The Little Church at the Edge of the Woods, Sunday, November 9, 2014

I posted on my Facebook page last week that I had painted my primitive Church on a new ornament and it ALWAYS makes me think of the song, LITTLE BROWN CHURCH IN THE VALE (DALE) and THAT always makes me think of the small church where my Daddy was raised.

This is Dozier Church.  Most of the community went to church here.  I'm sure they only had services about once a month because it was the tradition of small churches to SHARE pastors.  

Most every community had their own school...This is the one-roomed School where Daddy went to school...It is to the left of the church.

The church moved to town sometimes in the 50s and became known as Central Christian Church.
My FAVORITE thing to say about Mother and Daddy was: Mother was a Baptist and Daddy was a CHRISTIAN UNTIL he married Momma...NOW they are Cumberland Presbyterians...

Mother didn't CARE WHERE they went to Church, just as long as they were TOGETHER to worship each Sunday.  Daddy didn't want to join a church that REFUSED to accept his baptism (he was sprinkled...GASP...ROFL) and Mother thought it was best for them BOTH to start fresh, so they found a Church were they served FAITHFULLY until their death.  Mother sang in the choir the last Sunday she was able to attend.

This is inside the church.  Each Fall, Central Christian holds a picnic on the grounds.  So many of the OLD FOLKS have gone to be with our Lord, BUT this is the Calvert's on the back row...They were such dear friends of Mother and Daddy's and were part of the PITCH (card group) players who would gather at least once a year for the men to play cards, usually at Christmas.

This is another inside picture of the church...Those wooden floors are beautiful and the Christian Church has done a WONDERFUL job of keeping the grounds and the buildings in wonderful condition.

This is the inside of the School House...They have made some changes...it used to have PEG HOLES in the bottom of the floor because Daddy would chew tobacco during class and spit through those holes...BAD BOY...BADDDDDDD....

The school ALSO had a pot belly stove because Daddy told of running through the field to get to school (probably about one mile) FIRST so he could start the fire...

I've often said that is was AGAINST the LAW for my Family to throw anything away...BUT on days like this, I'm so thankful!

Daddy's teacher was his Aunt Ellen, the old maid sister of Uncle Bud.  Uncle Bud and Aunt Jenny raised Daddy since his mother died when he was 22 months old and his Father was doing his best to take care of 3 other children.  Granddaddy would NOT let them adopt him because he always wanted Daddy to know that he loved him and wanted him.  Daddy was always in his family's life.  Aunt Jenny was Grandmother's sister.

I drive by Dozier School/Church at least once a month and it takes my heart back to years gone by...I'm lucky to be able to see this part of my heritage and I'm so glad that somebody made sure this property was maintained...What a BLESSED girl I am...

Be sure to pass on YOUR STORY...you would be surprised that people REALLY do want to hear it...Blessings to YOU...~charlotte♥

People Come and Go Speaking of Michelangelo...Thursday, February 20, 2014

Have you ever thought about the people who come in and out of your life?  Have you ever thought about how many people that is?  

I’m glad SOME of the people who have left my life are gone…

My poor Mother probably sweated bullets during my relationship with this guy...whew...it was rough...He transferred to Bethel and I remember sitting around the table eating lunch when he came in with his two black eyes because he had recently won a tough man contest...My friends were swooning...I looked at him and said "eh...not that impressed"...BUT a few months later, we could NOT be separated!!

I wish SOME of the people who have left my life that are still on earth would come back into my life…

oh, JULIE!!  LOL...Friends at my 16th Surprise Birthday Party, October 30, 1978

I MISS those I LOVE who are no longer earth bound….

This was breakfast at my house, probably spring of 1980...Mother, Fannie and Jose Fejardo...Fannie and Jose were from Cali, South America...He interpreted for Billy Graham at one of his meetings in South America...Mother and Fannie are with the Lord today, BUT Jose is 100 years old!  When they stayed at our house, our guest room is the front room that was the original DEN in our home...it's a BIG room with 9 foot ceilings and has the high bed my great uncle was born on...Jose came into the kitchen after they had put up their luggage and said "how do you think I can get into THAT bed..." Daddy went and got a foot stool and put it by the bed before they retired for the evening...the stool remains there to this day...ALL we could hear was laughter throughout the house...Jose said that he LOVED America...every event he went to, people would stand and sing: JOSE, CAN you SEE? 

