Decade #1, Part B & #2, Part A

6/26/2020

Some tune with no words (and none ever came to mind) was the absent SIMH this morning.Trying to think of the words made me remember Billy Preston once wrote and sang a song called “Will it Go Round in Circles?”—which had an opening line saying “I got a song that ain’t got no melody-oo-oo-oo! I’m gonna sing it to my friends…” So let’s just substitute that for my SIMH. Fun, huh?

The Saga Continues:

The last half of our first decade in this long marriage was filled with even more changes. We stayed in Danville, but I switched jobs and started selling carpet, working for a man who was just 2 months older than me. (His college education and experiences placed him years ahead of me, though.) He told me I would see more opportunity developed in the first year with him, than I would have in 5 years on the other job. He was right, I am sure. Although most of the opportunities were developed through and by his entrepreneurship, thus for him, only just observed by me.

I did learn an enormous amount of business and sales techniques which have always been helpful. I learned about loyalty, about failed friendships, and about when to make the big decisions. And, yes, most of the learning came through observation and mistake correction. Some of it was very hard to do. At one point, I took him his keys and walked off. He came to our house later, asked if we could talk. Five hours later I went back to work for him, not because he “talked me in to it,” but because he reasoned with me about a convivial timing in leaving—page 1 of learning that acumen had occurred with the jewelry store. This time, I stayed a little longer with this man, even returning later for an additional 18 months, and am still good friends with him.

Early in the second decade of our marriage we bought a couple of pieces of property to expand our income. It was primarily rental homes with the idea of my full-time work staying the same and add in the proceeds of the rents collected. It was modest at first, but Barb and I could see down the road to bigger and better income. Then, a couple of notable things occurred. We were blessed to be expecting our 3rd child, the first two being 10 & 9 years old. Our daughter Sarah  was born in October ’71, Brian had turned 9 and Steve would soon be 11. Also, during that time, Barb had come to realize something wasn’t settled yet between her and the Lord. One morning, she awakened me to tell me that she had just come to realize Christ died for her! And from that moment on, she trusted Him and Him alone for salvation.

She almost immediately began to to question what we were being taught, or rather were not being taught. We would leave the church and she’d ask me if I could remember what was preached. Most of the time, I could not. It didn’t bother me too much because I was on a 50 hours a week job plus the care of the rental properties—I wasn’t trying to get a bible education. This caused considerable unrest at our house and shortly, I was not treated as I believed I should have been at my job, causing me to desire to get out of it all! 

We had real close friends who at about this same time confided they were seeking a possible move to the South to get out of an undesirable job situation, as well. He and I drove to Sylacauga, AL for him to look at an opportunity. He liked what he saw and as we headed back North, we stopped in Anniston, AL to spend the night. The next morning, I was struck with a picture in my head that this is the city to which we should move. I’m not sure why and I knew I would have a whale of a time explaining that to Barb upon returning to Danville. She readily accepted it.

From October, ’72 till January, ’73, we took a couple of quick trips down to Anniston, finally settling on making the plan to move in February. I gave my boss notice (I think I gave him 3 weeks), and the plan was put into gear. We moved South. A few weeks later, Barb was invited to a women’s bible class and once again, our world changed. She really began to see things in Scripture; she would show me, I would argue that wasn’t what I’d been taught, she would give me proof passages, I had none. In November, the husband of the bible class teacher called me and told me of their plans to start a couples class in January, ’74, was I interested in attending? I said yes, we would be there. I wasn’t very happy with my wife knowing more bible than me. So, in January, 1974, we began to learn what it meant to practice “rightly dividing the word of truth” as the Apostle Paul told Timothy to study—2 tim.2:15. Brother E.C. Moore from Pensacola, FL was our teacher—he taught us how to study God’s word. He taught us to not take his word, only take the Lord’s word. What a life change was headed our way!

More to come.

Thanks for reading, the Elder