In Chattanooga, the Pancake Race Comes After Chapel

In our house the eggs, butter and sugar are used up long before Lent, usually by Thursday.

Chapel is not a guest appearance at St. Nicholas. The school was founded in 1958 in the basement of Grace Episcopal Church, and the whole school gathers for chapel at the start of every day. For 22 years after it moved to its East Brainerd campus there was no chapel building, so chapel happened in the gym, with two music teachers rolling out a Yamaha keyboard every morning to lead the singing. The new Chapel and Fine Arts Center held its first chapel on October 5, 2016. The family handbook says fifth graders form the Chapel Guild and set up chapel each day.

Twenty-two years of rolling a keyboard into a gym is the kind of commitment I associate with the father who brings the folding chairs to every soccer game. Nobody thanks him. Everybody sits down.

The music director, Kara Miscio, who organized the day, told the station it was a chance to bring the community together and tie a fun tradition "into the larger story of Lent." A fifth-grade teacher, Alice Clark, said the older students look forward to it for years, having watched it happen, and that it is "always exciting when the pancake race rolls around."

Then the race. The station named the two fifth graders on the winning team. Asked about it, they said it was really fun, mentioned "all the pressure," and then said their favorite part was cheering their friends on.

I read that line out loud at dinner. The middle one said that is what people say after they win. The youngest said that is what people say when there are reporters. The eldest, who has a learner's permit and therefore opinions about pressure, said it was probably true, and then asked for the syrup, which she did not cheer for.

We had pancakes anyway. Nobody raced. My wife flipped one and it landed, and all five of us cheered, which I believe is the point.