The Pink Peppermint Lady

I grew up a Dutch Calvinist, baptized in the Christian Reformed Church as an infant. My family attended church twice on Sunday. Morning service was at 9:30 and evening service was at 6:00. I never really knew why it was that we had to go to church twice, but I guessed that it was because going to church twice showed your dedication to God, and how you were better than the people that only went to church once on Sunday.

I didn't much like church. It was boring. Certain parts of the service were way more boring than others. I really liked singing the hymns. I grew up hearing the Psalms sung from the Psalter Hymnal (the blue one) in beautiful four-part harmony. I had my favorites...#444 God is Our Refuge and Our Strength, God of our Fathers, (that one had a beautiful trumpet fanfare at the beginning), Jesus, Lover of My Soul. But the other parts of the service were dreadful. I despised the long prayer. The sermons were long, dry and boring. I spent my time drawing on the bulletin, playing games with my handkerchief. My Mom had a wonderful way of rolling the "hankie" so that it looked like two baby twins wrapped in a blanket. I would often lay my head against her shoulder and try to sleep.

There were some events at church to look forward to though, and that was Mrs. X and her pink peppermints. If you could get close to her after the service, and look cute or pathetic enough, she would give you a pink peppermint. Those peppermints almost made church worth the trouble. My Mom told me not to beg, so I tried different methods of making the begging look less obvious. Most Sundays I scored.

I used to look at Mrs X admiringly. I even told myself that if I ever got old, I would carry pink peppermints in my purse and hand them out to all the kids at church even if they begged.

But the pink peppermint lady was not really the kind old lady she appeared to be. It turns out that she was an old busy body. When I needed someone to stand up and defend me, she only added accusation and innuendo. Since the peppermint lady is long dead, I think I shall now choose to forgive her.

And I think that I'm going to go buy some pink peppermints and pass them out to all the kids at church. I'll give two to the kids who beg. Peppermint lady did some things right.