SIX FUN-FILLED YEARS

What can I say about our Vernon years?  A good number of the members were around our age which meant we had a lot of things in common.  A good example of that was the fact that our pianists would play for a period of time and then be spelled off for a time due to a pregnancy. Leona was one of those pianists.  Sharilyn was born during our time in Vernon.  We had many enjoyable times, both in our home, other homes and also with adult social times.  There were many of these socials.  One such was a strawberry social in the basement of the church.  Several ladies brought a strawberry short cake.  Just before serving, they smothered the pieces of cake with strawberries and a good heaping supply of whipped cream.

We all sat in a big circle balancing the plate on our lap and digging in to this delectable spring desert.  I was having a bit of a problem cutting my cake with my fork.  So I busied myself with scooping off the strawberries and whipped cream.  I eventually went back to trying to get a piece of cake on my fork.  I finally turned to the fellow next to me and told him my cake was tough.  He agreed.  I noticed a lady across from me staring at me and she was one that I saw bringing a cake.  I was hoping this was not her cake.  At that point one of the ladies came out from the kitchen with another piece of cake smothered with strawberries and whipped cream.  "OK pastor," she said, "you've been a good sport."  She took away my first plate, whereupon I learned that the initial plate did not have cake on it, but was a piece of white foam rubber supplied by an upholsterer in the church.  It was cut to the shape of every other piece of angel cake.  I think that many, if not all of the people, in that room knew about the foam rubber except me.

Dan & Leona crashing AYF Halloween party

We also had fun with the youth.  Once the youth were in the good hands of our youth sponsors we did not regularly attend.  However, a big Halloween party was planned and meeting in a community hall about fifteen miles out of town.  On their way out of town, one of the sponsors and a couple of young people stopped by our house to show us how they were dressed.  After they left we agreed that we should get a baby sitter and crash their party.  Question was how should we dress.

As best I recall, I made a quick trip to a store and purchased a couple of matching masks.  Thankfully we were both able to fit into our wedding clothes.  Part way into their fun evening, we walked into the community hall.  The young people gathered around us trying to figure out who we were.  We did not speak.  Finally, we removed our masks much to their delight.  They were pleased that we came and we were happy that we went.  In addition to the many spiritual victories and blessings, we had six fun filled years.




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