Reclaimed Memories

roy’s little black book for the year of 1962 does not give me much help in reconstructing the events, beyond those that concerned his work. There is not much of a personal nature noted until our vacation period. I know that it was this year that we took Marion's two daughters, Skip and Heather, north with us. I had purchased a new Volkswagen "bug" the year before and we decided to drive that instead of Troy's Chevy. We started Sunday, after the morning service, on July 29th. His note on that day just says "8804 mi." I'm sure that was the mileage on the little bug when we left Bradenton.

The evening service at the church was an all-music one. I assume that it was planned that way to give us an early start on our vacation. We must have driven until quite late that night for we stopped at a motel in Allendale, South Carolina.

I cannot remember why we only spent one night at the Glen before driving to Jim and Helen Smith's on July 31st, for a one night visit. There must have been a reason, for we were there again in August. But we had a good time and they went with us to Coopers Rock State Park the next day. This site had only been designated as a Park a year or two earlier and many improvements had been added to attract tourists. The girls, who were nine and twelve years old at this time, enjoyed clambering around over the rocks. Their exploring made their grandmother nervous! I could see us loading them in the "bug" and heading to the nearest hospital!

We took a round-about way home by Mountain Lake Park. Maryland, to see the Simpsons, friends from our Seminary days. Bill was a year ahead of Troy and me in school and the couple were around ten years our seniors, but since we were all from West Virginia we soon became friends.

Bill was serving a student charge in Dayton and asked us to help in his church. Troy was soon conducting the choir and we both taught Sunday School classes. It was in this little church that Troy preached his first sermon, which was about twelve minutes long. The name of this church was Olivet United Brethren. That part of the city is now predominately black and Olivet has a black congregation.

After a visit with the Simpsons we took the girls to see Blackwater Falls and Canyon. This is one of the outstanding attractions in the east. It is located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. We always tried to see that any of our out-of-state guests had trips there, as well as a visit to one of the many beautiful caverns in our area. This day of sight seeing, August 5th, was a big one for Skip and Heather.

I have told Troy that he is one of the best husbands in the world to live with and one of the worst to drive with. I am always a few miles over the speed limit or two or three under. So we are sure to be stopped by a trooper or never get to our destination. according to him!

It was on this trip that he exclaimed, after I passed the car ahead, "Betty, you did not blow the horn before you passed that car!"

I replied, "Why should I blow the horn? I had plenty of room to pass."

Troy: "You are always supposed to blow if you are going to pass."

Betty: "You never blow when you want to pass a vehicle."

Troy: Rather indignantly, "I never pass without blowing my horn."

At the time we learned to drive it was the custom to always blow the horn if you planned to pass any vehicle or as you approached a blind curve in the highway. Troy really believed that he was still giving this warning when he made that remark. After I turned the driving over to him it was not long until I said, 'Troy, you have passed nine cars and a truck without blowing your horn.” Complete silence followed.

Now that I am writing about our "power struggle' over driving I will tell of another little incident that really amused Troy. We were going to visit Zylpha and Dan, which is a trip of 170 miles from Singers Glen. I drove for 170 miles and decided to turn the wheel over to Troy. I had made up my mind before we started that I would not give him ONE chance to be critical of my driving. His main complaint was that I exceeded the speed limit. I made up my mind that I would NEVER be more than two or three miles above the limit; that I would NEVER be more than two or three miles under the limit; I would NEVER touch the center line; I would NEVER cut across a curve, even if it were safe to do so, and I would NEVER be off the right edge of the pavement. I kept so closely to my resolution that he made almost no comments about my driving. After he took the wheel I said, "Troy, I tried VERY HARD to follow the scriptural admonition in my driving."

Troy: "Where do you find anything in the Bible about driving a car?"

Betty: "Oh you know. The one that says, 'When thou drivest a motor vehicle with thy husband, be thou diligent that thou affordest him not an occasion to criticize thy driving.'"

Another little incident that happened on the trip to Blackwater Falls was very good for my ego. We had stopped at a small restaurant and the only vacant places were at the counter. We lined up there and both girls were between me and another couple.

The condiments were in front of the lady and I asked for the pepper. The woman picked up both the salt and pepper and said "Pass these to your mother." She made my day! But I was often mistaken for Lanny’s mother when we were together.

