Joan, also when we were growing up the local parish was pretty much the social center of neighborhood life because folks didn't have the mobility and social media etc that we have now, and there wasn't much to do that didn't somehow involve the parish -- school, sports, parish groups, scouts, etc. When we went to mass it was often with the same folks we saw almost daily during the week, a  continuation of the same social contacts. This is not the case these days. There aren't many neighborhoods like there were when we grew up. This is not good or bad, it just is.