Ash Wednesday 2010

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent for most mainline Christian religions.  We Catholics have certain regulations for this day and on Fridays during Lent:  " LENTEN REGULATIONS FOR FASTING AND ABSTINANCE:  All persons age 14 and older should abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays during Lent. All between the ages of 18 and 59 should also fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting entails limiting oneself to one full meal and two smaller meals with no solid food in between. No one should allow their health or ability to work to be compromised through fasting. "   Of course, if we are not allowed to eat meat on Fridays, we could always go to Red Lobster and have a wonderful meal of Lobster, Crab legs and/or shrimp and still fulfill the "legal" definition of the regulations but we would still be missing out on their "spiritual"  intent.

Rose and I will be attending Mass at St. Odilia Church in Shorview, MN later on today to receive ashes in the form of a cross, on our foreheads as a reminder that we came from dust and that is we're headed.  Rose will play mandolin in the "Friends" music group as she has done for several years.

I remember Lent as a boy in Kasson, MN  (about 20 miles due west of Rochester, MN of Mayo Clinic fame) in the early 1950's.  Lent always transitioned Winter to Spring.  I remember one particular Good Friday walking with a friend in the alley behind my dad's meat market. The day was sunny and rivulets of water from melting snow soaked our leather shoes.  I remember the  "spring" odor in the air.  I was glad that Lent was finally coming to an end and I could eat candy (which I had given up for Lent) once again.   I was glad to see the Spring. 

Shown below is our Kraher's Meat Marked that dad owned.  Standing at the opened door in winter garb are my older brother Mike (now deceased) 9 years old at the time, and younger brother Jim standing behind, 6 years old.  Our family lived in a narrow but long apartment above the Market.  The building esists today (2010)

In the photo below are mom [Mary (Bauman) Kubiatowicz] and dad [Eugene Andrew Kubiatowicz] standing in front of Kraher's Market.  Dad died in 1991 at age 81 and mom died in 2004 at age 86.

 Below is the Main Street of Kasson in 1956.  Krayer's Market is at the far end. The photo is from the Minnesota Historical Society collection.  I zoomed in on the 2 kids by the fire hydrant outside the Drug store thinking one of them could be me (as I left Kasson to move to Rochester with my parents and 2 brothers in 1958), but alas, neither of them was me.

Permission  for "Minnesota Media Use"  of Photo

Granted by the Minnesota Historical Society, Order No. 80758

(Business Section Kasson, Loc # MD4.9 KA p9)