Reclaimed Memories

fter going home for the holidays the Goods returned on the third day of January. Stanley Phillips was with them.

About the only entries in the little black book concerns work on the house. Troy detailed each phase of the plumbing, wiring, doors, windows, carport, etc.

Ted and Blossom arrived on January 26th. This proved to be their last trip together to Florida. They left on March 19th and Blossom has very pleasant memories of their nice trip back home. Our house had really taken shape by then. Most of the drywall was in and we could see what the finished product would be like. The Goods had returned to Virginia and Ted and Bea had Joy's guest apartment.

We were able to lock up the house before we left for Singers Glen on April 28th. We had not had the last inspection, but the water was in and all wiring done. The house had been plastered. Joy had an opportunity to rent our apartment a week before we planned to leave, so the family all pitched in and helped us move our things to the new house and we spent the last week in the other apartment of the duplex. The last night before leaving we slept in our own bed in our new house. We had an electric cord strung from the next door neighbor. We had been paying her ten dollars each month for the electricity used to run the power equipment needed for building purposes.

About the last thing we had had done before leaving was the laying of the linoleum in the bath and kitchen downstairs. While we were gone Marion and Howard installed the indirect lighting and the dropped ceiling in the kitchen, also the cabinets.

Our period in the Glen was almost a repeat of the previous years, with trips to see relatives and friends and in turn having some of them visit us.

My brother, Ted and Troy's brother, Bland had had several serious illnesses over a period of several months previously, but all of the Thrash group were looking forward to the reunion with Ted and Blossom.

We left home on July 20th and visited friends in Parkersburg and spent the night with Grace and Karl Keller in Vienna. We stayed with them three days and they went with us to Spring Lake to see the camp which was to replace Ev-Un-Breth Acres. There was almost nothing there and we never will be able to understand why the stronger faction of Methodists would vote to sell what the E.U.B.'s had near Buckhannon and develop Spring Lake. There was a lot of hard feelings over this. Our denomination had so much already developed at Ev-Un-Breth. We never went to Golden Agers Camp after it was moved. The conditions were just too primitive.

Grace Keller and her first husband J. C. Foster, Sr. had also entered the ministry under Rev. and Mrs. Miller. One day while we were at the Kellers we all went to New Haven to see Mrs. Miller and take her out to lunch. She had had a stroke and one side was badly paralyzed, but nothing could keep her cheerful spirits down. We enjoyed the visit so much. She begged Troy and me to come back and spend a night with her before we went back to Virginia. She said "You know I consider you folks my very best friends." Then she caught herself and said "And you too Grace." If J. C. had been with Grace I know she would have insisted that they come back also.

We promised Mrs. Miller that we would come back on our way home from Ohio, and spend a night with her. But it was not to be. We drove on over to the Clintons to spend a few days and while we were there someone called from Akron to say that Ted was in the hospital and was seriously ill. All four of us drove to Akron the next day and to the hospital to see Ted. He said he knew he could not be at the reunion, but Blossom had all preparations made and there was no reason why it should not be held.

Bland and Ted were as close as brothers and Bland and Helen came on to Akron a day earlier than they had planned to come, because of Ted's serious condition. Ruth flew in from California and she, Troy and I were staying at night with Elma.

The last time we talked to Ted he said "I thought last night when I went to sleep that I would wake up in heaven. but I am still here." Everyone was in one of the lounges in the hospital on the night of the 30th of July. We were worn out and the four of us went back to Elma's about midnight. Someone called from the hospital to tell us that Ted died at 1:15 am.

Bland and Helen were with Blossom. They got up the next morning and all ate breakfast. Bland was sitting in the living room talking to Blossom's son-in-law, when he suddenly collapsed They knew he was in serious condition and called for an ambulance immediately and he was taken to the same hospital where Ted had died a few hours earlier. Troy and I were with Helen when they came in and told her they could not save him. He passed away at 5:17 that same afternoon, Wednesday, July 31, 1985.

Ted's funeral was held on Friday at Park United Methodist Church in Barberton, Ohio. He and Blossom had been faithful to, and leaders in this church for almost fifty years.

After Ted was laid to rest we all went to Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Bland's funeral. Howard flew to Ohio to be with us and to drive us back to the Glen. Marion did not learn of their deaths until he returned from Europe.

We were eager to get back to Florida. So left in the middle of October, again by Harrises and Tutwilers. Hilda gave us breakfast the next day. We received our occupancy permit before the end of the month and also had the carpeting on the downstairs as well as the vertical blinds at the windows and sliding doors.

Troy laid the heavy plywood flooring upstairs and we had the walls plastered in December. The man smeared up the plywood flooring so much with the plastering job that it was impossible to get it clean. We were told that any carpeting we put down would be ruined if we ever had it steam cleaned. The cleaning would draw the plaster right up into the carpet. We had the extra expense and work of covering the floors again, this time with quarter inch plywood.

This was Elma's second winter in her mobile home in Florida. She came over once with Beulah and Buddy, but drove over by herself on Dec. 24th to spend Christmas with us. We had as many of the gang as we could round up for Christmas dinner. Those present were: Howard, Chena, Beth, Mark and Helen; Marion, Joy, Jonathon, Danny, Dave, Juli and Sean; Elma, and Jack; Troy and I.

The Brady Trilogy  I  Reclaimed Memories - (1991)  I  Pop Troy's Anthology - ( 1992)  I  Kinfolk - (1994)