1941 - 1949
Robert and I had breakfast this morning, which we did weekly for several years as we concluded our walks around The Cove where we grew up, Massalina Bayou, 4th Street Bridge and Tarpon Dock Bridge into town and back, now and then stopping on the courthouse steps to rest and visit with the judges as they arrived for work, sometimes stopping at Bayou Joe's for breakfast before heading on back to our cars, which we'd parked by HNES' new Pavilion at Linda Avenue and 2nd Street. From Time to Time a walk through the Cove School building that was home to us through the 1940s, maybe go in Mrs Moody'a classroom and leave a Kilroy was here message for her on the board.
Still in memory, those days are not gone, but they are fading along with our ability to walk any distance. Aging is evident and my awareness of it has accelerated noticeably in recent months.
And yet I remember Senator Green playing tennis into his nineties. A parishioner friend's mother still playing golf as her age crossed the century line. A friend's mother playing the piano for her Sunday school class in her hundreds.
Each of us is different in many ways.
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You are waiting eagerly to hear what I had for breakfast at Golden Corral, no? I like breakfast there because of the mushrooms, gravy, and fried chicken drumsticks. Eggs over medium and a splash of cheese grits (too soupy, I'll not do that again). And for the first Time I noticed small "country fried steak" portions and had one with white gravy. A mug of hot & black, small glass of ice cold milk, and a large glass of water. Visit and reminisce for about an hour and a half.
Robert turned 89 this month, so my turn to pay. His to host in September when I turn 89, Jesus tarries and the Creek don't rise.
Looking back on growing up on Massalina Bayou, we went to each other's birthday parties in 1942 when we turned seven years old; so we've been classmates and friends for 82 years. Robert was the star athlete in our class, including basketball into Bay High. Me? the oblivious one - - in our class photo above, I'm second row, third one in from the left, the numnutz with the black hair who's gazing down at the ground because of the sun, instead of looking at the camera. Just a couple of names: first row from the left, James Marshall Creary. Standing directly behind me in his scout uniform is Scotty Fraser. Sitting directly in front of me is Herbert French. This morning Robert and I were musing about who of us is still alive.
Robert, where are you? I can't ID you in this photo, if you aren't in it, maybe it's 5th grade when I was in Miss Ruth Martin's class and you were in Mr Sandilos' class? If that's the case, it was school year 1945-46 and we were all ten years old. I'll stand corrected to whatever you say.
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Sunday coming up: 1st Sunday after Trinity, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 4, Year B. Here's the gospel reading:
Mark 2:23-3:6
One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
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One thing I like about Jesus: he was never stuck obsessively into the rules; with Jesus, whatever was good for humans took priority over the Law: eat on the Sabbath, heal a man on the Sabbath. In my Christianity, all are invited and welcome to the Lord's table. A canon in our body of constitution and canons says "No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this church," and the church's house of bishops is/are holding to it, preventing it's being changed to open altar. In my lifetime as an Episcopalian, I've seen numerous rules brought down, and this one also will be brought down in Time. Every gathering of General Convention (next one, June 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an opportunity to make things right, but they're giving this one a miss yet one more Time again, even though about half the clergy and parishes practice open altar. Am I upset? No, patient. All things in due course.
Anyway, RSF&PTL
T88&c
others I immediately ID above, Warren Middlemas, Billy Joe George, Tommy Fidler, Herbert Grimsley, Philip Johnson, Joan Prevost, Barbara James, Shirley Landrum, Cynthia Ann Draughan,