Can you guess what this is?  If you were at Immaculate Conception Church this morning you probably can, but I’m guessing everyone else is going to be puzzled.
It’s slate.  A slate roof tile from the church, as a matter of fact.  With a new roof being installed, some bright person thought that parishioners might be willing to donate to the roof fund in return for this little piece of history.  My husband said that the minute he saw these sitting in the corner of the basement, where the fall craft fair was in full swing, he KNEW I was going to be thrilled.
And I was.  I did make some other purchases but nothing could have delighted me more.
Just think–this tile was placed on the roof in 1886.  Someone nailed it up there, and that someone is long dead.  About seven generations have worshiped beneath it.  Just think of the way the world was then and the way it is now, all the changes that have happened, while that tile stayed up there doing its job.  If only it could talk.
It was pretty dirty, that’s for sure.  I scrubbed it and put it through a cycle in the dishwasher, and now it’s all sparkly.  It came with a cardboard print out of some of its history.  I’m thinking I will mount that on the bottom of it and maybe put one of my best photos of the church on it, and turn it into art.
I wonder, when they put a new roof on the church in 2126, will there be parishioners who will cherish the ancient pieces of slate from 2012 and wonder about the people who worshiped beneath them?

photo of a picture taken last year in honor of the 125th anniversary of the church building