Spring Forward

"Pop" Coe never missed church. He was an old, at least as a child I saw him as old, but he may have been anywhere from 60 to 80 years old. He walked carefuly, with a cane, as old men often do, and he proudly took his place in the bass section of our small church choir every Sunday morning, except one time each year.

On that day, the day the clocks were set forward one hour, Pop Coe predictably entered the sanctuary 45 minutes after the service had begun. And every year, Pop Coe would let anyone within earshot know what "poppy cock" this time change business was.

I happened to glance up on one of these sundays in time to see him enter the church, and I watched as his face changed from bewilderment to confusion, and then anger and frustration.

The only other day Pop Coe didn't come to church on time was a cold winter day when he didn't show up to church at all, and someone went to his house to find him dead.

I appreciate now that Pop Coe who never missed aday of work (so they said), and could be relied upon, this man of his word, would be so aghast at his annual mistake. But was it really a mistake?

Perhaps it was the rest of the world who gotin too much of a hurry, su much so that we collectively deleted an entre hour of a beautiful spring day.

I think Pop Coe was, perhaps, the only person who was on time.