1972

ed Sauter had requested that Troy assist in his ordination service during the Florida Annual Conference. So on February 11th  we left for a trip to Florida in our camper. We are proud of Ted. He started to attend church as a youth while we were still worshipping in the old building in downtown Bradenton. His family was not church connected at all and Troy was the only pastor Ted ever had. He has been successful as a minister in the Florida Conference.

On February 28th we had our first visit to fabled Disney World. Chena and Dottie were with us. I think we enjoyed it as much as did the children surrounding us.

We returned home March 7th bringing Robbie with us. We entered him in school immediately. After spending some time at home during the coming summer he returned for the fall opening of school. One of his front teeth was broken during physical education on October 17th.

(What really happened was that I got into a fight with a friend, Robbie Roadcap, behind the Broadway High School before classes. We [ myself, Robbie & another friend, Richard Seivers ] were sneaking a quick smoke in before classes. I don’t remember what the fight was about, but I remember that Mother Brady was really upset when I got home from school. The following day, Saturday, Pop Troy and I went camping and during the night, the tooth had become painfully infected at the root and we prematurely ended the campout. Sunday, they called the dentist, who came in to his office just to fix me up. Robbie Roadcap and I still remained friends afterwards. RmB)

On March 12th Troy went to Point Pleasant, W. Va. to conduct a revival in the Bellmead United Methodist Church. It lasted two weeks and he returned home April 2nd. On the 5th we left for a very hurried trip to see relatives in Ohio. We only stayed two nights. I think someone must have been ill. (It was at this revival that I first came to Christ. RmB)

Troy planted two gardens the first few years after we retired. He was thoroughly enjoying the life of a farmer. He had a beautiful patch of strawberries for several years. We also had raspberries on the back section of our property. One entry says that we picked 4 gallons of berries one day. That had to be either strawberries or raspberries. It was too early at that time for the blackberries to be ripe. We went to the woods or fields to pick those.

Troy planted two different varieties of grapes.  His gardens and berries kept me busy during the summer. We bought a deep freeze. It was convenient to have so much food frozen and canned. I often wished I had the dozens of Mason jars I had left in the parsonage attic in Elkins.

An entry on Sunday, April 30, 1972 says, "Betty speaks at Singers Glen at 11:00 a.m." It is odd but I do not remember speaking there. However, I do remember speaking once, earlier, at Cherry Grove. I know we were still at Shenandoah at that time. Probably both occasions were for their Womens' Day observances. Singers Glen and Cherry Grove were served by the same pastor.

I think I will always remember the beautiful ice storm we had the night of April 7, 1972. The temperature was up to 64 degrees that morning and by the next morning it had dropped to 30 degrees. It had sleeted during the night. Every tiny twig and branch of the trees and bushes were covered with a thick coating of ice. Everything glistened in the sunlight like diamonds. It was Robbie's first experience with anything like that and he reveled in it! (It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! I was completely unaware that such a thing could even happen! RmB)

The Harrises came for their first visit on May 5th of this year. This continued each year as long as they were able to make the trip. We had met them on the steamer going from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to Vancouver Island the year before. We sat down near them on the deck and started talking. When it came lunch time we sat at the same table and eventually exchanged addresses and phone numbers and promised to keep in touch. Our car was on the ship and we drove down the island and took another steamer to Seattle. Washington. The Harrises were just enjoying the ride between the city and the island and killing several hours of time before taking a train tour across Canada to the east coast.

When we were together in Virginia we tried to show them the scenery within a day's drive of Singers Glen. When we were in Charlotte, N. Ca. they did the same for us. On this trip we took them to Luray Caverns one day, a day on Skyline Drive, and another jaunt to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

A few days before they came Troy had a phone all from the pastor of a church forty-two miles away asking him to fill the pulpit at Furnace Church on May 5th. We had never heard of the church and did not know the pastor, but we took the Harrises and went. Troy never received a cent from either the pastor or the church for that 84 mile trip and his sermon! We heard later that they did not pay guest speakers because they were saving to buy a parsonage. At any rate we enjoyed the trip with the Harrises.

