There are Catholic Traditions, of which you are all aware, and there are this Catholic’s traditions.
One of this Catholic’s traditions has a lasting memory of special importance today.
As a young boy I had certain routines along with my brothers. For probably a 7 year period, we were the prime altar boy crew at my parish. So we would frequently serve at high mass, or what passed for one in those days, at 11am. We would get home at 12:30 or so just in time to see Abbott and Costello. Every Sunday, mass and Abbott and Costello. Tradition.
It was through A&C that I met the Andrews Sisters. I can’t tell you why, principally because I do not understand it myself, but I loved the Andrews Sisters. Even then, the simplicity and wholesomeness of the A&C comedies and the Andrews Sisters attracted me. I had nostalgia for an era before I was even old enough to understand nostalgia. At the age of 9 I pined for a bygone era that in reality perhaps never was. But idealists must have ideals and I loved the simplicity and pure entertainment of this era. Don’t get me started on my 8 yr old feelings for Donna Reed and June Allyson. Oh how I loved June.
Anyway, Patty Andrews passed away yesterday at the age of 94. If you remmeber the Andrews Sisters at all, Patty is the one you remmeber. It would be an exaggeration to say that piece of my childhood died with Patty, as I thought she had died years ago. But I loved the era and the Andrews Sisters are a key part of my vision of that era. As a child, I knew that those films were 25 years old, but they were the here and now of my childhood. RIP Patty Andrews.
Here are the sisters singing their biggest hit.
