After I wrote the last post more stories began to surface in my mind. The boys were about 4 and 5 and Windy was 7 or thereabout. the girls club was down the street from the house and Windy loved to go down there and have fun after school. She made me the most beautiful wooden jewelry box. I have it in my cedar chest of memories....along with her blanket that she slept with when a small child. I have shoes, bow ties, bits and pieces of hair , papers and you name it of the children. I also have the dress that I wore when honey was ordained into the ministry. It was such a special time that I put the dress up, never worn it again . I made the dress of black eyelet cotton. I was so proud that I made that dress. A lady gave me an old fashion treadle sewing machine. I would take the pattern read it and then go to bed and make the dress in my sleep . Then after the children went to bed at night I would sew and make clothes for the children and myself. They were presentable but nothing special...in fact, that is the only way we could survive with clothes...
Now back to Phenix City....Vann and Jeff being so small, honey could take them with him when he made calls in the pastorate and the families loved seeing the boys and always made over them. But...one day he had to make a hospital call. What to do, I was working, no one to watch them, so he took them with him to the hospital....NOT!!! There was a circle fountain of water ( you know what is to happen don't you!!!) honey told the boys in no uncertain terms NOT to go in the water but could play around the circle...it didn't take but a few minutes that Vann being the oldest told Jeff "lets go into the water..."
and of course little Jeff just a toddler followed him into the slippery, slimy green water....oh boy what a mess, they could not stand up and kept sliding and slipping in the water. Some nurses found them and brought them into the hospital, wiping them down while all the time Jeff was crying, snubbing , snobbing and chewing on gum all the time...Vann was just grinning (like he always did) and chewing his gum...they put a call out over the intercom " Mr Shirley please come to the front desk" Well when honey arrived at the desk and saw his boys his inner spirit was not happy by any means...the nurses glowed at him scowling and demanding " what was he thinking leaving his boys at the fountain..!!!!" It didn't take him long for him to gather up the boys, take them home, bathe them and then spank Vann....poor child...he said he kept telling Jeff not to follow him...yeah Vann! Tell me again..Oh well, those boys were special and did all kinds of tricks in their lives...but they grew up to be fine men. Thank you God for the memories. Words cannot tell you and explain how funny this story is as honey can tell it...we have laughed and laughed at the boys slipping and sliding in that slim....lol.
We had a good pastorate there in Phenix City and God blessed us. Then on to Anniston!!! Bummer.
We moved out of the frying pan into the fire. There the fire almost consumed us. Vann and Jeff started school there, made some friends for life and they had a good time most of the time.
Behind the parsonage there was a wooded field that they played cowboys and indians , shooting imaginary guns made of sticks, running, hiding and playing all kinds of games.
One of the ladies of the church gave us a German Shepherd....oh boy...she was trained to protect and protect she did....Gretchen was her name. I can safely say that she saved our lives many times. One night about 9 pm, it was raining and the door bell rang and by the time we got to the door , they were gone. We saw Gretchens foot prints and another person's prints....no telling who it was. We lived along the main highway and hitchhikers were always coming by to ask for money and food and whatever they could find. Well, honey would take Gretchen to the church at night to work, she sat at his side, protecting him from harm. It was the boys job to make sure that Gretchen was restrained in the basement during church times as she would not let anyone in but us! One Sunday, we noticed that everyone was standing outside not going in...... then we noticed the former owners husband was leading Gretchen over to the house( we lived next door to the church). Honey put Gretchen up and then told the boys " just wait until church is over and we will take care of this" I am afraid another time of punishment was due...it didn't happen again...they learned well!!!!!
Another time we caught one of the members in our bedroom going through our things one Sunday..I had gone home for something and there they were!!!! Huuummmm....should have gone before that time to see how many times that had happened before. Their excuse? "It is our house and we can come over when we want!" NOT!!! We changed the locks and got the dog! Not good for them but good for us. It wasn't long that we moved to Florence and that place was like heaven to us. We were treated so well, we began to feel like we were doing something good. Found some good friends that were friends for a lifetime. Many of them are gone on but the memories are still there.
God has taken us through many trials helping us to become better people and adults. We give Him praise...
Thank you grandpa for listening..love you J
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