Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2005
It’s been six weeks but we finally found a babysitter! (Who was counting anyway?). She came this past Saturday night and we hit the town! We went back to Darling Harbor since we liked it so much by day. Sure enough it was wonderful at night as well. All the restaurants along the water were lit up, as were the boats in the bay. There were people milling about, street performers, and even roaming merchants selling those little doodads that light up, flash and spin. It seems tacky, nonspecific souvenirs are a universal thing. We had drinks at one end, by Cockle Bay, and dinner at another end, on Kings Street Wharf. The food was great and we didn’t have to worry if there were chicken tenders on the menu or changing tables in the bathroom.
The next day, Sunday, we visited a new church. Turns out there is a Presbyterian church literally around the corner from us, and so we decided to give it a whirl. You could tell this church had once been a thriving center of the community. It had a charming sanctuary and a decent size building overall. But, the heyday had passed. The congregation was mostly senior citizens with a smattering of English-as-a-second-language Koreans. None, of either group, with babies. I counted a total of 21 people, and with numbers like that there was simply no nursery. But they were there and meeting despite what had to be rather great odds, and that is always impressive.
Furthermore, everyone seemed kind and the book shelf in the back was full of solid, familiar theologians. The bulletin showed we were singing oldie but goodie hymns - - and all the verses. The orthodox in me approved. So despite the fact that there were ten pews for every one person, Les and I felt comfortable. We thought we might even stay for the ‘cuppa’ after the service and meet a few (or potentially all given there were only so many) of the members.
That said, as we finished the hymns and moved into a guest address from a visiting Gideon’s Bible representative, we realized the acoustics were not made for holding a one year old. Abby’s frequent proclamation that she was ‘ALL DONE’ didn’t help. The only door we knew of was up front and that was not an option. So I took her behind the pews to a carpeted area where there were extra chairs and old furniture and hoped she would play quietly.
While the Gideon began a long, somewhat tortured explanation of the color coding system of their Bibles, Abby climbed up onto a chair and indicated that she wanted her box of raisins. Once I gave it to her she made a happy, wiggly move and immediately fell through the hole in the back of the chair (the chair back only went half way down). Instead of crashing to the floor she became wedged. This surprised both of us and, at first, she was quiet. The Gideon was onto red palm-sized Bibles. I tried to pull her out, but in the inexplicable way that pulling never helps, she became further folded up between the chair seat and chair back. As the Gideon moved into the blue Bibles, she began to scream and flail about causing the box of raisins to fly out and across the room emptying all over the floor. Finally, despite my best efforts to contain the situation, I had to call for Les. In the middle of the explanation of the children’s, tan, pocket sized Bible I left subtly to others and let out a loud “PSSSSTTT!”
Les mashed across the raisin fruit field and pushed Abby out as I pulled. With both of us we were able to pull her free. We then did the only thing we could think of. We nosed around the back of the church, past the kitchen and apparent school room, till we found a blessed back door and then we snuck out.
No cuppas for us.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0404s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
KC
non-member comment
thanks
Thanks, Es. I needed a good laugh this morning before I began teaching my juniors. Coy's favorite words are "Oh snit" for another word of course...thanks to the many times I've or someone has dropped something. At least in church he only calls out, "Amen" at random times. I am only waiting for the other to happen. :-)Tehee!