Patch Blog: Country Gal, City Woman--'MEN ... God Bless 'em!'

The darkly-handsome young man sitting in the strange-to-the-area compact car in front of the Arcadia Friends Church on Lenore Avenue in south Arcadia won't know, until he reads this, how close he was to getting profiled by the Arcadia Police Department, at my request, on a fateful day in the early 1970's.

Peeking out the curtained windows, I quickly noted that he was about 24-25 years of age, of a slight build, black curly hair, Elvis Presley sideburns, and a chiseled profile (from a cosmetic point of view).  (In shorthand and on my forearm.)

The facts, Ma'am, were that he was simply sitting in his car waiting for the Pastor of the Quaker church, Teddie J. Cummins, and I was the church/preschool secretary, the official Neighborhood Watch person as designated by the Rio Hondo PTA/Los Angeles Sheriff's Department) and a wanna-be Stephanie Plum long before authoress Janet Evanovich had a clue. 

Fresh out of Azusa Pacific University, Dan Barker was there to be interviewed for the Youth Pastor opening, passed muster with the Ministry and Counsel Committee, went on to do amazing work with the youth, his music and his ministry at the local church.

For me: it was all about Word Search Puzzles....and a May/December Friendship.

You should know that I am vulnerable to teasing, and Dan Barker was a professional at that, too.   At one time our desks were about ten footsteps apart.  He'd be intensely reading and writing, I'd be just as intense, typing away on Pastor Ted's sermon research.  When I sensed that he had become less intense than I, I knew that he was up to some mischief. 

That twinkle in his eye, probably inherited from his Grandfather of the Lenni Lenape Tribe of Native Americans, was an "alert"...tho' little good it did me.

This was a young man with a Mensa/Prometheus mentality, and I had yet to outgrow my CountryGal phase.  "Detty Berry," he would start.  "Yes, Ban Darker?" I would reply and settle back in my chair on wheels to see where this conversation was going.  We were getting a salary for this, but please know that AFC got some of it back via the Offertory the following Sunday. 

Dan Barker announced his atheism in January, 1984, following five years of questioning his religious beliefs.   Alongside his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Dan serves as co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, and assured me, a long time ago, I was in no way/no how responsible for his deconversion.  He confirmed this in an e-mail, along with an invitation to play Chess, which only confused the issue...I had barely mastered "Jacks or Better" so sent my regrets. 

Today, Dan is a published author and music composer, appears regularly on television and radio programs across the United States and has constructed Word Puzzles for Amnesty International.  Google Dan (husband, father of five and grandfather of seven) for a fascinating read...you will note it does not include a single police blotter report. 

You should also know that this Blog is going to introduce you to some of the men who have made an impact on my life, by word or by deed or by just "hanging in there with me" on my personal passage of time.  It's about Love, the Agape kind...

But, let's start at the beginning...

His family was my third family (the famous Maher family being second) so Robert Harry (Bob) Williams and his younger brothers were always a part of my life. 

An outstanding athlete on the basketball courts of Atlantic High School and Simpson College (Hall of Fame) at Grinnell, Iowa, Bob enjoyed a career in Education following his graduation, coached and refereed so many school basketball games that Janice (his wife and one of my dearest friends) has lost count.  He retired some years ago as a Superintendent of Schools, soon after sponsored a popular Golf Tournament in Atlantic and was known throughout that small midwestern haven as "the guy who lives in that darling red house at 10th and Walnut."  (With a claw-footed bathtub filled with petunias in the side yard...a landmark to all who lost their direction in this town of 7,000 villagers...)

Today, Bob is the neatly-dressed 88-year-old man first to greet visitors at his present address, the Atlantic Care Center where he is also a resident, having some good days and some days when he has difficulty recognizing his beloved family.

He may or may not recognize Mary, Peggy or me when we hit the front door of the Care Center when we visit in July.  We will collect our group hugs, and I will remember the cute-as-a-whip little blond boy who was the Mascot for my brothers' softball team. keeper of some early heartstrings and my pal!

This pickin' 'n choosin' is not easy! 

