An Historical Day in America

Today is an historical day in the history of these United States of America. For the first time in its more than 200 year history America will inaugurate a man as President who is...

...younger than I am! What's up with that?

Why is it that my doctor, my chiropractor, my mechanic, my mail man and a whole bunch of other people are all younger than I.

I even get the senior discount in places of business without asking for it (and am not about to turn it down either). I must be old.

On a more serious note, my pastor has posted an article titled, By The Content of Their Character, on his blog.

My wife's graduation

Last Saturday (May 19) my wife graduated from Columbia International University (CIU) with her M.A.

She is the 6th member of our family to graduate from CIU -
my brother Billy (M.Div. '99),
myself (M.A. '99),
our daughter Sarah (B.S. '04),
our son-in-law Lee (B.S. '05),
our daughter Charity (B.A. '06)

Gloria and Dr. Murray - President of CIU

Gloria, me and Dr. Hulbert - the first school that Dr. Hulbert taught in after graduating from Dallas in 1950 was London Bible Institute in Ontario, Canada. My dad was a student of his back then, and both my brother and I took a class from him while we were in seminary.

Gloria and Dr. McKechnie

Congratulations to my wife on her graduation

Gloria took her final exam on Sunday, and is now finished her graduate program.

You can read her April 30th blog, and see a picture of her Kindergarten teacher and class. In the picture she is on the right in the third row.

Congratulation's dear, you've come a long way!

50...and still rollin'

September 1957

50th Birthday Party - Part 2

In Part 1 I told you about the surprise party Gloria planned for me at church. What I failed to mention is that the party was 1 day before she went into the hospital for major surgery. She is slowly recovering from that surgery and so was not able to go with us to FL.

Sarah and I left at 7 on Saturday morning (02/03). I expected that there would be heavy traffic with folks headed to Miami for the Super Bowl. There was not! We arrived at my sister Barbara's house (in Jupiter) shortly after 4pm. On Sunday morning we went with them to church. One of my nieces, Ariel, sang in a ladies ensemble, and another niece, Katie, is a percussionist in the praise band. My other niece, Rachel, (who wants to be cool and groovy like her uncle) tries very hard to speak Jamaican, but my sister refers to it as speaking Ja- fakin!

It rained all day Sunday!

Sunday evening the church had a fellowship time that originally was going to precede the showing of the Super Bowl. But this year the NFL made an issue of churches showing the game, so the church decided not to do what they had planned. There is a TV in the youth room, so we started to watch the game there. When Chicago returned the kickoff for a touchdown I thought the game was about over. We left the church just before Indianapolis scored a field goal, and by the time we got to the house, they had scored another touchdown and were leading. I did not enjoy the game as much as the Colts-Patriots game but was very happy that the Colts won.

Did I mention that it rained all day Sunday?

My parents had been staying with my brother (in Miami) for a few weeks and they drove up Sunday afternoon. There were 13 of us sleeping in the house Sunday night. If you want to go to FL and are too cheap (I mean too poor) to pay for lodging, just email my sister at:

CanIStay@YourHouse.com

and I'm sure she will find room for you.

Monday my brother and I went to a Jamaican bakery for patties. Gloria had instructed me not to return to SC without bringing her some curried-chicken patties. Then we stopped at a Jamaican grocery store and I bought a HTB bun. Originally HTB stood for Hannah Town Bakery, but when folks asked what the initials HTB stood for the reply was always "Hard To Beat." The bun (a loaf of spiced bread with raisins) is now made by Continental Baking Company in Kingston and, in my vast experience, is the best bun in the universe. Two slices of bun with a piece of cheese between is delicious. I also bought a jar of Walkerswood Guava Jelly- they did not have any Orange Marmalade.

Then we stopped at BrandsMart, so that I could walk through the store and see if there was anything that I just had to have. There wasn't, so we left and went to the West Palm Beach airport. Aunt Mary, who is not related, but is my Mother's oldest friend (they have been friends since they were teenagers) flew in from Canada. We went back to Barbara's house for the big party - her graduation (summa cum laude), my 50th, my mother's 85th (which is today), and Barbara's father-in-law's birthday. There were 19 of us for supper!




Barbara and I - don't be fooled by the picture, she is actually 16 months older than me!








My Mother and I - don't be fooled by the picture, she is actually 35 years older than me!




It was overcast with occasional showers on Monday?

Tuesday morning we left FL for SC. The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful (the nice FL weather came when we left). We got home shortly after dark.

Happy Birthday, Daddy

Love, Your Girls

50th Birthday Party - Part 1

For my 25th birthday Gloria surprised me with a party. I mean really surprised me. I had no idea and was completely clueless. I told her that I was going to give her a surprise party for her 30th, and had to throw 3 parties to accomplish that goal (the first 2 were to throw her off).

On approaching his 50th you would think that a smart guy would be suspicious that his wife would throw another surprise party. But no, still clueless! – I’m going to make a movie and call it “Clueless in Columbia.”

So here are the clues that a smart guy should have picked up on:

Gloria was cooking a large rice-broccoli pot on Sunday morning and asked me to stir the pot. We seldom cook that large a quantity of food unless we are having dinner at church. Generally we put something in the crock-pot if we are cooking on Sunday. But she told me that she was preparing it for Sarah and me to eat while she was in the hospital (she had major surgery Monday, came home on Thursday, and is slowly recuperating).

She asked me to make sure Sarah was awake. Now Sarah is a big girl and usually gets up on her own.

Charity and Lee showed up at church. They were in town for the weekend and planned to go with his folks to church (or so I was told). Charity told me that they changed their mind.

My very dear friend, Bill Oswald, along with his wife Becky, showed up at church. But since he is the previous pastor I wasn’t terribly surprised to see them.

An elderly gentleman wished me Happy Birthday. I told him my birthday was 2 weeks away.

We always sing Happy Birthday/Anniversary on the first Sunday of each month to cover the entire month. Since it was Lee’s actual birthday, and since he was a visitor, we sang for him, and then the church insisted on singing for me. I argued that we would sing for me in a few weeks, when we did the February events. But they insisted anyway. Somewhere along the way I made a joke about having driven the Buick to church because it could hold more presents than the Saturn. But I still was clueless!

When I finish the announcements I always ask if there are any announcements that I have forgotten, and when I did, my brother walked in the back door. I would love to have seen the look on my face because I was so shocked. You see he lives in Miami, you know the city in FL where Tony Dungy will win his first Super Bowl, 600 miles from here. I pointed at him as he walked down the aisle and said something to the effect that he was my baby brother and he lived in FL. He came and stood beside me and spoke for a few minutes about being my little brother for 46 years.

Then the Music Minister announced that we were all eating together after church, and the light, dim though it was, began to glow. Sarah pinned a boutonnière on my lapel, and the service continued. One of the congregational songs was “Til the Storm Passes By,” and Bill and I along with Al, a deacon, went to the platform and sang a trio on 1 of the verses. Bill and I sang “Sweet Beulah Land.” Sarah and Charity sang “Until Then” a song Charity said she first heard me sing at Hillview (the Montego Bay church I grew up in), in 1990.

After I preached we went to the Quigley Building (our fellowship hall) for lunch. I think that is when I first realized that we were having a party. I told you I was clueless! It was a great party, as good as my 25th, and the church folks were very gracious with their cards and gifts – we really did need the Buick!