It was during the seventies that Marion and Howard were writing for Prentice-Hall. They visited with us several times when on their way to New Jersey or coming back. They had to make frequent trips to consult with their editors. They came May 11th and stayed two nights. (It was during this trip that Dad and Uncle Marion took me to Washington, D.C., where we went to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the best part, The Smithsonian Institute. An incredible experience! RmB)

On June 6th we went to Elkins and Troy did some electrical wiring for Blair and Gladys McQuain. We had short visits with friends and relatives around Elkins and Junior before going on to Akron. We always planned our trips in such a way that we could spend one night with Jim and Helen Smith, either going to or coming from Akron. We stopped overnight on our way home this trip with the Rexroads. Troy preached for Clellie at Zion Church.

We drove again the 102 miles over the mountains to Elkins to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of Eleanor McQuain and Berme Chenoweth. Troy had married them while we were in Elkins. It was an elaborate church wedding. They wanted to renew their vows in a ceremony at Eleanor's home, with as many people present as possible, who had been a part of their wedding 25 years earlier. Eleanor wore her beautiful formal gown and Bernie wore the old fashioned suit he was married in. Troy again heard their vows, with their four children present. The eldest was married. Eleanor said she had to lose some pounds in order to wear the dress.

The next day we went to Elizabeth to visit my sister, Ruby Pomroy. Don, her husband, had been dead over three years and she and her grandson were running the funeral home. Elma was there at that time and all of us paid a visit to the Fairfax Farm the next day. We stopped at the Ewing’s who were our nearest neighbors at the farm.

An old maid and a bachelor brother lived in the same log house where, I suppose, they were born. It was rather amusing when Etta said "Ain't you sorry you moved away from the Fairfax?" I guess she thought that because we had come back for a nostalgic hour or so that we wished we still lived there. Their home was still the closest one to the house on the farm. I imagine that farm house and the fertile fields of the Fairfax seemed like luxury to the Ewings, when compared to their hillside, rocky acres.

I believe the brother's name was Walter. When he found that Elma was without a husband he suggested that she come back and go fishing with him! We teased Elma about his advances toward her. Here was such a lovely chance for her to acquire another spouse. We found we were teasing in the same manner we did as children, but Elma was older and entered into the game.

On July 3rd we went to Weston to attend the 50th wedding celebration of Emory and Belvia Curtis. We were close friends when we lived in Pricetown. Emory loved to work with his hands. I left two gadgets at the Glen that he made for me.

We again returned to Akron on July 3rd. On the fifth we left for a really nice New England trip with Ted and Blossom in their motor home. Robbie was with us. Buddy and Beulah drove their camper but we stayed together as much as possible on the highway. We fixed our meals and all ate together in Ted's vehicle, because it was larger.

On July 17th we all went to Martha's Vineyard on the Island Queen. All enjoyed this little side excursion, but I thought Nantucket Island was more picturesque than Martha's Vineyard. We saw many of the same places that Elma and I visited in 1956. After 16 years it was nice to see them again. (This trip was one of my best, and often spoken of, memories. RmB )

Robbie was homesick and begging to go home, so we sent him back to Melbourne by bus with the understanding that he was to return in time for school. He left July 26th. On the 29th the "big" Brady reunion was held at the Belington Park. Dayton and Frances were the only offspring still living that were older than Troy's generation. He and his siblings and his first cousins began to realize that they were now almost the "oldest generation of Bradys."

The next day, which was the 30th, Troy preached in Elkins. After lunch Beulah, Buddy, Ted and Blossom went home with us. The next day all of us struck out in our motor campers for Cass Railroad State Park about 30 miles southeast of Elkins. The narrow gage railroad with its old steam engine was quite a tourist attraction for West Virginia. We rode the train from the visitors' center to the top of the mountain and back and spent the night in our vehicles before parting to go our separate ways.

Most of August was spent in work at the Glen. Troy was tearing down the barn which stood on the lot where the Miller house now stands. He was also preparing the carport area for the laying of the concrete. I was canning and freezing berries and the vegetables from the gardens. I made all the jellies and jams we used for years and I have found out since moving to Sharpes two years ago that we use a lot of spread!

Both couples of McQuains came on September 5th. The first slab of concrete was poured and finished off before noon the next day. One of the men said that if we would prepare for another slab, which would pave the driveway beyond the back door, that they would come back and help to put it in. We could not pass an offer such as that in light of the fact that we enjoyed being with them so much. We went to Staunton shopping after the work was done.

NEXT - BRADY FAMILY REUNION AT SINGERS GLEN