Jesus Died For Somebody's Sins...

But not mine.
Patti Smith

It's Good Friday. Never, ever understood what was good about it. It certainly wasn't good for poor Jesus. While in Appleton, Wisconsin for 5 years, I went to St. Mary's Catholic school. What an eye-opening experience that was.

The Easter season was particularly terrifying. We had to do the stations of the cross in church. Talk about child abuse! Sheesh.

Good Friday was always a school holiday. I have memories of playing basketball with neighborhood friends, all Catholic, naturally. We had to go home and be sad in the afternoon, during the time of the crucifixion. No television, talking or even smiling was permitted during that time.

On Easter Sunday, everyone was cosmically guilt-free again. We celebrated zombie Jesus with baskets of hollow bunnies, jelly beans, and hard boiled eggs. After Easter mass of course. One year, (1968) my mother put the 45 of "Lady Madonna" in my Easter basket. Now I'm racking my brain to recall the B side... Later on Easter Sunday, there was typically be a leg of lamb, asparagus and baby new potatoes at grandma's house. Strawberry shortcake for dessert. My Wisconsin grandma made the best strawberry shortcake ever.

When mother moved us back to San Francisco in 1970, I was quite relieved to go to public school again. Oh, and the B side was "The Inner Light."

How The Hell Did I Get Here So Soon?

That's our driveway on Memorial Drive in Appleton, Wisconsin. Right next to the Fox River Bridge. My grandma Marie made crab apple jelly. One day, we noticed everyone hurrying toward the bridge. It turns out a woman had jumped, and was drowning. Everyone was gawking. My mother wouldn't let my brother and I go and gawk. She was a class act, mostly.

P.S. Did you know that Tom Waits wrote this song that made the Ramones made famous?

I Dont Wanna Grow Up - Tom Waits

Take Me To The River

Trestle across the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin.

I refer to my birthplace/hometown often here. And why shouldn't I? I am proud of my San Francisco/NorCal roots. In the previous post, Mrs. G. inquired about my "Wisconsin grandma" because she apparently has one as well. It's true that some of my lineage is undeniably Midwestern, and I did spend about five years in Appleton as a young one. My grandmother was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, and she worked and raised my mom and her siblings in Appleton. Her husband, my grandfather was born in Norway, Michigan. He met and married my grandmother in Wisconsin. Much of my mother's family still lives there.

I haven't been in Appleton since 1979, when a friend and I passed through
and visited my family. We were making our way back home to California, after seeing six Dead shows back east. I still think about the place though. We lived above the Fox River, and that train trestle is the very same one we once walked along. Forty years back.