Preacher's Kid

Certainly among our classmates there was the assumption that all preacher’s kids lacked the worldly knowledge that was an integral part of their education. To be honest, I suppose there was some merit to that line of thinking.
One day when I came home from school for lunch the sliding pocket doors to the living room were drawn.
“Mom, why are the doors closed?”
“You need to be quiet Catherine. Yoru Dad is officiating a shot-gun wedding.:
I thought for a moment and very clearly envisioned someone in our living room with rifle in hand forcing Dad to perform a wedding under duress. After mulling the scenario for a minute I decided to get to the bottom of the issue.
“There’s a gun in there Mom?”
“Of course not, Catherine. It means that someone is getting married but is also pregnant.”
Well, I guess the kids were sort of right on this one. I had just learned another of life’s lessons; a concept my friends already knew about. Better late than never I reasoned to myself.
I had no survey statistics to back my supposition but I had decided we were the only kids that played the game of “wedding” and “baptism.” If it was “baptism Sunday” that we chose to play I would be the pianist, Robert the minister, and Margaret was the mother of the feline to be baptized. She clutched Smokey, the cat, tightly to her chest in an attempt to keep it in her grasp long enough to get through the service. Needless to say, the cat would eventually succeed at making a mad dash from her arms and retreat to safety. Meanwhile the service went on without the main character. As I look back I am sure Smokey was relieved we did not hold to the concept of full immersion baptism!”