roy's
appointment book for 1966 is so jammed with tiny entries that it is hard
to decipher! Most of the entries concern some phase of our church work so
will not count them as "Highlights" though I am sure many of them were at
the time they occurred.
One event of 1966 which was of special interest to the church and to us was
the Annual Conference held in Emmanuel United Brethren Church, February 15
to the 17th. The invitation had been extended at conference the previous
year. The congregation as well as the parsonage family was eager to show
off the new facilities.
On January 27th he has the word "Quincy," along with several other notes.
This has to be the day that he took Mrs. Seaman, one of the charter members
of our E.U.B. Church in Bradenton, to Quincy, Pennsylvania, to one of our
church homes. Someone from the home met the plane in Washington, D.C. It
was snowing when they landed and Mrs. Seaman had not seen snow for twenty-five
years. Troy had no galoshes, but they gave him a pair at the home. He took
a walk in the snow, after the evening meal. He laughed about the Amish napkins
they had at the table with their quaint sayings. His napkin had printed on
it, " WE GROW TOO SOON OLD AND TOO LATE SMART." Mrs. Seaman had two antique
wall clocks and she gave Troy his pick. We have given it to Marion.
Our revival began on February 27th with Dr. Miles bringing the messages.
He was the Superintendent of the West Virginia United Brethren Conference
for many years. We had many good times with the Mileses after all of us had
retired and were coming to Florida during the winters. The revival was just
a week, closing on Sunday, March 6th.
Our 40th wedding anniversary came on Monday in 1966. Robbie was visiting
us at that time and we all went to St. Petersburg Beach to the aquarium.
We ate at Morrison's and got back to Bradenton in time to see the softball
game between our church and Samoset Baptist. Robbie was with us from July
2nd; Howard, Grace and Beth came on the 8th and all of them returned home
on the 10th.
Vacation began for us on Monday, July 18th. Troy's book says his bank balance
was $18.42, so he must have withdrawn almost all his funds from the bank
in order to make the trip. We drove to Marion's at Tallahassee the first
night. The Chevy had 35,715 miles on it when we left Bradenton. This was
the year that we took Skip to Akron and she flew home later.
Troy went back to the Glen alone, stopping in West Virginia at his Uncle
Glen's, his cousin's Peggy and Walt's and got to the Smiths in time for the
evening meal. He got into Clarksburg at Bland's at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday,
July 23rd. He preached for Bland the next morning in Northview, on "Is Christianity
a Full Time Job?"
Troy's book says there was a Thrash reunion on the 24th. There is no indication
as to where it was held but I think it may have been in Akron just before
I left. I think that Ted and Blossom must have taken me to Bland's after
the reunion. He has a note on Monday, the 25th, "Betty to Bland's, Mom's,
Zylpha's, Singers Glen."
There are no indications that we did any traveling the remainder of that
week. I'm sure we must have spent the time in work on the house. But on Sunday,
the 31st he preached at Waynesboro, using the same sermon he had preached
at Northview the preceding Sunday.
On Saturday, August 6th we left Singers Glen at 8:00 a.m. via Baker, Dolly
Sods, Blackwater and Pifer Mountain Road. We spent the night at Bland's.
On Sunday we drove to the Wayside Church and Troy preached there in the morning
of August 7th. We went on to Zylpha's for the night. She went back with us
to the Glen and we packed the car for the return to Florida; got to Hahn's
at 10:15 that night, stayed overnight and started out the next morning at
7:45 a.m. with our odometer saying 38,547 miles. We stopped at Roberta, Georgia
for the night and drove to Marion's the next day. We left Tallahassee the
next morning around 7:30 am. and arrived home at 1:30 p.m. The car had 39,660
miles on it. We had driven 3,953 miles on our vacation jaunt!
Zylpha was with us in Bradenton from August 11th to August 17th. I think she came down this time to see her doctor.
Another little entry later after we arrived home, "Check 94, $17.86, Publix."
Since Troy had only a balance of $18.62 when we started our vacation he was
close the danger point with this check. We kept separate checking accounts
before our retirement, so perhaps my account was a little more "flush."