Norman and Jeff Gladu are a fine pair to blog about...without Jeff, I would never have dared consider trading in my Sears Electric for a Gateway, would never have dared to even consider blogging and would not be a witness to the maturation of a pre-puberty boy to a young man of principles, kindred spirit and a generous splash of that Agape Love.

Without his dad, Norm, I would not have been challenged with "mind games" or, in times of stress, cheered up by his spontaneous renditions of jokes that quickened my spirit.  They are my brothers-in-confidence and a winning combination only a telephone call away....combined, they are kinda like Mighty Mouse who arrived, many a time, to "save the day! 

As two-thirds of the office holders for the Class of 1943, Dale Anderson (President)and Richard Pagel (Vice President and now deceased) pretty much held the Class together for the years following their war-time graduation with the help of the their cohort, (Secretary-Treasurer) ... your CG/CW whose personal motto is:  Every reunion needs a "theme".

You wanna drive real "he-men" bonkers?  Challenge them to come up with a "theme" for 69 years of reunions held every five years and, then, more often as the years dwindled down to a precious few. 

My picture was not going to be alongside Dale and Dick's Senior pictures on the Class Officers Page.  At least that was my thought prior to the Class Elections, then based on what my Facebook Friend Melinda Henneberger, today, calls "demos".  But there it was; and my (and Dale's and Dick's) fate was sealed and delivered, always with a theme.

Thumbnail sketches of both will show that they served as Officers of the Air Force during World War II, attended college on the G.I. Bill of Rights and, according to legends bandied about in Atlantic for years thereafter, found and made their "mark" on the world, in the fields of Education and Business. 

Dick married his high school sweetheart, Carol, and found his future with Firestone, first in Des Moines and then, of all places, in Cuba at the time of Castro's taking over the plant of which he was in charge the day soldiers strong-armed their way into the office, guns at the ready.  Something to write home about...

Dale, a resident of Topeka, Kansas, married his college sweetheart, Ev, and in the years that followed, proceeded to upgrade the Communication Department of several colleges prior to becoming Station Manager of the PBS television station in Topeka.  Dale is now retired, but continues to raise funds for Washburn University and has the final say in what goes on the standard T-Shirt imprinted with the Anderson logo for their annual family golf tournament held in Atlantic and elsewhere. Several of these "themed" T-shirts are neatly folded and stored in my keepsake drawer.

What am I taking away from these friendships?  "Longevity" might seem an odd word to describe a condition, but it works for me.  Built on mutual admiration, a sense of appreciation for spoken/unspoken words and "done" deeds, these friendships that began in the elementary schools so long ago sustain me as I grow older...one buddy is gone, the other telephones about once a month wanting to know the latest press release on the upcoming July AHS All-Class reunion. 

I tell him we will meet, along with other Classmates, dancing in the middle of the street! 

From an unexpected source has come a friendship that transcends location, years and miles...the "verboten" Internet Chat Room!  

With a reborn sense of adventure that surfaced soon after I purchased my Gateway, I knocked on the front door of a Senior Chat Room and found...surprise!...a room full of people with interests similar to mine...gardening, reading, bowling, Las Vegas, flirting...oh, my!  Heeding everyone's advice, I navigated around the room carefully the next year or so, settled into a routine of exchanging recipes with the women and reading every post typed by Doodah, Hank, Kidlet, Footsie, and the myriad of others who had found their own relaxing spot in this new world of Cyberspace. 

I was suspicious of him at first, and cautious in my responses to his general postings but as I slowly came to realize, later rather than sooner, here was a guy erudite, but you couldn't tell that by a first reading of his posts.  And...he was from Texas!   And wore a cowboy hat and boots!  How bootscooting was that!

You're right!  "Eshan" (his chat name) won his rightful place in my heart with posts that mended a wounded soul. His real name is E. S. (Al) Hansen of Mineral Wells, Texas, and his wife, Thelma, is a Facebook Friend.  We check upon each other from time to time. 

The words that turned the key to the full life I now share with you?

"I see in you the girl next door.." 

If that isn't a good case of Agape Love, it will do until the next Chat Room Session.

'til the next time.

CG/CW