Better late than never?

This weekend, we were late for church.

 

Now, you must understand, Christian and Kate Basi are not late for church. Ever. Okay, there are the occasional times when we’re on the in-laws’ schedule. But left to our own devices, we are NEVER late for church. Or for much else, for that matter.

 

Yesterday, however, I made the mistake of trying to make omelets…and Alex decided to be cantankerous…and Christian decided to read the paper before showering…so the net result was that the Basi family was late. Christian barreled down the Business Loop at almost 50 mph, trying to get us to church as soon as possible, while Alex made sour faces and grumpy noises in the back seat…a condition that intensified as we paraded around the back of church and forced him to sit and behave for an hour. Everybody knows us, and I felt incredibly conspicuous walking in. It really illuminated my dad’s militant devotion to punctuality when I was a kid.

 

Growing up, we went to 8:00 Mass. 11:00 Mass was for weenies. Dad spent his childhood getting up in time for a 4:30 a.m. milking, so as far as he was concerned, 8:00 was midmorning. They rolled us out of bed every Sunday at 7 and we left for church at 7:40, arriving 12-15 minutes later to march up the center aisle to the 2^nd pew on the left side. That was the Sander pew. No one else dared take it. And every week, Grandma Sander beat us there.

 

We were always 5-10 minutes early, but managing that was no easy task. Poor Dad was outnumbered in his family of four daughters. He was always the first one ready—of course—and he got the thankless job of going out to warm up the station wagon (later, the van) on frigid winter mornings. Trouble was, once he was outside, he had no way to hurry us out the door. Mom was okay with time back then, but she has never been the paragon of punctuality that my dad is. So Dad motivated us the only way he knew how. He backed the car up to the door and laid into the horn. Repeatedly.

 

I can only imagine what our neighbors thought of that technique. J Good thing the nearest one was 2/10 of a mile away.

 

It occurs to me that one big plus to leading the choir is that even if you’re late for warmup, you’re still way early for church!