New Friends, New Discoveries, First Snow
In which Teófilo remembers his first South Dakotan friends, his first outings, and first snow event.
First Visit to Cathedral on Fall-back Sunday
Once we were mobile, we started our area exploration drives. This is how we began making new friends.
One Sunday we’d decided to visit Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s Cathedral in downtown Rapid City. We’d wanted to attend Mass and get to know the Church. We were impressed with its interior, as the altar featured a large-size icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This icon has been pursuing me for a long time, as it’s also a feature of Santa María Reina Church, my Ponce parish church.
However, we were disappointed to find out we’d arrived one hour late to Mass. It was “Fall-back” Sunday. We were both unfamiliar about, and unaware of the change. Another lesson learned.
Eventually we would become friends with the pastor, the late Father (later Monsignor) William O’Connell. He even celebrated Mass in our home! He was a man filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit. He’s in my personal list of canonized saints.
First Finding of The Mustard Seed Catholic Store
We also found Rapid City’s one Catholic bookstore, The Mustard Seed. It was owned by Mrs. Susan Johnson. She generously extended credit to us which we paid off religiously – no pun intended. The store would come to play a signal place in my spiritual development, as I would purchase from it several books that would exert great influence upon me, among them, Thomas Merton’s The Seven Story Mountain.
It was also at The Mustard Seed where we met the late Mrs. Harriett Vickerman. She was working part time at the store. An amiable older lady, she of adopted us. A fervent Catholic, she was a parishioner at St. Isaac Jogues Church, a parish staffed by Jesuits. That’s how we came to adopt St. Isaac as “our” parish when off-base. Harriett is another one of those whom I’ve canonized in my private list. I would call her regularly ever since we left South Dakota until the day a relative answered the phone and slammed it when I asked for her. On a hunch I looked for her obituary online and found it. May she rest in peace.
St. Isaac’s was also the venue in which we met Avelina “Abby” Seals, our first resident Hispanic we met outside the base. We would visit them on occasion and felt very welcome at her home in the city.
Bear Country, Keystone, Mount Rushmore
Our first outing took us to Bear Country, a drive-in zoo on the outskirts of Rapid City. Having never experienced such a zoo, we came out impressed at so many animals ambulating around us: bears, buffaloes, antelopes, deer. We made sure we kept our car windows closed tight.
We then went up the Black Hills and stopped at Keystone, a touristy cowboy town located just before reaching Mount Rushmore. We made the mandatory walks up and down the wooden walk and watched cowboy standoffs taking place on the main road. Bang! In variably, one would hit the ground. After a few seconds he stood up, took a bow, and people clapped in appreciation.
We finally reached Mt. Rushmore, where the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt star down at you from their lofty, granite perch. We reached the principal observation deck by walking through the Avenue of Flags. The flags of every state and territory flew at intervals on each side of the walkway. We took our picture under the Puerto Rican flag flying therein, a small reminded of the home we had left.
We would get to visit Mt. Rushmore many times during the following years.
First Snow
The first snow, a flurry really, arrived later on that September. We had left a pair of Mercie’s sneakers outside on the steps, forgetting to retrieve them until it had begun snowing. A picture memorializes our first snow event, ever.
I would get to see a lot of it that year and earlier in 1986.
Bonus Video
First Snow in the Rapid City region, September, 1985.