Ring the bell

I found this picture somewhere recently, and I noticed the round window on the side of the church. See it? It's a tiny window, about 24 inches diameter. Stained glass. Beautiful, actually. It was above the place where people would hang their coats.

The vestibule of the church (where the window is) was tiny, maybe 8 feet by 10 feet. On the left as you entered the church if you looked up, you'd see that beautiful round stained-glass window. All the church windows are stained glass, except for the ones in the basement and the one in the back where the ladies room is. I digress.

Next to the window was a rope, attached to the rope is a bell -- in the belfry which you can see in the picture (front over main door). Dad would "announce" that a service was to begin by pulling on that rope and ringing the bell. He always told me that the bell was saying "Come to church, come to church, come to church...." On rare occasions he'd let me help him pull the rope and ring the bell. I loved doing that. Calling people to church.

And, yes, it was rung on the day I was married -- before the ceremony -- calling people to "come to church". All were invited.

I wonder if they still ring that bell to call people to church.

That's me -- the short one -- standing with someone on the street near the front of the church. The picket fence was still there last time I was in Runnemede. The tree at the end of the fence grew to be huge. And the yard, behind the fence, had a fish pond in it. The pond was never taken care of, but we enjoyed seeing fishes from time to time. Behind the fence you can see a low-one-story building -- that, folks, is the chicken coop about which I've written before.