Isn’t it fun to talk about the good ole days?  Don’t you WISH that each of us REALLY was as pretty, as good, as talented, as funny, as smart, as popular, as WONDERFUL as we seem to REMEMBER that we were?

 This was May 23, 1980, the morning of my High School graduation...we had just practiced our graduation ceremony at the center and Kim and I had dropped LuAnn off at Kroger!

This was at the 4H awards banquet...probably my Junior Year...so MAYBE the Spring of 1979...This was our congressman at the time.. 

I was talking with one of my best friends from High School one day after a LONG absence from my life, and I made a comment about having been in the National Honor Society…Kim looked at me and said, “I DON’T remember you being smart!”  sigh…but REALLY, what would I EXPECT from someone who was ONLY in the Beta Club~~SLACKER!

 

Does this LOOK like a person that should question MY intelligence!

                        This is Kim at my SURPRISE 16th Birthday party in 1978!

And Kim...that is NOT how to drive a car...boy, Daddy really should have taken the T-bird away!

I’ve NOT been a perfect friend, but I’ve tried to be a good friend.  I do my best to be as honest as I can be WITHOUT being brutal.  I do my BEST to support my friends and NOT to bash them and put them down in front of others, making them to feel small and unimportant…I WISH former friends could have done the same for me…

Laurie at my 16th Birthday part...we carved pumpkin...Mother was SO clever!!

I had a friend in High School who was a pretty good friend.  We had fun and shared secrets and laughed…BUT when we would be somewhere, IF someone was in our surroundings who was deemed MORE POPULAR, she would leave me mid-sentence to hurry over to the popular ones…TALK about feeling like an idiot…sigh…and MAYBE after 30 years, I SHOULD forget about it…BUT I learned from her that when I was in a circle of people, I was to do my best to make ALL feel welcomed.  A painful lesson to learn, but a needed lesson!

This is me, Debbie Spaddy, and Freda at the airport in Nashville, TN...do you REMEMBER when you could visit the gates and see your friends off?  This was in July of 1979...we were saying goodbye to our friend, Debby, who had visited us on a 4H exchange trip from Alberta, Canada...I did not go on the exchange the next summer because I had a boyfriend and a job...SILLY me!

The last big outing with my Mother was a trip to Memphis for the wedding of a close friend.  At the ceremony, there were few tables available.  Two couples joined us at the table and never ONCE after asking if they could sit with us, did they offer ONE word to us…I smiled at them ONLY to be scoffed at as they spoke LOUDLY to each other and BRAGGED of their lives…I quickly left and drove back home the four hours so I could be at church the next morning to play the piano…I LEARNED that people from Germantown, Tennessee MIGHT be as rude and as snobby as I had often heard they are…That is ANOTHER reason I have absolutely NO DESIRE to EVER belong to a Country Club!

 This is me and Mother in Cali, Columbia (South America) in July of 1982.  This lady and her son are from Cali.  Mother met this lady on her previous visit there...This lady loved mother so much ALL because Mother took the time to LOVE her...it was a very special relationship.

I have had friends who have taken me under their wings and graciously introduced me to their friends…

LuAnn (National Honor Society) and Kim (Beta Club...BWAH)...Baccalaureate Service, May 1980 

I have been loved, cherished and nurtured by friends and family…

Back: Penny, Rhonda (roommate), Front: ME and Dawn...May of 1983...college friends

I have had MANY opportunities to go to places and to meet people and to see things that are so beautiful…

I’m THANKFUL for the people who have come in and out of my life…I am Blessed!  I HOPE that YOU TOO have been richly blessed and that YOU are a blessing to Others…Have a WONDERFUL day and remember to SPREAD SUNSHINE on these dark, gloomy days of WINTER…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte