Sepia Saturday – Such a Face!

Posted on October 31, 2015 by kathy

Gee, I haven’t participated in Sepia Saturday in quite a while! I mean too, but my muddled brain doesn’t always cooperate. But I am here today!

Sepia Saturday provides bloggers with an opportunity to share their history through the medium of photographs. Historical photographs of any age or kind become the launchpad for explorations of family history, local history and social history in fact or fiction, poetry or prose, words or further images.

Today’s prompt is an image of a vintage Halloween greeting card. I don’t have a greeting card, but I have a couple of pictures that I think complement the theme.

Here we have a woman standing with her back to us, right hand raised, facing a man dressed in a jacket and wearing a hat. This guy looks pretty grumpy, as does the guy on the card.

A second photo was taken a few minutes later and now we understand that this is a grumpy boy. His hat looks rather juvenile by comparison. Perhaps he grew into a grumpy man.These pictures were taken while my mom and step-dad were dating – so the poem on the greeting card is also a match:

She believed in the mirror’s magic spell;
That of her future husband it would tell.
He must be tall, and good lineage trace:-
But how could he, with such a face.

I recently showed Dad this picture and he said that they went to a costume party and assumed people knew who they were, but after sitting on a couch for some time with no one speaking to them, they realized that no one had any idea who they were.

I think these are pretty great masks! I wonder where they (probably Mom) found them? This was long before the internet after all.

At the time this was taken, Mom and I lived with her parents in Ottumwa, Iowa. I’d never noticed until now that my grandfather’s hat is hanging on the back of the chair on the right.

They made quite a cute couple at Halloween – and on their wedding day!

It’s Halloween, so go trick-or-treating at the doors of other Sepia Saturday participants.

Treasure Chest Thursday – Halloween Decorating with Mom

Posted on October 30, 2015 by kathy

I haven’t really decorated for Halloween the past couple of years. DH would bring home a pumpkin for me and that was about the extent of it. This year, I decided to get the decorations out and get in the spirit of the holiday for a change.

As you may know, my mom passed away the end of August from Alzheimer’s Disease. When I got out the Halloween decorations, I realized I’d forgotten that several of our decorations are the result of Mom’s crafting. It was fun to see the things she made or that she helped the kids make and place them around the house. Here are two pots she made with my kids.
I usually stick a candle in them and fill with candy corn … which I have to refill a little each day even though the kids have moved out of the house. Yes, dear, I’m talking about you!

When A was over the other evening, I pointed out the decorations she made with her grandmother. She remembers going to the store to buy the flowerpots with her and said, “We made a lot of things with pots!” Yes, indeed, Mom did a lot of crafting with flower pots. Here’s another one A made with Mom’s help:
The witch’s hat used to be black, but has faded with time. She’s pretty cute, though.

Me as Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Yesterday we had our little Halloween celebration for the adult ESL class where I teach. Several of the teachers dressed in costume – and I was one of them. As I put my costume together, I found myself smiling, remembering Mom’s willingness – make that all-in enthusiasm, when something at TOPS or work or some other group she belonged to had a reason to dress up in costume. I think of her as having no fear of being a bit silly for the cause – whatever it was.

I saw the meme below on Facebook this week:
Mom feels so far away, and yet, here she is. She is the map I follow.

With occasional detours and alternate routes.

Fred M. Webber Sermon: Notes from a Sermon

Posted on October 9, 2015 by kathy

Rev. Fred M. Webber was serving as co-pastor of Pisgah-Mt. Pleasant Federated Church in Greenfield, Ohio when he delivered this sermon in August of 1988.

8-14-88 – Pisgah-Mt. Pleasant – 12th in Pentecost

FMW (Fred M. Webber) began with a reading from the Old Testament. The same passage was the basis of the sermon he delivered the previous week – Exodus 16: 2-15.

2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your murmurings against the LORD. For what are we, that you murmur against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your murmurings which you murmur against him–what are we? Your murmurings are not against us but against the LORD.”

9 And Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your murmurings.'” 10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 11 And the LORD said to Moses,
12 “I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'”

13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning dew lay round about the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.

FMW cites the Anchor Bible, a Bible commentary series, for the next passage from John chapter 6. I don’t have access to the Anchor Bible, so I’ll just use the RSV.

⁴¹The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” ⁴²They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”