Not What I Want to See in a New Glove (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Keith, Catsynth, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, Wisewebwoman  is providing the prompts and they will appear on River's blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.ambulance  

2.bluebell  

3.Sacristy  

4. fountain

and/or:

1.magnificent  

2.Connemara  

3.castaway  

4.trumpet

Charlotte's colour of the month is Thrash Pink.

Use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

“Never forget, child, never forget!”

She remembered her grandmother’s voice, telling her the stories of family, of heritage, of CONNEMARA where the family had come from.

“They tried to destroy our faith,” her grandmother had told her.  “Made it illegal to be Catholic, forced everyone to go to the Protestant churches.  Our people would take to the mountains where the priest would bless a rock to be his alter.  No SACRISTY where he could prepare, no pews or crucifix but the small, crude one someone had made.  The FOUNTAIN for baptizing the babies was just a small bowl.  They’d post guards to warn if soldiers or Catholic hunters were coming, but sometimes they’d be caught anyway, the priest murdered on the very rock where he’d been offering Mass, many of the people murdered, too.

“Many heard MAGNIFICENT stories of a land where you could worship as you choose, and some of our family managed to get over here.  We were considered low class, low church, CASTAWAYS, just those Irish people, but we worked, we worshiped, we loved, and we succeeded.  There was even a son of Irish descent who was President, that’s when our family knew we’d done well to come here.”

Her grandmother had told her all the stories, family legends, tales passed down from the old country, some from even before they’d converted from pagan to Catholic.

“Never forget your heritage, child,” her grandmother had always told her.  She could still remember the sight of the AMBULANCE which drove her grandmother to the hospital for the last time.  She’d held grandmother’s hand until the last moment as the old woman mouthed the word, “remember” to her silently.

Now she walked through the paths of her favorite nature reserve, listening to the TRUMPET sounds the trumpeter swans made in the wetlands.  Up at the Nature Center building was a garden of wildflowers native to the area, some a beautiful Thrash Pink, and the delightful BLUEBELLS.

She was wondering what her grandmother would say, as she contemplated marrying a man who was a Protestant.  Would she understand at all?  Would she consider it a betrayal?

“I won’t forget the stories, Grandmother,” she whispered.  “But if Jesus taught forgiveness, and you taught me He did, we’ll just have to get beyond the past, even while we remember it.”

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Today is:

Advocate's Day -- India

Day of Remembrance for Bogatir (Great hero) Svatogor -- Asatru/Pagan Slavic Calendar

Festival for Bona Dea -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of chastity, fecundity, the earth, and fertility; a women's festival)

Festival for Serket/Selket -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (scorpion goddess, who healed from their sting; date approximate)

International Day of Persons with Disabilities -- UN

International Day of the Basque Language

Make a Gift Day -- internet generated, and go ahead, 'tis the season

National Apple Pie Day

National Ice Cream Box Day -- internet generated, for those who love ice cream that comes in the rectangular box, and being the first to dig in

National Roof-Over-Your-Head Day -- be grateful you have one

Pompaia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (procession dedicated to Zeus; date approximate)

Reinvigorate Your Brain by Reading Something Day -- internet generated, and good to do every day, don't you think?

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting -- NY, NY, US

Special Kids Day -- a day to make sure special needs kids get to visit Santa with whatever accommodations they require    

St. Francis Xavier's Day (Patron of African missions, foreign missions, missionaries, navigators, parish missions, Agartala, India; Ahmedabad, India; Alexandria, LA; ) related observance

     San Francisco Javier -- Navarre, Spain (special observances)

Takata no Inoko -- Sakurai, Japan (offerings for peace and good harvests)

Telescope Day -- marking its invention by Galileo in 1621

Tinsel Day -- remember when this stuff used to contain lead?

Anniversaries Today:

Illinois becomes the 21st US State, 1818

Birthdays Today:

Alicia Sacramone, 1987

Amanda Seyfried, 1985

Bruno Campos, 1974

Holly Marie Combs, 1973

Bucky Lasek, 1972

Brendan Fraser, 1968

Katarina Witt, 1965

Daryl Hannah, 1961

Julianne Moore, 1960

Rick Ravon Mears, 1951

Ozzy Osbourne, 1948

Jaye P. Morgan, 1932

Jean-Luc Godard, 1930

Andy Williams, 1927

Ferlin Husky, 1927

John Backus, 1924

Nino Rota, 1911

Carlos Montoya, 1903

Joseph Conrad, 1857

Charles Alfred Pillsbury, 1842

Gilbert Charles Stuart, 1755

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Camelot"(Musical), 1960

"Troilus and Cressida"(Opera), 1954

"A Streetcar Names Desire"(Play), 1947

Alka-Seltzer, 1931

Today in History:

Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, 1586

In an uprising over mining licenses, which came to be called the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in what many claim to be the birth of Australian democracy, 1854

The trial of Jefferson Davis starts with the first blacks on a US trial jury, 1868

Settlers arrive at Petach Tikvah, Israel, 1878

The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine, 1904

Neon lights make their public debut at the Paris Auto Show, 1910

The Quebec Bridge, after almost 20 years of planning and construction, opens, 1917

The first successful Technicolor movie, "Tall of the Sea," premiers in NYC, 1922

Chinese refugee ship "Kiangya" explodes in E China Sea, killing 1,100, 1948

Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast, 1950

At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human, 1967

Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter, 1973

In one of the worst industrial disasters ever, a methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills thousands and injures hundreds of thousands, 1984

In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries, not including the US, Russia, or China, sign The Ottawa treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines, 1997

XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California, 2005

The Nissan Leaf, one of the first mass marketed electric cars, is launched, 2010

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces all combat roles in US armed forced will be opened to women, 2015

The first pizza party in space held by astronauts of the International Space Station, 2017

The 70th anniversary of NATO is marked by a gathering of world leaders in London at a reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth II, 2019

AT&T Inc’s Warner Bros. Studios announces all its 2021 movies will stream online the same day they appear in theatres because of the pandemic, 2020

Indonesia's Mount Marapi, on the island of Sumatra, erupts, 2023