Pa Hat's Funeral

 

Yesterday Travalon and I went to the closer, earlier Mass so that we would be ready when Richard Bonomo came to our place a little after ten. We caravanned with Tiffy and my other college friend, who does not have a name on this blog. If anyone can think of one for her, let me know. We drove and drove, stopping for lunch at a family restaurant in Tomah, until we came to St. Michael's Catholic Church in Pine Island, Minnesota. While it is very close to the town where I grew up, I don't recall ever being there before. It has a very cute, old downtown. Even though we were coming from halfway across Wisconsin, we got there before anyone else. I was wearing a very Irish shawl, earrings, rings, and a necklace... and then all my brother's friends who showed up dressed all Scottish, either in kilts or with tartan shawls. Since I have a tartan shawl, I could have worn that, had I known. It was like a scene out of a sitcom. When I made a comment about it to some tartan-clad people, one guy said, "We're all Celts. We're just the ones who knew how to swim."

The service was lovely, the Liturgy of the Word from a Catholic Mass, and then outside afterwards I was talking to a woman who said how she felt my father's presence in the church, and this bell tower rang:

She said, "Wow, did you hear that? It can't be a coincidence!" Then we all drove to a nearby park for a picnic dinner. There was a setup with photos of Pa Hat, and I loved this one of the two of us:

This must have been one spring in the Arboretum when I was in college. We look like partners in crime, both in red with beret-type hats and sunglasses. It may be my new favorite photos. Then again, there's this one, where you can tell I was a teenager in the 80's:

The hair! The earrings! The Billy Idol sneer! Ma Hat made this sweater, and it would probably still fit me, since it was so oversized. That was the style back then, and then you wore it over leggings.

Here is a more recent photo of the family:

I know that one's at a weird angle, but it's better than the straight-on photos:

Then we hit the road, and the ladies got way ahead of us, so we didn't coordinate our rest stops like we had on the way up. Poor Rich had to listen as Travalon and I sang to yacht rock. Just outside of Sparta, we saw what looked like a funnel cloud coming out of the sky, but it disappeared back into the sky as we got closer. We prayed a rosary anyway, just to be safe. 

This was on the way out, not the way back, but we stopped at a rest stop on the Mississippi and saw a long train going by. Travalon took some photos of the river and the bluffs.

On the way back to Wisconsin, we stopped at the Dino Stop in St. Charles, MN.

Travalon bought a hoodie. Here he is modeling it for you on our dock this morning.

My aunt and uncle from Colorado sent flowers.

And on each picnic table there were a couple of paper cups with annuals in them and a photo of Pa Hat on them.

Today I worked from home, frantically trying to get some mysterious credit card charges reconciled by the end of the day. In the evening I went to Moldy Jam, and there were a lot more people than usual. It was sort of the birthday of one member (his birthday is actually this coming weekend), so his wife made a lemon blueberry cake, and we sang him "Happy Birthday." Since there were so many people, I only had to call two tunes, so I called "Drowsy Maggie" and "Pig Ankle Rag," which is not Irish after I'd said I only call Irish tunes. But they swing it so hard that it's tons of fun, and I cannot get my band to swing it at all. There was another tune I'd had stuck in my head today, but I didn't know the name, and then someone called it!... but I still can't remember the name. At least I'm learning a lot more of these tunes, even if I can't remember what they're called.

Famous Hat