These children......

Back in 2006, I was starting my 8-year stay at the Cathedral of Baker City in Eastern Oregon. I learned early in life to always be prepared for what the children come up with, as these two cute episodes describe. From my unpublished auto-biography.....

Children are so unpredictable, and you have no idea what they come out with. Two really funny situations happened with two 3-year-olds. One of them was a boy who apparently was brought to the nursery class for the first time, and another older child was showing him around the hall, the office and the church, and while climbing the steps towards the Rectory, he met me as he started saying all that he knew.....”I am three years old....I know the whole alphabet.....I know the numbers up to 20.......I’m a good boy.....and.... I am potty-trained!” Apparently, it is a big accomplishment for any child to be potty-trained.

Then towards the end of the classes when the children were leaving, a young girl was being led out by one of the teachers, Cathy Fisk. This girl was not Catholic but comes to class and is always enthused by everything she sees. Cathy was introducing her to me, and telling her that I live right there, in the Rectory. Not being convinced enough, she asked “Where do you live?” I told her I live right there, and my room is up the steps, to which she answered, “And is your honey up there too?”

Earlier in my years in New York, I was invited for dinner at a large family, and arriving a few minutes late, I was greeted with a chorus of children saying at the door, ‘Good evening, Father Julian, but you are 7 minutes late!’ So eager where they to have me in their company.