Mom and Dad had a great influence on my life. Dad had the ability to tell you all about anyone he had met. One day he called the newspaper to talk to a reporter. He didn't get the person he expected to talk with but he managed to find out all about another reporter who had been to Norway. They talked for a half hour or more and he told us all about the man and the trip when he hung up the phone.
The church and their church friends were the most important part of their lives. They each held offices in the church. Mother and Dad were both elders. Dad was moderator of the Presbytery for at least one term. Mother was also very active in Women's work. She was even a Presbyterial and Synodical President. She attended many National meetings of the women's organization.
After Vivian had graduated from Trinity University, she worked as a censor for the PO and checked the mail coming in from Mexico. She was fluent in Spanish including conversational Spanish. But after the war, she went to work for the Synod Office. Hoytt Boles was the Synod Executive and Vivian was the secretary. She wrote to many people in the New York Office at 156 Fifth Avenue. So, on a vacation she went to visit the New York Office. And shortly thereafter went to work for the Office for Rural Church Work headed by Dr. Randolph. That was the office that was in charge of the field that Irvin pastored in Northwest Mississippi after graduating from Seminary.
There are so many connections to the Presbyterian Church in my lifetime that I can hardly recall them all. And I am so thankful that John and Elna were so dedicated to the church that some of that rubbed off on me.
In 1957 Dad got a call from Rev. Elmer Gieser. He was our first pastor in Hereford, Texas and his daughter was my best friend. Elmer wanted to know if Dad would be interested in moving to Ghost Ranch near Abiqui, NM. Mr. Pack had given the ranch to the church for a conference center and they were going to need to build several new buildings before it could get up and running.
But when Dad said he would be interested, the Board of Christian Education (who would be in charge of the program) said they needed a Dietitian and couldn't afford both. Mother had graduated and was a dietitian, so they hired both of them for two positions, but I think they only got one salary. They packed up and sold their house in Waco and moved to Ghost Ranch.
It just so happened that our son John had been having many allergy problems in Florida and we had been there for 5 years and we called the Board of National Missions and Dr. Jackman and asked if there was a place in the Southwest where we could serve. There was and Irvin flew to Mississippi where he visited his mother and then on to Colorado. He visited the site and thought it would be a good fit.
He came back and gave notice that he would be leaving First Presbyterian Church in Miami the end of December. We took December as a vacation month and left Miami on Dec. 12th and headed west. We were excited. We stopped in Mississippi for an early Christmas with family, and then on through Texas. John still had not been able to sleep through the night, and we were spending the night in Corsicana. About 2 am we had been up with John and decided to put the kids in the car and drive on. John then went to sleep and we went to Hereford where I had grown up. We looked at some sights and I visited some people, and everyone went to bed very early, and John slept through the night! He was 18 months old.
We got up early the next morning and headed for Ghost Ranch. The kids had asked about tumbleweeds. Did they really tumble? They got their answer. All the kids except Robert liked watching the tumbleweeds but he was quite frightened by them. We had quite a few on the highway to Clovis and ended up at a service station where we could pull the pieces out of the radiator. Then on down the highway. There had been a recent accident on a major highway and we stopped to see if we could be of help. When Irvin got back to the car, it wouldn't start. At that point another driver who had stopped offered to jump start our car and that worked. He explained that in the higher altitude we needed more octane in the gas than at lower elevations. And so we made it to Ghost Ranch just before Christmas. John and Elna were glad to see us and we all slept well at the higher altitude. We were happy to be able to live closer to them and had a wonderful Christmas before going to Colorado.
No comments:
Post a Comment