Spring…Wow, I just can’t stop the thoughts here! So many memories flood my mind as this Spring season is upon us. Easter, Graduations, First Communions, all sorts of rites of the season approach us now. I admit it, I am a real softie for all things festive, with First Communion being no exception.

I made my First Communion 50 yrs ago this Spring! That’s a very long time ago! I am sure that the memory I should have taken away from it was the significance of the act, being able to receive Holy Communion, when actually, I have to admit, at the time for the most part, it was all about the dress! Yes, the dress. Oh how I remember what that dress looked like and felt like.

The dress was white. Pure white. It had a fanciness to it I had never before experienced. First of all, it was one of those dresses that came in a zipped up wardrobe bag. You just knew a garment was special if it had to be protected like that! Being white, it had to be handled very carefully. No dirty hands when that dress got tried on, let me tell you! I can still see in my mind, the little pearl buttons and the trimmed detailing on the front of the dress. So pretty! I’d like to say it was the most comfortable dress I had ever had, but no, it was not. It had a very scratchy slip attached to it and I can still feel the itch if I think about it long enough. But it didn’t matter, I felt like a princess in that dress, and having the matching purse surely added to the look. The purse was plastic, but to me it was as fine as any high-end leather purse of today, and I loved the snapping sound it made when I opened and closed it. I must have opened and closed that purse at least a dozen times as I sat in the church pew on the big day.

The final touch to the entire outfit had to be the veil. Oh, the veil. I am sure every little girl that age, when wearing one of those First Communion veils, gets her first notion of what it must be like to wear a wedding veil. The lift of the veil as the wind caught it added to the magic of it all. Wearing the whole ensemble, I felt like I could just soar with all that pure joy.

Now there is one catch to this fine memory. Sadly, I did not get to make my First Communion with the other dozen first graders that May day in 1964, as I had developed the mumps. Yes, we got “the mumps” back in those days and I had to make my First Communion all by myself the next week. When the doctor told me I had the mumps and the whole First Communion deal was off for that upcoming Sunday I “wept bitterly,” as they say. I remember my mom and my older sisters having to do a lot of talking to convince me that making my First Communion by myself the following week would be just as wonderful, and I could be the only one up there, solo act! I did have a grand time that next week, but being a girl who’s always loved doing things with her pals, that did rain a little bit on my First Communion parade. But again, the dress, the veil, the purse…. Wearing all of that made everything fine and wonderful once the big day finally came.

After the special event, we all came home and Dad took my First Communion photos with his trusty Polaroid. If you notice in the picture, I have my feet angled just so. I had studied a First Communion photo my grandma had at her house, of my cousin Kathy in California. Kathy was a few years older than me and scored very high with the “cool” factor, in my opinion. I just loved the way she stood in her photo. I copied her stance so I could look just like that too. (Oh the impressions others can make without even realizing it, right?) The day was wonderful, the meaning of the event finally sunk in as I matured a bit, and to this day, the thought of that special little First Communion outfit makes me feel like I was indeed something! And shouldn’t we all have that “I am something” feeling now and again? Best feeling in the world!

Here is one more photo…My First Communion gift from my folks. St. Theresa (my middle name is Theresa). I have had this sweet statue for 50 years now. It has survived 8 moves over that time span.