VBS and Other Things

Summers are fun. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. What I miss, though, is the lack of a normal routine. That will change soon enough.

There’s not a lot of news to share from the past two weeks, but here’s what I know.

VBS AND A MUCH NEEDED VACATION. As you know from when I wrote last we were ready to get Vacation Bible School underway. This year’s theme was Kingdom Rock so we were all about castles and knights and things. We averaged over 180 (that’s kids and workers).

I’m going to brag on my wife here. Our VBS went off really well. She had everything very organized and everyone I saw looked like they were enjoying themselves. After two weeks of seeing her throw all of her energy into the preparations I was glad to see her efforts pay off in such a big way.

Once VBS was done and all the decorations were taken down Vicki was ready for some time off. She and the kids piled into the van last Sunday after church and headed out to the Jones house for some family time. I don’t think they went anywhere except the tennis courts while they were there. They got back home today.

THE HOME FRONT. I didn’t get to make the trip to Georgia due to my work schedule so I enjoyed a quiet house while everyone was gone. Mom and I did go out to eat three different evenings.

Mom is doing well. She’s even gotten back behind the wheel to go to church, get her hair fixed, and run some errands in town.

BOUNTIFUL HARVEST. Jenna’s garden is coming in. I told her to strip it of anything that was remotely ripe when they left for Georgia and they took two buckets of veggies with them. When they got back today we picked 110 ears sweet corn and froze most of it. And there’s still corn left to ripen! I think we’ll have more than our freezer can hold.

STAR DUSTER NEWS. I received some sad news from Bob Stangland a couple of days ago. Mr. Stangland served on the same crew with Dad in World War II. He wrote to tell me that their pilot, Bill Lind, passed away this week. Mr. Stangland went on to say he called Jim Zorns, the flight engineer, to tell him of Mr. Lind’s passing only to learn that Mr. Zorns passed away back in March. As far as we know only two on the eleven man crew are still living, the other being Achilles Stathas.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet Mr. Lind, Mr. Stangland, and Mr. Stathas. All three are fine men. If the rest of the crew was like them Dad served with some wonderful people.

Joe

Is July Really Half Gone?

I think it hit me the other day that it truly is July when I saw the farmer down the road oiling his tobacco. Interestingly, I still move through each year in terms of what we did on the farm when I was growing up. I guess I’ll always do that.

For those of you who do not know, sucker oil is a chemical applied to tobacco to prevent it from suckering. The blooms are usually broken or snapped off a month or so before it is cut to make the leaves grow larger. The plant responds by suckering so that it can flower and reproduce. A tobacco farmer does not want this to happen so his next goal is to get rid of the suckers while the tobacco ripens. Before there was sucker oil this had to be done to every plant in the field by hand once a week, a backbreaking job.

GEARING UP FOR VBS. Vacation Bible School starts tomorrow at our church. It started over two weeks ago for my family, Vicki in particular. My wife has been busy tending to all the details. We’ve had several volunteers to help us decorate and the church looks great. We’re doing Kingdom Rock so we’re all about castles this year. Fortunately, a church in White House did the same VBS curriculum last month and is letting us use their decorations. Even with all the help Vicki has put in a lot of hours and Jenna has been her right hand girl. There’s still a lot to be done before all the kids show up tomorrow night, but Vicki did say she was in better shape this year than she ever has been.

CHILLY FOURTH OF JULY. This is the first time I ever remember going home and trading my shorts for long pants on the Forth of July. At 68° we broke a record of having the lowest high temperature for the day, and all this while the record breaking hot weather was contributing to wild fires out west.

It also rained almost all day on the Forth (I think we got 4.7 inches) which caused us to move the Kilgore Remembrance ceremony to the pavilion at the park. That’s where the cool, moist wind was blowing and after being acclimated to much hotter temperatures from camp I was wishing I hadn’t worn my shorts. That afternoon we decided to beat the rain and go see Monsters University. We also skipped all the soggy fireworks shows that night.

RECONNECTING. Last weekend I decided to make a quick trip up to Ohio, the Akron area to be more specific. I went up to reconnect with some second cousins, Bryan and Grant Luton. I got acquainted with them last year when they came down for separate visits. Bryan, Mem, and their children were here for the Threshermen’s Show last year and Grant followed a few months later last fall. Grant and I had maintained contact since then and after repeated invitations to come visit I decided to take off whether the rest of my family could come or not.

It was a pleasant trip if a little quick. Friday and Sunday were pretty much devoted to driving. I stayed with Grant and his wife, Robin. What’s interesting is that Grant is the congregational leader for a Messianic Jewish Fellowship so Friday evening we welcomed the Sabbath and enjoyed a meal with five others from their fellowship. I enjoyed worshiping with them Saturday morning, though it threw me off for the rest of the week since I am used to doing that on Sunday. Saturday evening we were invited to Bryan and Mem’s for supper where I had a wonderful introduction to Thai food.

Quick as the trip was I did get to take in a few sites. Impressive for me was Hartville Hardware, the world’s largest hardware store. I also saw the hanger where the Goodyear blimps are assembled and the cottage where President McKinley and his family would vacation.

Joe