Mostly everyone now knows that I grew up in New Orleans, which at the time was mostly Catholic. It never occurred to me that giving up something for Lent was just a Christian thing. Everyone I knew, gave up something for Lent. If you didn't like something,
you just said,Oh, I can't, I gave it up for Lent. Everyone respected that. Until I was 10 and my Grandmother was alive, I lived in a Orthodox household. No one ever told me that giving up something for Lent was a religious obligation and not my practicing
religion. Those were such simple times when my best neighborhood friend was a Catholic girl who went to a private school , where no Jews attended (allowed) and lived katty cornered from me. I played with her, literally, until the day before I got married.
(Remember, I wasn't 18 yet) We had a water fight. Her Grandmother was called "Grand Mamere". We three spent hours playing Canasta during the summer. We didn't talk religion. Our parents never mingled. But we ,in a simpler time, sheltered as I was, had a wonderful
childhood. I wonder what she is doing now.