Sunday school picnics -- addendum

My sister wrote the following: My words are italicized and colored pink.

Oh, I loved those picnics too. And Daddy always went (I didn't remember this or the following), though if he could get a ride home with someone who was leaving early he left with them. After our lunch we all gathered at the tables and sang hymns, and then Daddy would bring a short sermonette (This I remember).

Uncle Bill (Manduka) or Uncle El (Wentzel) always brought the hymnals. Daddy always gave the excuse the he had to prepare for Sunday's sermons, and no one minded that he went home because they knew his preparations were in their best interests.

I loved that thermos Mommy had. She sometimes made lemonade, that was my favorite. And she always, always brought olives, green and black, as a special treat. And the cookies were the sandwich kind with chocolate on one side and vanila on the other side with white icing in the middle. We gorged on all the goodies as I remember.

The reason for the meeting after the eating was because in those days folks thought that after a meal one never went into the water because it could bring on cramps. I remember waiting for that magical time frame to be up so we didn't go in one minute early and get a cramp and drown. Funny how things change, huh!!

I never rode the bus because if I did I would throw up. Usually I rode with Mrs. Kenders. She had this big Plymoth with fins and the back seat was so smooth, I never got sick. She really was very attentive to my needs. We had some very special ladies who loved all us Drexlers didn't we. Hard to find that now (because we're now the older ladies!).

God has blessed us immeasurably through our lives hasn't He. I mean you and I were Princesses. We were placed in a loving Christian home with folks in the church wanting to be our Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents. Wow, we had it so good.

I do recall that Plymouth that Mrs. Kenders had. It was such a fancy car for anyone in Runnemede to have. They were the first family in the church to get one of those cars with the fins. About the bus -- I probably threw up in the bus a couple of times or almost because I always got bus sick. I still do, although I have found that if I take a sea-sick pill prior to riding in a bus, I don't get sick. And Deb is correct about the lemonade -- it was lemonade kool aid, not real lemonade. Mom would never have been able to afford enough lemons to make lemonade to fill that large thermos.

I guess this finishes up the Sunday School Picnic sagas. I hope you have enjoyed reading them.

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100th anniversary

The CHURCH, Mt. Calvary Union Church, will be celebrating it's 100th anniversary sometime next year. I can't wait. I DO plan to attend, and as soon as I find out the date I will make my reservation at the local Holiday Inn. So this is a short post as I get some pictures of the times I spent at that church ready for review.

I learned today that the annual Sunday school picnic will be after church on Sunday. Daddy would NEVER have allowed anything to be held on Sunday. It was, after all, the day of rest AND CHURCH. But that's okay. Times do change, and I have to say that I always found our Sunday school picnics relaxing. I don't think my father ever went to the Sunday school picnic anyway, so it wouldn't have made any difference what day the picnic was held on.

I recall that they rented a bus to get us to Lake Palentine in South Jersey for several years because the church was large enough to pay for such a luxury. The picnic was always held on the second Saturday in July. I loved those picnics. Mom always made macaroni salad and potato salad. She brought burgers and hot dogs and the men of the church set up the charcoal grills and the women cooked their meats for their own families. I don't recall any sharing (pot luck style) back then. However, in later years they went to a pot luck type meal, which I'm sure was much easier on the women. My mom always brought a large thermos -- I mean family size thermos -- of kool aid, and we children always hoped it was purple not pink. Purple was grape and that was our favorite.

So, after reading this short burst of Runnemede Remembered, please be sure to keep checking The Fat Lady Singeth at http://www.thefatladysingeth.blogspot.com/. That will keep you up-to-date on my own families happenings out here in Northern Kentucky. A far-piece from Runnemede.

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Talking to God

In the early 1960s many of us changed the way we prayed -- talked to God. We got rid of "thee" and "thou" and substituted "you" instead. No more "thine" -- it became "your".

Were we rebels? I don't think so. The older folks still prayed using the King James English, while we youngsters were using our everyday language. We believed that since God knows all languages he would understand us just as well if we used out contemporary English instead of King James English, and it was something with which we were more comfortable.

I believe there were some folks who thought we were being irreverent, but, I don't believe we were. It was so much easier for us to pray using "you" and "your" instead of "thee", "thou", and "thine".

