THE BISHOP.
By Gerard J. St. John
Christenings are joyful occasions, particularly the christening of a couple’s first child. It is a defining event for two separate generations, the proud parents and the equally proud grandparents – all vying for the attention of the infant celebrity. For the parents, it is often the first major test of their “hosting” skills, gathering not only both sets of in-laws but also friends of both spouses in the confines of what is probably the smallest living space that they will ever occupy. There will be joking and laughing and food and drink.
It is a rite of passage. From this point on, the young parents will assert their prerogatives as parents; the grandparents will step aside for a new generation, and the lines with friends are more clearly drawn. The family is now the number one priority. All of these thoughts and emotions swirl around a Christening. Such was the case in 1964 at the Christening of Maureen Gavaghan, the firstborn of Jim and Pat Gavaghan. To be more precise, such was the case at the party that followed Maureen’s Christening.
At the time, Jim and Pat lived in a second-floor apartment in an old house in Germantown. The old house was designed pretty much the same as most houses in Philadelphia. The second floor originally had three bedrooms and a bath. When the house was converted into apartments, the master bedroom in the front became a living room and the bedroom in the back became a kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a narrow bathroom, accessible by a short hallway.
By the time that I arrived, most of the guests were in the living room. Jim’s mother was sitting on an upholstered chair holding the baby. Nearby, Pat Gavaghan was seated on a sofa next to her friend Isabelle Short. Actually, “Izzy” was a friend of almost everyone at the Christening. She was from the same Kensington neighborhood as the Gavaghans, she knew many of us from the beach at Margate, New Jersey, and she was a long-time teammate of Pat Gavaghan on local basketball teams.
It was not long before Vince Nolan, Jim Gavaghan and I congregated in the kitchen where the refrigerator was well stocked with beer. Vince then announced that he was going to the bathroom. Vince announces those things; he doesn’t just go – he thinks that it is a newsworthy event. Gav showed him to the hallway, and then came quickly back into the kitchen. Hurrying to one of the back windows, he said, “Wait until you see this!” Gav stepped out the window and onto a narrow roof that jutted out from the back of the apartment below. Carefully sidestepping a few feet to the bathroom window, Gav threw the window open and called out, “Boo!” Vince was momentarily stunned, but he quickly recovered and directed a stream of urine out the window. By that time, Jim was back in the kitchen, doubled up in laughter. That was when Izzy came into the room.
“You two are up to no good,” she said. “Why’s that window open? Let me look and see what is out there.” With that, Isabelle leaned out the window and looked to the right. Immediately, she let out a shriek and bolted out of the kitchen, back up to the living room. A minute or so later, Vince came prancing back into the kitchen, wearing his best “I-showed-you” face. “What are you two laughing at?” he wanted to know. When we were finally able to stop laughing, we told him. Vince did not believe us.
“Just go up to the living room where she can see you,” we said. “You won’t have to say anything.” So, Vince walked up the narrow hallway and stepped into the living room, and said, “Yoo Hoo, Izzy.” Isabelle did not say a word; the expression on her face said it all. Vince’s face turned red, and he ambled back to the kitchen saying, “She saw it; Izzy saw the bishop.”
