Attending Mass At Different Parishes

[JanR]

Decades ago, I worked very briefly as a room maid in a 1970s hotel. All of the rooms had shag carpeting, and the old dinosaur of an upright vacuum cleaner we were saddled with wouldn’t pick up anything embedded in it.

I recall one room in which some kid had been playing with uncooked spaghetti, had broken and crumbled it into match-stick sized pieces and left the entire mess all over the carpet after the guests had checked out. The vacuum cleaner wouldn’t touch it, and I had to pick up all those pieces by hand and throw them into the trash. Powdered residue was left behind from the more pulverized pieces. Now, you probably have a pretty good idea what I was thinking of those people who left that hopeless mess behind for us low-paid workers who had to be finished within certain time limits. My thoughts during those moments weren’t very flattering.

It just goes to show that some people were just as discourteous and inconsiderate in those days as they are now.

I still loved the colors and patterns of 70s style carpeting. But as you’ve noted, shag was difficult to clean, and I was glad, for that reason, that we didn’t have it in our home. There were some folks who actually managed to keep theirs clean. The more modern vacuum cleaners could handle it, and they probably didn’t have picnics on it, anyway.

Remember carpet rakes, and combing carpets to erase the tracks the vacuum cleaners left?

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Decades ago, I worked very briefly as a room maid in a 1970s hotel. All of the rooms had shag carpeting, and the old dinosaur of an upright vacuum cleaner we were saddled with wouldn’t pick up anything embedded in it.

I recall one room in which some kid had been playing with uncooked spaghetti, had broken and crumbled it into match-stick sized pieces and left the entire mess all over the carpet after the guests had checked out. The vacuum cleaner wouldn’t touch it, and I had to pick up all those pieces by hand and throw them into the trash. Powdered residue was left behind from the more pulverized pieces. Now, you probably have a pretty good idea what I was thinking of those people who left that hopeless mess behind for us low-paid workers who had to be finished within certain time limits. My thoughts during those moments weren’t very flattering.

It just goes to show that some people were just as discourteous and inconsiderate in those days as they are now.

I still loved the colors and patterns of 70s style carpeting. But as you’ve noted, shag was difficult to clean, and I was glad, for that reason, that we didn’t have it in our home. There were some folks who actually managed to keep theirs clean. The more modern vacuum cleaners could handle it, and they probably didn’t have picnics on it, anyway.

Remember carpet rakes, and combing carpets to erase the tracks the vacuum cleaners left?

Not to toot my own horn or to signal virtue, but when I stay in a hotel, I try to clean up the room as much as I can before I leave, to show respect for the maids and to make their work as easy and as seamless as possible. In the bathroom, I mop up all the water and do a quick once-over, to clean up everything. I figure that they deal with enough messes from enough people, I needn’t add one more.

I don’t remember carpet rakes or combs. We were never that fancy when I was growing up.

 

[JanR]

Hubby and I try to leave as little of ourselves behind as possible when we check out of our hotel rooms. Those maids work hard, and unless they belong to a union, they don’t get paid very much. We also respect the custodians (janitors). I’ve done that kind of work, too, so I know firsthand what it’s like.

I encountered carpet rakes while cleaning upscale houses in wealthy neighborhoods in the 1970s when they had shag and other high-pile carpeting that would get matted down when being vacuumed. Afterwards, I had to rake the pile backwards to restore its upright position and erase the vacuum cleaner tracks.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

Best post on this thread.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

but taking it to the other end of the extreme, can I just come in to cross myself, light a candle and call it good?

I don’t think so. I learned that you had to be present at the consecration in order to attend Mass/Liturgy and if one missed the consecration, one had to attend another Mass/Liturgy in order to fulfill one’s Sunday obligation.

It’s midnight so I’m turning in. Good night!

 

[dochawk]

My eyes . . . . they burns me, they does!

Forget mauve. I painted my bedroom deep purple and white back in 1973.

I think it took him 6 or 7 coats of white to cover the purple.

Killz is a product just for that, and I’m sure it has competitors.

A single coat over dark paint generally allows a white coat.

As for shag . . . I had an office with insanely thick shag (length measured in full inches! ). When I touched the light switch in my office, my secretary’s printer jumped . . . I learned to almost touch my ring to a screw first, and it would arc from a quarter or half inch away . . .

Fortunately, most small law offices in town shut down about three on Fridays at the time. The secretaries would shoe the other lawyer and I out to hit the carpet with conditioners (that stuff made us both ill). Yes, it had to be conditioned every week to keep it down to the levels I described. And this was 1990 or so . . .

