he
first entry in Troy's little appointment book that really brings back a pleasant
memory for me is January 14th. He wrote on that date, "It snowed today in
Bradenton." I will never forget the excitement of my fourth graders when
a child exclaimed, "Oh, Mrs. Brady! It is snowing!' When I saw that indeed
a few flakes were coming down I said, "Get on your coats and go outside.”
This little operation took only a matter of seconds until they were all outside
holding up their hands to catch the flakes. I let them stay out for the short
period that the snow continued to fall. I really realized that this was a
memorable experience for them the next night when I corrected the letters
I had them write! Almost every child wrote something about the snow. "It
snowed yesterday--Mrs. Brady let us play in the snow yesterday--We had fun
when it snowed--Some teachers would not let their classes go out when it
snowed, etc."
On February 23 we had the ground breaking ceremony for the new church to
be constructed on Cortez Road. Bishop Howard helped with this ceremony and
dedication of the grounds.
On February 27th one of our church members came to Troy to ask his advice.
While she was bathing her little daughter the night before she asked, "Mommie,
why does Mr. (naming the speech therapy teacher) hold me on his lap and put
his hand in my panties when I have my lesson?" Troy advised her to go to
the School Superintendent. She asked Troy if he would be willing to do it.
He immediately called Mr. Blackburn and they had lunch together. The teacher
was called into the office. Mr. Blackburn told him of the charge then said
"If that is true I want you to write out your resignation right now. If you
say it isn't true there will be an investigation.” The teacher resigned without
a word of denial. But there should have been an investigation. That man was
the father of four small daughters!
Our revival this year began on Wednesday evening, March 18th, and closed
on Easter Sunday, March 31st. Dr. T. L. Miles was the speaker. Mrs. Miles
came with him and stayed with us in the parsonage. He had been our superintendent
for a number of years while we were serving in West Virginia. We were good
friends, so enjoyed their fellowship.
On June 11th I had an ear operation in the Sarasota hospital. My ear drum
had ruptured several years previously and never healed until it was repaired
with a bit of tissue from back of my ear. Marion's family lived in Tallahassee
at this time. I was so surprised to find Skip waiting for me when I came
home from the hospital.
We left on our vacation after the Sunday morning service on July 12th. Our
church had a softball team and we attended a game about every week. Ours
was not what one would call a "winning team," but we yelled a lot and enjoyed
ourselves. We were sorry that the vacation caused us to miss so many of the
games.
On Sunday, the 19th, we left to attend a convention at Albright College,
in Reading, Pa. We left there for Akron on the 23rd and visited our relatives
there until Saturday the 25th. On our way back to the Glen we stayed overnight
with the Smiths and attended worship with them at the old Mt. Zion Church.
In the afternoon we went on to Clarksburg and Troy preached for Bland that
night. Subject: "So Great Salvation."
On Monday we drove to Elkins and stayed with the McQuains overnight. We spent
the rest of that week in hard work at the Glen, and attended church there
on Sunday morning, August 2nd. The Hahns carne in the afternoon and we drove
over to Elkins. We wanted them to see the church and parsonage which were
built during our pastorate there. We ate at Phil's and drove back over the
mountains after the evening service.
Troy preached again this year for the Waynesboro Homecoming, as he did last
year. His subject, "Destined To Succeed." They almost overworked Troy at
this church on Sunday. He preached again in the evening service.
The next morning we loaded up for the trip south but certainly took a different
route. We spent the night with Rosalyn, then went to Buckhannon to the Church's
Annual Conference so we could see some of our old friends. We spent the night
with Zylpha and Creede and left for home around nine the next morning. We
arrived in Bradenton at 7:30 P. M. the following day, August 15th.
My guest book shows that we were at Howard's for Christmas dinner and that
Marion's family and Jack and Donnie Mills were there also. There were not
many personal "highlights" the remainder of the year. In addition to that
my narrative is getting rather long, so I had better start on another year.
