Any old southsiders out there? Anyone from St. Sabina or environs?

Remember the many Christmas Masses?

I recall walking down 79th St. with my mom in the dark for some early morning Mass. We liked to go early so we didn't have to get "fixed up" and she could be home in time to continue her 3 day preparation (with no help from anyone including me) for her delicious feast to be served later in the afternoon to family and friends.

We used to stop at "Hanley's House of Happiness" at 79th & Bishop where my dad would serve us up some ginger ales on the way home.

Those were the days.

St. Gertude's, generally near Clark and Granville. In grade school, we were required to attend Children's Mass at 9 a.m..

Christmas dinner was always 6 p.m., so there was no need to hurry home, whether my mother made it or we went to my cousins. Earlier today, my sister and I had a conversation about going to the cousins. There was one Christmas where they had failed to order oil for their heating system (this was the 1950s and the house had not yet been converted to gas) and it was damn cold. And my cousins (the parents) were pissed off at each other about it. That story stuck in our minds to the point where I thought it happened multiple times. My sister, who is five years older than I, thinks it happened only once but sort of morphed in our minds to every year. Memories.

This will be the first year I have ever attended an "early" Christmas dinner. We are going to where my nephew and his girlfriend live up in Lake County, and are expected around 2 p.m.

I wound up going to Mass in the Ravenswood area (Lourdes)and I could have lightly lobbed a tennis ball in front of me and not hit anyone - of course, I am a "back bencher"and like to sit in lonely places.
I remember standing room only in my youth.

My cousin still lives in "Gert's - that area has really become yuppified over the years - especially those big old 2 story houses.

as is. Big bucks (which were shared with my sister). Drove past the house last Saturday, they hadn't done much updating on the exterior yet, though I am told they have repainted the interior, put in a new kitchen and had the floors finished.

It's a great neighborhood and I miss it, having relocated to the near western suburbs...closer to said sister and the triplets.

In fact my parents were married in St. Sabina on October 25, 1941. Of the four of my siblings, I was the only one that was christened at Little Flower, the other three were all Sabina babies.

My sister and all her friends used to go the dances at Sabina when they were in high school, she graduated from Little Flower High School in 1961, the first graduating class,

I remember listening the Irish hour on the radio on Sunday nights from Hanley's House of Happiness when I was kid.

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier, but Mr. Wonderful and myself were in Ireland for Christmas and we just got back tonight. We had a great time, but it's always great to come home...

first boy I got a major league crush on, "Glen" from Leo High Shcool. Sigh... Unrequited, of course. but looking back, he provided hours and hours of thrilling plotting and scheming between me and my girl friend, Mary Alice. Oh, the notes we used to pass one another in the halls of Visitation High School - what we would wear at the next dance, how to act if this or that happened, etc. Those hormones - yikes - what efforts they inspire!

Where were you in Ireland?