 

[phil19034]

have never heard that. Just putting it bluntly, Catholics don’t have a concept of “that guy was rude” in Mass — we go for the sake of Almighty God and our own sanctification, and Catholics typically neither know nor care what the other guy does. Catholics tend not to be judgmental about other people’s behavior — everyone is more or less “doing their own thing”.

I wasn’t really pushing a “that guy was rude” mentality. I was responding to the post, which is why I put “who taught it was rude” in quotes.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

have never heard that. Just putting it bluntly, Catholics don’t have a concept of “that guy was rude” in Mass — we go for the sake of Almighty God and our own sanctification, and Catholics typically neither know nor care what the other guy does. Catholics tend not to be judgmental about other people’s behavior — everyone is more or less “doing their own thing”.

My point was that Catholics tend to be, for lack of a more elegant way of putting it, pretty much self-absorbed and unconcerned with the deportment of their neighbors, where matters of worship are concerned. We have it pounded into us, from childhood onward, “don’t judge”, “you never know what the other guy is dealing with”, “let that be the other guy’s business”, and so on. Even here, almost five decades into the “Catholic thing”, I find it refreshing that I can go into any Catholic church, anywhere in the world, and no one is going to look at me, and jump to conclusions about me, based on how I act (unless I am rolling in the aisles and barking like a dog, and possibly not even then ), how I’m dressed, what ethnic features I have, or anything else. Many Christian denominations would be entirely different in this regard.

 

[babochka]

HomeschoolDad:

have never heard that. Just putting it bluntly, Catholics don’t have a concept of “that guy was rude” in Mass — we go for the sake of Almighty God and our own sanctification, and Catholics typically neither know nor care what the other guy does. Catholics tend not to be judgmental about other people’s behavior — everyone is more or less “doing their own thing”.

My point was that Catholics tend to be, for lack of a more elegant way of putting it, pretty much self-absorbed and unconcerned with the deportment of their neighbors, where matters of worship are concerned. We have it pounded into us, from childhood onward, “don’t judge”, “you never know what the other guy is dealing with”, “let that be the other guy’s business”, and so on. Even here, almost five decades into the “Catholic thing”, I find it refreshing that I can go into any Catholic church, anywhere in the world, and no one is going to look at me, and jump to conclusions about me, based on how I act (unless I am rolling in the aisles and barking like a dog, and possibly not even then ), how I’m dressed, what ethnic features I have, or anything else. Many Christian denominations would be entirely different in this regard.

Have you ever read one of the threads on here about children’s behavior in church?

Apparently, that attitude only extends to childless adults. People have plenty to say about children and their parents.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Have you ever read one of the threads on here about children’s behavior in church?

Apparently, that attitude only extends to childless adults. People have plenty to say about children and their parents.

CAF contributors are not reflective of the Church as a whole.

 

[phil19034]

HomeschoolDad:

HomeschoolDad:

have never heard that. Just putting it bluntly, Catholics don’t have a concept of “that guy was rude” in Mass — we go for the sake of Almighty God and our own sanctification, and Catholics typically neither know nor care what the other guy does. Catholics tend not to be judgmental about other people’s behavior — everyone is more or less “doing their own thing”.

My point was that Catholics tend to be, for lack of a more elegant way of putting it, pretty much self-absorbed and unconcerned with the deportment of their neighbors, where matters of worship are concerned. We have it pounded into us, from childhood onward, “don’t judge”, “you never know what the other guy is dealing with”, “let that be the other guy’s business”, and so on. Even here, almost five decades into the “Catholic thing”, I find it refreshing that I can go into any Catholic church, anywhere in the world, and no one is going to look at me, and jump to conclusions about me, based on how I act (unless I am rolling in the aisles and barking like a dog, and possibly not even then ), how I’m dressed, what ethnic features I have, or anything else. Many Christian denominations would be entirely different in this regard.

Have you ever read one of the threads on here about children’s behavior in church?

Apparently, that attitude only extends to childless adults. People have plenty to say about children and their parents.

To be fair, I think that’s usually only in parishes with Cry Rooms. Some parishenors & priests get annoyed when they paid to install a cry room, yet parents don’t use it.

I’m not defending them per say, but I can understand why they get annoyed.

God Bless

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Have you ever read one of the threads on here about children’s behavior in church?

Apparently, that attitude only extends to childless adults. People have plenty to say about children and their parents.

Back in the day, I made very liberal use of the cry room — I try to organize my life in such a way that I would have everyone else on earth do as I do (Kant’s categorical imperative, yet one more reason why one or two semesters of philosophy should be mandatory for all college students regardless of major).

Cry rooms are there for a reason. If you need to use them, do precisely that.