The Long Christmas Dinner

Charles: […] I used to go skating with father on mornings like this and mother would come back from church saying----

Genevieve: (dreamily) I know---- saying, "Such a splendid sermon. I cried and cried."

Leonora: Why did she cry, dear?

Genevieve: That generation all cried at sermons. It was their way.

Leonora: Really, Genevieve?

Genevieve: They had had to go since they were children and I suppose sermons reminded them of their fathers and mothers just as christmas dinners do us…

                                                                                           Thornton Wilder-1931