It was a feel good day.

The gathering for Fr. Mike Shea was lots of fun. We chattered and ate and drank together and it was nice. The meal turned out fine and was an easy one to serve and eat.

We had Cuban Ropa Vieja (Old Rags) on hard rolls, beans, salad and blueberry pie. Aunt Kathleen brought a veggie tray and I shared some venison hot sticks.

The blueberry pie is so simple and really one of the best pies in the world.

You bake a pie crust and fill it with four cups of fresh washed and dried blueberries.

Make a glaze by cooking 2/3 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 3 heaping tablespoons of cornstarch and 1 cup of blueberries until it is thick and clear, about 10 minutes.

Pour over berries in the crust, cool and refrigerate and serve with a nice dollup of fresh whipped cream.

We talked a lot about the Bowser family and the Parnell, Mitchell and Armstrong area. The story of the time that St. Michael's Church was boarded shut was discussed.

This is my understanding of the story.

St. Michael's Church near Parnell was a mainly Irish faith community. At some point a German pastor was sent to serve the parish. Apparently he was not to the liking of a large part of the community and a number of young bucks, notably the Rooney boys actually locked and boarded up the door to the church to keep the priest out. This caused such a stir and a scandal that the Diocese put an edict on the church for a year during which no masses were permitted in the building. This meant that these hard working farmers had to travel several extra miles to attend Mass. An Irish Catholic did not miss Mass, you know, so it was a real hardship. For years and a couple of generations this event was not talked about but Grandpa Bowser would allude to it and comment that the the Rooney's all died young and also he said, "No good ever came to them." I guess it was true and he really believed it.

Mike talked a lot about his kids. He has 116 now. 68 of them have AIDS. He is going to request a new grant from the Elizabeth Taylor Foundation. They usually only give one to an individual place but Bill, our contact, suggested that he try again anyway as apparantly Miss Taylor is impressed by the beautiful faces of the children that Mike sends to them.

I guess that is enough for today. It was much cooler and not at all muggy. Quite a relief after the muggy hot days that we have had.

There are still a few firecrackers going off now and then so poor little Chelsea Dog is down in the den in front of Jim's chair, probably poised to go under the bed if things REALLY get bad.

Love Mary