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Just a Kid from Hell's Kitchen - In Remembrance of TC Murray

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To this day, I do not know which “Thomas” is my patron saint. I don’t think that my<br />

parents or godparents knew either, back on the day that I was baptized. There are so<br />

many Thomas’s in the Catholic Church’s directory <strong>of</strong> canonized saints. We can start with<br />

Thomas the Apostle, “doubting Thomas”, and work our way through the centuries<br />

encountering the brilliant Dominican theologian, Thomas Aquinas, a.k.a. the “dumb ox”,<br />

and, <strong>of</strong> course, the two British Thomas’s – a Becket and More. I’m sure that there are<br />

many more Thomas’s but these are the one’s that I’m familiar with. I’d like to think that<br />

I’m a blend <strong>of</strong> the best <strong>of</strong> each – a man for all seasons. And, why not?<br />

Original Sin had been cleansed <strong>from</strong> my immortal soul and I was now a full-fledged<br />

member <strong>of</strong> the holy, Roman Catholic and apostolic Church and more sacraments awaited<br />

me as my life went on. My Mom, Delia, reared me in the faith – a faith that was so much<br />

a part <strong>of</strong> the Irish tradition. My childhood years was an infusion <strong>of</strong> Catholicism with<br />

signs <strong>of</strong> the faith everywhere in my home <strong>from</strong> the crucifix over my bed to the holy water<br />

bottle atop my mother’s dresser in the living room. She gave me a liberal dousing after<br />

saying our prayers and retiring for the evening. <strong>In</strong> addition, she threw some holy water on<br />

the door to our apartment to ward <strong>of</strong>f demons and burglars. You’d think that she had a<br />

water-soaker gun in her hand with the effective and combative way she performed her<br />

own personal “Asperges.” Later in life, she used the sancta aqua for other noteworthy<br />

events as going <strong>of</strong>f to school, camp or wherever.<br />

PCQ’s - MEMORY LANE QUESTIONS<br />

<strong>In</strong>terspersed throughout this memoir you will find “PCQ’s” – as in Pop Culture Quiz.<br />

Perhaps it is the teacher within me that impelled me to include some “PCQ’s” in this<br />

work. The question, usually on a pop culture topic, will be in italics. If you consider these<br />

too “high schoolish,” I’m sorry, but try your best anyway. If worse comes to worse, the<br />

answers are to be found where answers are usually found. Are you ready for your first<br />

question?<br />

PCQ1: Who assumed the <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> the Mayor <strong>of</strong> the City <strong>of</strong> New York on January 1,<br />

1934? (Unlike St. Theresa, he was no “Little Flower.”)

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