TROPHIES

By 1967 we had five people in our house at 133 Midgely Street in Jamestown.  Elliott was in school and doing well. Jim and Ruby were toddlers.  It was during this time that Elliott made me a special present in crafts class.  He painted a smooth rock and pasted a picture of a St. Louis Cardinals baseball player – Tim McCarver I think – and gave it to me.  I still have it, even though the picture is somewhat faded.  

The picture is just one of my many “trophies.”  My trophies are things that have been given to me, or given to us over the years.  When we were at Albany, a lady gave Elliott is plant for this third birthday.  The plant, some kind of creeping vine (maybe a Wandering Jew?) has been with us ever since.  At times it has grown to the point that it reached all the way across the room.  Ann has cut it back and repotted it several times.  It’s always there as a reminder of the love people have shown us.

Most of the trophies are in my office at church.  They include wooden “fish symbol” given to me by David Adams during our first stay in Cedar Rapids.  He also gave me some wooden expanding book ends.   I’ve got a Texas Bluebonnet dried and placed in a frame by Pasty Harvey from Houston.  (Ann picked up new bluebonnets to go in the frame on a recent visit to Texas. I’ve got a branding iron and barbed wire given to me by Ann’s brother-in-law, Donnie.   Dyrel Collins, who preached in the Albany area, painted me a western picture on canvass, which hangs in my office.  I like western art, and all things cowboy. Jim bought me a set of longhorns and carved my initials on the leather part that holds them together.   I’ve also got a horse picture in our closet at home, which Gary, Kelly, and Scott gave to me. 

I’ve got a Model A John Deere tractor, which Ann got for me at Ertyl Toys  in Dyersville, Iowa.    I  have an eagle picture and a wolf picture hanging on my wall given me by the Minden Church of Christ.  I’ve got a Texas Bluebonnet picture, which we bought at the Official Texas Bluebonnet Festival at Chapell Hill, Texas.   There’s also a picture of a cowboy reading the Bible to a little boy, which we purchased from the artist in Red River, New Mexico.  I have a little rocking horse given to me by Hilda Hodge in Cedar Rapids.  There’s a little wooden turtle that I picked up somewhere.  We have a barn picture painted for us by Pat Chaney, a member of our youth group when we lived in Belton, Texas.  We also have three pictures painted by my Aunt Loretta.  Ruby made up a special album for me to celebrate fifty plus years of ministry.  I’ve also got some pictures painted by Dovie Bales, widow of my late uncle, Alfred T. (Bus) Bales.

I don’t have to go to a museum to fuel my memories.  They are all around my house and my office. I treasure them all.