We did make it to church and took three cupcakes for the kids to eat. The girls loved them. Spencer didn’t bother because there were so many other treats.

In class, we learned that our teacher likes three main divisions for religious people in America, even within churches.

Evangelical, Progressive, or Contemplative are the three. (When we told him we were raised Congregational, he immediately said, “Progressive!” We tended to agree.)

He still asked us to try and learn about other religions, to be inclusive in our thinking, to be Jesus centered and not so Christ centered (this was a little confusing and one person wanted to ‘discuss’ this point more when he said a certain church was Christ centered (virgin birth and resurrection) and not Jesus centered which is his teaching and life.

It is a good class and this was his last session – others will pick up after the turkey day break.

But thinking back over the churches we have been involved with, we could see that all three types could be in the same church and all get along but not quite see eye to eye on every issue.  

    Gracie and Ellie came over to make cupcakes for tomorrow night’s church dinner. After our dinner, I was to supervise their putting the frosting on the cupcakes while J ran to a meeting.

As I worked in the kitchen cleaning the dishes I heard -

“Just lick around the edge,” said Ellie. “That will keep it from dripping down.”

I got the camera.

 They were just getting started. They each had 12 cupcakes to frost and then sprinkle.

It appeared they were doing a fair job of frosting and I didn’t quite understand the “lick” comment so I asked.

Gracie starts to explain and Ellie demonstrates. The end result was one of frosting here and frosting there and cupcakes covered as well as faces.

After Janice saw the “movie,” she decided not to take the cupcakes to church to share! Janice accused me of not being a good supervisor of grandchildren. They did stop licking the edges but I suppose after Gracie licked the knife clean, she probably should not have frosted anymore cupcakes with it. But they had a good time!

They were fairly conservative with the sprinkles. We will let the girls eat these treats.  And we could have one too. And don’t tell my sisters who are due here this Saturday – they can have one also!

Last year, Melanie, Brittany, Sean had basketball teams in the top 10 preseason rankings. So how about this year?

Melanie’s Purdue Boilmakers are ranked 7th and our local team, the Tennessee Vols are ranked 10th. Then, Sean’s Louisville Cardinals come in at number 20 but Brit’s UCLA Bruins are listed as “others!”

So it should be an exciting year. Last we heard from Melanie, she was packing for the Virgin Islands.

Their first game is against South Dakota – a place where we have more than a few relatives. And, then they could end up playing against #10 Tennessee! We’ll be cheering for Purdue for this one.

Didn’t see a ranking for Iowa but the Big Ten was well represented so Purdue will have a good time in the conference.

Good luck to all the teams and may the best “relative” win!!

Both Ellie and Gracie scored goals in their game yesterday.

Warming up,each girl has a soccer ball and takes it to the net. Ellie is third and Gracie is last.

Ellie would appear to be praying for a good game but it is soon revealed…

She is hungry so she is having an apple while she warms up.

Gracie flies after the ball and kicks it in!!!!

Ellie’s turn to kick it in…and she does!

Ellie and Gracie don’t always get to play on the same team but yesterday they did. The teams have two fields and they divide the team into two squads so everybody gets to play and play a lot. Gracie is “kicking off” to Ellie. They dominated the game yesterday. The other team’s players looked smaller and younger but they are all cute and play well. They do get distracted at times and can change their minds about playing at a moments notice. Seems to be a good activity and when the weather cooperates, it is a nice way to spend a couple hours.

Spencer played his last soccer game of this year. He scored two goals. He played a little goalie even though they are technically not to play goalie til next year.

The ball is just headed into the net for his first goal.

His teammates celebrate – Spencer is number 4. He improved a great deal this year and he seems to like to play.

His sisters keep a close eye on his game and cheer him on at all times.

He is eager to get the ball and score.

Ready for the corner kick – we have learned some more about soccer this year. It was a beautiful fall day and hopefully next week end will be nice for Ellie and Gracie’s last game.

The Professor from Vanderbilt was a delightful educator and the “class” was too short!

“If you were Baptists you would be shooting bible verses at me left and right,” he quipped when he asked for some examples of text. But he helped us out with one and then some more came.

He was trying to show the similarities in John 14 and the Hindu text. He wanted us to learn and understand our fellow human beings. He said we were bound to do it. “Love your neighbor” was one “order” and “do not bear false witness” would point us to learning about others so we could understand them and not misinterpret what they are all about.

The verse “no one comes to the Father except…” was brought up and he explained that progressive Christians can accept this and accept that other people can come to “the Father” through other means.

I find it hard to believe that most people can get around this verse and others like it. And other religions also claim they are the only way and even within church groups, the I am right and you are wrong feelings are strong. And why are religions this way? Exclusive, egotistical, unaccepting?

    Mother’s Diary  – June 17, 1948

    We had an unusually good trip from Manson to here in Grandpa’s car. And Dale, surprisingly enough was almost the least trouble. He was intrigued by all the farm animals along the way, indiscriminately labeling everything “horses”

    “Those are sheep, Dale,” I would inform him distinctly and kindly.

    “Oh,” he would say in a surprised and understanding tone, and then determinedly “Horses!”  So I gave up and we had horses the entire trip.

  √

    We stopped in Mitchell for chicken dinner at noon with my sister, Blanche, and her family. Her son, David, is just a year old and I had warned her to get him a suit of armor for protection from his cousin, Dale!

    Dale, of course, is used to playing with older children than he, and we have paid little attention to his manner of playing. So we were looking forward to a visit on Memorial Day from my brother Bill, Ruth and their year old daughter, Jerilyn, especially to see the two babies together. And we were pretty horrified to have Dale start batting Jerilyn around. It wasn’t from naughtiness, we decided, but from sheer, over-whelming out-size. He would make a rush for her with finger out to announce that she was “pretty” and over she’d go. He’d brush past her in his usual impetuous fashion to get somewhere else and over she’s go. She finally started screeching whenever she caught sight of him, but a gazelle might just as well have tried to stand up to an elephant!

    (Ruth has since written that they are now giving Jerilyn boxing lessons in preparedness for their next encounter.)

√

    Anyway, that was why I had warned Blanche in advance. I don’t know what kind of a pep talk they gave to young David, but whatever it was – it was effective. Inside of five minutes after our arrival, there was a minor dispute over a ball, and pint sized David tackled Dale in a surprise attack from the rear, and both went down in a heap on the floor. The ball flew to the corner of the room and the babies screamed. When we had them righted, Dale eyed David with respect and left him alone thereafter.

   .

Clyde Brooks, second from the left,  was 43 years old and had a wife and three daughters and was shipped off to Seattle, WA to serve in the Postal Unit during World War II. His wife and daughters joined him, leaving Watertown, SD and driving to Seattle in 1943. Clyde and his buddies worked part time jobs in order to afford to serve their country in this time of war. They lived in Kirkland and commuted to work in Seattle by ferry boat. They worked on the docks in their spare time.

Go here – So Young.

Type in just the last name Briggs and click on search. Then click on info page and then personal comments.

Then I found Delbert Peterson and Jerry Despard, Manson, Iowa and several college friends including Charles Lane – a day to remember!

There are 58,261 names on the wall – approximately 1200 are MIA/POW – both Delbert and Chuck were MIA.

The Wall.