However, it all backed up on me one morning in church. The music director had changed the words to an old standard "Great is Thy Faithfulness". Get it? There it is "Thy" in the title. Well, now it was called "Great is Your Faithfulness." I'm singing away, because I knew the words to the KJV of GITF and didn't realize I was almost the only one in the audience singing it using the King James words instead of the "today" words. That one other person? Our Pastor Emeritus.

Seems like we both learned it at the same time. I'm still quoting scripture using King James English because that's how I learned it. But prayer?

Praying is talking to God and since I speak in non-King James English, that's how I pray.

Just a little note, here. This does have something to do with Runnemede, because in our youth group meetings we always used our own English not the "old folks" English. In that respect, I believe, we were irreverent -- not to God but to our elders.

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The Church in Runnemede

The entitled this THE CHURCH in Runnemede, because as far as I'm concerned there is and was only one church in the town, whereas in reality there are three. The ONE church is Mt. Calvary Union Church

I just received word that the church will be pastorless at the end of June. Finding a Bible teacher to fill Pastor Bill's shoes will be difficult. Expository Bible teachers are few and far between these days, and the church is really a small, country church.

The parsonage is cozy, but I love that home. The house was renovated after daddy left and the bathroom completely gutted and redone. There's actually a shower in the tub now. Wow! There is, however, only one bathroom in the house. I know I've mentioned that before. And, that can be a problem is there is a family with children. The living room is 12x12, the dining room is 12x12 with a floor to ceiling bay window on the west side which makes the DR seem larger, and the kitchen is also 12x12, and you can eat in it, because there is enough room for a table. However, if it were my kitchen, I would put a stationary counter in the middle making more counter space, which is limited (very limited). The kitchen was also redone, and cabinets were added after daddy left the house.

Anyway, pray for the search committee. They will have a tough job. In just two years the church will be 100 years old. Will it make it to 100 years? I pray that it does. Whether the numbers in attendance are large or not, the church has consistently enjoyed expository Bible teaching over the past 98 years. What a blessing for those who attend.

Mt. Calvary Union Church

My father, Carl Drexler (you can search his name on the web and some of his writings are published) was called to this church in 1944. It was in October. In November of that year there was a bad hurricane that hit the area. I remember that -- me, I was only 1-1/2 and I remember that hurricane. I remember the lighting of the kerosene lamps (I have one of them in my home). I remember being in the kitchen when one of the wild cherry trees fell very close to the house. Dad just kept walking from one end of the house to the other checking windows. Neither the parsonage nor the church suffered significant damage.

Anyway, Mt. Calvary Union Church (pictured above) was where my father spent the rest of his preaching life. He was there for 56 years and if his health had held out, he probably would have been there until he died. As it was he needed a live-in person and that was unaffordable for him or us. But he got to teach after he moved in with my sister in North Carolina. Her son Jamie would sit for hours talking to dad and learning from him. He (Jamie) still listens to my father's message tapes (they started taping him in the 60s).

Why Mt. Calvary Union Church was named that is not known to me. The "union" part is unique. It wasn't affiliated with any denomination. In fact my dad always told us it was episcomethobapterian. Sound it out, you'll get it. E-pis-co-meth-o-bap-ter-i-an.

I read in The History of Runnemede that it was started by several locals who wanted something other than Methodist -- there was a Methodist church down the pike. At the time the church was built, there were only about 100 people in the whole town of Runnemede. But in those days everyone went to church.

Yesterday was Sunday, and if 100 people were at Mt. Calvary, it would be a very good Sunday. To be fair, the church seats 120 people, and that with extra chairs. It's a very small church, but it's big on the Bible.

What I remember is that the church always had a heart for missionaries. When dad was there 20 percent of each offering went to missions. Dad got paid a percentage of the morning offering. Some weeks it was good, some weeks the pay was not good. Mom was good at saving some out each week, just in case. At the end of her life we found out just how much she had saved out in those weeks.

Some of the missionaries I remember were, of course, my husband's family -- The Hahns, they were missionaries to Kenya. My Aunt Fran and Uncle Howard (Boyll) were missionaries to the people in Bristol, TN. Mr. Zodiatis (American Board of Mission to the Greeks); Anthony Zioli (the elder) -- he was a personal friend of my dad. He was a hell-fire and brimstone preacher, let me tell you. He was a shouter! Mary Teagarten was a missionary with the China Inland Mission and she was in Indonesia. Mary Scippione was a missionary to Italy, but she rarely came back to America on "furlough."

