Some Random Comments, Page 5
Abiding Presence Lutheran Church

For a number of years, we went to Camp Beisler for picnics, usually on Father's Day. We all brought picnic lunches, which were shared and no one checked to make sure kids were eating their vegetables. It was a real community time - if a child cried, someone picked the child up and took care of the needs. If a child was misbehaving, any adult nearby would correct the behavior in a loving but firm manner. We trooped down to the lake and swam in the murky waters, and quite often sang around the campfire at the end of the day before traveling back home. These were such good times. We were all young, enthusiastic, and optimistic. Our families were growing and there was a companionship that would be hard to duplicate these days.
 
Rosemary mentions the time when money got awfully short and we arranged a one-year loan from the members to the church. Each of the members involved made a loan of $100.00. Now you are probably wondering, "what's the big deal. It costs that much to take the family to a ball game." Let me assure you, at the time one hundred bucks was a lot of money. Rosemary and I actually had to sit with pencil and paper to work out where we could cut our spending to get the money. The church benefited twice from this because when the money came due to be repaid, many members forgave the loan and were never repaid.
 
Somehow, this has gotten a lot longer than I had planned. Worse, I could probably write a couple more pages, but then I would have to publish this as a book. I hope this says we had a lot of fun in those early years.
 
We enjoyed being with each other, we enjoyed being with the group, we did a lot of things together. This was the Camelot era of politics, and like Camelot, it passed. We grew bigger, we had committees, we let someone else do the job, our jobs and our family took more of our time. We moved away to other lives.
 
But, for a short time, we were more than a church community, more than a church home -- we were a church family.
 
note: Rosemary has added some of the memories in this note, but I still intend to take credit for writing this. Also, my comments comparing that era with the current times are not intended to disparage the changes. That was then and this is now! Different times, different ways! But I do miss them.