The bell rings. 4 times during the day, like shouting to the air, announcing everyone, neighbours snd people walking by, a new chapter about to start and a new activity to record. Today it was the turn for math, religion, music and arts and craft. Math wasn't my forte. My marks were the lowest on my report card. For some reason math and myself didn't get along. Religion, because it was and still is a Roman Catholic school learned to pray and the Bible. Respect and love thy neighbour. Help your neighbour. Do not kill. Get baptized. First comm union. Confirmation. Get married. Be an example not only to your family but your friends and neighbours. Help the sick and less fortunate. Pray for the dead. That's a lot to balance amongst every day duties. I went to church with Mom on weekends.
Yep SUNDAYS
It was great at the start of my Sunday 6:00 am, then go to the little improvised type 4 wall tent where you could purchase 'tamales' made of corn, with options of chicken, pork or beef. I love the smell that quickly invaded my surroundings as soon as the smell came out of the time capsule, waiting to embrace you and make your mouth water, I knew I was in heaven.
Tamales heaven
Yummy...
Ok - next!
How many you want?
A dozen please....chicken please
Ok
A huge smile appeared drawn on my face and my eyes opened up bright and wide like a kid receiving his Christmas toy.
Let's go mom! Quick! They are going to get cold!
I sat on the table.
A smell of fresh brewed coffee invades the kitchen. Yes, Dad started to brewed it, knowing ahead of time we were coming back from church.
I helped set up the table.
Now the big moment if truth- eating tamales!
It became a tradition until we started to find jobs and some of us worked on Sundays. This kinda disrupted the Sunday's family meeting. Eventually as we grew, met more people and studying at Universities, each of us became distant, the distance that became closeness when Christmas and New Years came.
Christmas was family time.
New Years was celebrating with friends.
The house felt empty
The house felt lonely