I loved hearing the missionaries and seeing their pictures. No matter what I got a front row seat when there were a missionary speaking in church, except when Anthony Zioli spoke, because he would shout and point his finger at people. So I shied away from the front seats when he was in church. But, I did listen to him. How could one not?

This is the church where I grew up. This is the church where I came to know the Lord in a personal way. This is also the church in which my husband and I were married. This is the church I go to when we visit the east and we're in the area on a Sunday. If you're ever in Runnemede on a Sunday morning, listen for the bell to ring at 11:00 a.m. and visit the church. You'll be blessed.

The way the church was

I've written in many of these notes that my father was pastor of a church -- that would be Mt. Calvary Union Church, on Clements Bridge Road in Runnemede. The church was, over 60 years ago, a white clapboard building. The sanctuary was in the front part of the building on the top floor, and behind that was a large room, used for Sunday school, and behind that, before the bathroom was put in, there was another long, narrow room, which was used for the little kids Sunday school.

I'm not sure when that space was divided (the back room), but I think it was around 1948 or 49. It was made into two rooms -- one, a study for my father, and the other part was made into a restroom for the ladies. Up until that time, there was one bathroom and it was used by any and all who needed to use it. Downstairs there was one room, which was under the back room, and also a kitchen, very small, no refrigerator, but it had a stove and a sink in it. I remember it was always dark in there. The heating unit was also housed in this downstairs room.

About the time of the upstairs renovations, the downstairs was made larger, and the "cellar" which was under the main auditorium was tiled and used for Sunday school classes. The tile being green and gray blocks. So, we now have this large room which is under the entire church building. It was decided to put up folding doors and divide that large room into smaller rooms for Sunday school purposes. On New Years' eve or during wedding receptions, it was opened up so there was room for probably 150 people down there.

Each of these three sections had it's own piano, and before the classes began each Sunday, there would be singing with the various age groups. Upstairs in the back was the pre-school department. Downstairs in the back (near the kitchen) was the grade-school department (through 5th grade), in the middle section the 6th through 8th grades took up residence, and then in the front section, was the high-school Sunday school.

I remember a time when all the ladies of the church painted the small chairs for the Sunday school classroom for the pre-schoolers in colors of pink, blue, and yellow. They also painted the tables to match. The adult chairs to be used in that department were also painted those colors.

I always thought the main auditorium was so pretty. The lights were pewter and the ceiling looked like painted tin, which it may be, I'm not sure. The wainscoting was also painted tin, I think, at least it looked like that, then the rest was plaster.

I remember it was a big deal when the old pews were replaced with the new pews. The men of church built the pews from kits, and a new carpet runner was installed down the center aisle.

The pulpit was on a platform which was raised two steps above the main floor. And around platform was a railing with a kneeling pad for those who wished to go to the altar to pray. Behind the pulpit and to the left of the speaker (to the right of the congregation) was the organ. I remember when it was a pump organ, and then in the early 50s the Hammond organ was purchased.

My father loved to play the organ and see if he could get it to sound like a pipe organ. You know, like the organ at Wanamakers. And he would fiddle with the "stops" on that organ, and pull those bars out and push others in, until he thought he had a true pipe organ sound. My ears never heard "pipe organ", but his did. So, I guess music is in the ear of the beholder.

I started playing the piano in Sunday school when I was 10, and started playing the piano in church when I was 13. My mom taught me my first "improvisation" techniques. And since giving a lesson in music improv would be a lengthy proposition, I won't do that here. Just know, that when you improvise what is written in a hymnal it sounds much better than if you play exactly every note that is written.

My mom played the piano at church for as long as I could remember until that time I took over, and then she went to the organ. Of course, I played the organ for couple of years, and then Jean Manduka became the organist. I think mom was relieved when the youngsters took over. I know she spent a lot of time practicing for morning service (as did I, and then Jean).

The church was plastered on the outside with ugly gray asbestos siding and it was like that until maybe the late 80s or early 90s when it was resided with aluminum that looks like the clapboard that originally covered the outside of the church (as seen in the picture above).

Other changes have been made to the church through the years (like side walk improvements that made it so nice to have a place to skate), a new sign, the ramp into the front of the building, and others. The church will be celebrating it's 100th anniversary in two more years. I hope I'm around for that.