We arrived very late back at the Glen and the next morning an elderly retired minister came for a visit. Rev. Spitzer was a nice gentleman, with very little formal education, so his only charges had been country circuits, with four or five small churches on each. We were amused later when Myrtle Norcross told about their relationship after the death of his wife. They had grown up together and Myrtle had been a widow for several years, at the time of his wife's death. There were no more free dinners for Myrtle after she refused his proposal of marriage! He was strictly looking for another mate.

The only work that I definitely remember that we did on our vacation at the Glen this year was some concrete installation. I know we did many other things but they are not recorded. I'm sure the only reason I know for certain that this was the year we did the walk over is because I can still see those two little girls trying to break up the old thick concrete one.

Not long after we located the house on the lot we laid a concrete walk along the side of the house, from the back door around the corner to join up with the front walk The concrete was really too dry when it was delivered and the finished product was rough and unsightly. We finally got the old walk broken up into large slabs and were trying to move them to the back to form a sort of "flagstone" walkway to the garden.

About the time we were ready to give up our difficult task a very husky neighbor, Emmer Frank, came by to invite us to their family reunion. He simply tipped the slabs, one at a time onto their edges, as though they were as light as garbage can lids, and walked them to the places we indicated that we wished them to be. We then raised them with a crowbar enough to smooth the ground so they would rest firmly. At that time they were four or five inches above the surface of the ground. When we sold the property twenty-nine years later the lawn grass was threatening to bury the slabs.

When I look at the notes for this vacation period it seems that we were on the "go" almost all the time. Just a night or two at home. then off on another trip. Summary: Left Bradenton July 29th, South Carolina that night, to Singers Glen August 1st; stayed there the 2nd and 3rd; Luray Caverns on the 4th; Sunday, 5th Glen Church in the morning; Troy preached at Waynesboro that night on "The Believer's Guide." Two more days at the Glen then off to Akron for a three day visit.

Skip remembers that while in Akron we had a family reunion in a park by a lake. None of us can remember the name of the lake or the park, but I imagine that it was a park in or near Barberton. That is where the big Thrash reunion was held in 1950. All the siblings were there and we got some good pictures of that event.

Several are on our slides and I would like to have them put in more usable form, when I feel the challenge of another project.

We left Akron early on the morning of August 11th, in order to attend the Walter Brady family reunion. It was held on the lawn of the small church in Hinkleville. Creede was not able to go and Helen stayed with him so Zylpha could get away for a few hours with her family. There are several nice kodak pictures of that get together. I remember one especially of Sonny Thrash holding his mother up off the ground and laughing.

We stayed that night with Bland and Helen at West Union and Troy preached for him the next morning on "The Glory of the Church." We drove to Elkins in the afternoon and he preached at Otterbein Church that evening using the same sermon.

On the 13th we packed and got the house ready for freezing weather and did the other things necessary before leaving the house vacant, for another long period of time. We spent the night with the Hahns, which gave us several miles start on our journey home. They made the girls very happy by giving them each a five dollar bill. They felt like real spenders on the journey south.

We changed our usual route home in order to take the girls to Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. We had been there a few years earlier and knew they would enjoy Rock City, even though they would not be much interested in the area as a Civil War battleground. The wax dioramas depicting familiar fairy tales were set in caves hewn out of solid rock. They were beautiful and we enjoyed seeing them with Skip and Heather.

While we were up north Marion had moved to Tallahassee, where he taught at Florida State University for several years before becoming Supervisor of Social Studies for Brevard County. The girls were excited about the new home and glad to see the family, especially Baby Drew.

We knew they were moving before we left for the vacation. It was hard to see them move so far away, but it was a good promotion for Marion and led to another one which brought them back south to Titusville and eventually to the book publications with Howard as co-author.

We spent the night with them and reached Bradenton around six o'clock the next evening, August 15th.

One very happy event for our family for the year of 1962 was the marriage of our son Howard to Grace Mark, on July 15th. They were married by Troy, after the Sunday morning service, in Bradenton. We took the entire family for a celebration dinner at The Kapok Tree, near Clearwater.

A new addition to the family arrived November 22, 1962. He is the son of Marion and Dorothy, Jonathon Brooks Brady.