #
by Jeanne Betancourt
[children's fiction]

"R U 4 Real?"
by Nancy Been Peacock
[children's fiction, Protestant (denomination(s) unspecified) "todaysgirls.com" series, (created by Terry K. Brown)]

"The Baby-Sitters Club # 1: Kristy's Great Idea" #
by Ann M. Martin
[children's fiction]
(openlibrary.org loan)
{carrying over into next week}

Archbishop Sheen is One Step Closer to Beatification

Click here.

I love watching "Life Is Worth Living" on EWTN.

2001 MFVA Seminarians

I just HAVE to share this picture!

Throwback Thursday

Unanswerable Questions

Sometimes, when I read an old book, or rather an old, used copy of a book, I find myself wondering about the book's earlier, or I should say earliest readers. For example, I'm currently reading a copy of Louisa May Alcott's Under the Lilacs which came out in 1905.

I wonder about the first person, (who was, I assume, perhaps erroneously, a young girl,) who read this particular copy. Where did she live? What else was going on in her life? What games did she play? What were her friends like? Did she enjoy school, or was school a struggle for her? Did she have a yard or a garden with a lilac bush, and actually read "Under the Lilacs"  under the lilacs? Or did she sigh wistfully, and wish she knew how lilacs smell?

I chose this post, originally published on August 9th, 2012, because I've been reading

"Under the Lilacs" again.  (Not, unfortunately,

the copy pictured; that was another book lost

when I moved.)

  (This post has been very slightly edited.)