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Peggy is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Spiritual Director working in Salem Oregon. 503-316-9050 - Links
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5.27.2012Quaker Girls
The photo is of actress Ina Claire,
playing the
title role of the Comedic Broadway musical “The Quaker Girl”
in 1912.
This bore no resemblance whatsoever to any
Quaker girl’s life, especially not a Quaker girl in Depression Era Idaho.
Being
a Quaker girl
in Greenleaf , Idaho in the 1930’s meant...
That you did as many chores as your brothers,
and often the same ones.
That according to your gifts, you had the same
educational prospects as your brothers.
That you were taught by Quaker Ladies at the
one room public schoolhouse until you family moved you closer to Greenleaf to
attend the Quaker Academy to be taught by more Quaker ladies and some Quaker
gentlemen.
That when you played against the Nazarene Girls
in Softball, you got to wear slacks and
they had to play in dresses. You also played basketball.
You went to church at least three times a week.
You sometimes listened to women preachers.
Fannie
Esther Benedict, recorded Greenleaf 1916, died in 1957 - 41 yrs of service to
the Lord
Hannah
Lydia Mendenhall, recorded Greenleaf 1917, died in 1950 - 33 yrs of service
Emma
Budman Harris, recorded Greenleaf 1932, transferred out 1953
Elaine
Settle Cronk, recorded 1944 Greenleaf, died in 2000 - 56 yrs of service
Traveling
female evangelists and missionaries were a regular feature.
Your Sunday school class was probably segregated
by gender.
Your mother belonged the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union.
Your mother voted.
You participated in “Christian Endeavor” a
training ground for adult church life.
If interested, and talented, it was possible to be class president, or hold
any other leadership position at school.
You went to Camp meetings and youth camps every
summer, but not during harvest.
You learned to waste NOTHING.
.
5.18.2012The Air We Breathed
.
A 1930s tent revival meeting in West Virginia - would have looked big but familiar
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~elkridge/
If Idaho was the ground in which Charlotte was
planted, The theology of her place and day was the air she breathed.
It permeated everything.
Arthur Roberts was a contemporary of Charlotte’s
and another Greenleaf native. He is also
a pretty fair theologian. His report of
the place and day was that in other churches that first wave Fundamentalism
(the doctrine - not the process) was being replaced with a second waved
Fundamentalism that emphasized lists of behavioral rules. Arthur considered
Friends to be outside of this stream. - That’s right - they were the
progressives in that place and time, emphasizing response to the Spirit and
abundant grace. The Friends Church of
Oregon Yearly Meeting (they looked west to First Friends in Portland at that
point) was heavily influenced by the Holiness Movement, which believed that
through the influence of the Holy Spirit, the human soul could be cleansed of
its original sin once and for all. They
called this entire sanctification.
George Fox called it perfection, using the same word as Jesus in the
matter. The Holiness movement and the
Friends believed that the human bent towards sin could be pounded out, and a
peaceable kingdom built on Earth, a restored Eden, and during that work that a
beloved community could be participated in here and now. During
that time and for decades to come, Oregon Yearly Meeting churches sent in an
annual report that included not only numbers of souls won by convincement or a
conversion experience, but they reported on the number of souls who ‘prayed
through’ and attained sanctification.
This way of thinking was to be differentiated
from all the local Baptist Calvinists who taught that some people were elected
for this grace and the rest were out of luck. A lot of other churches were heavily into Dispensationalism,
a 19th century teaching that
the bent towards sin was a part of our “age” and would only be dealt with by
the imminent return of a triumphant
Christ who would wipe that nonsense out once and for all. (most Friends in OYM
would, and some still do, dabble in
dispensationalism) The local Catholics (probably in Boise) were teaching that
sin was a chronic condition to be managed with daily application of sacraments.
No one was arguing that the human condition did not include a natural
predisposition towards sin. That they all agreed upon.
Almost everyone had a church connection of some
sort. Out in the rural areas, declared sinners and apostates were hard to come
by. This did not stop Christians of all
denominations from preaching conviction and conversion. There was always the
business of saving your own children, and the justified but not sanctified did backslide
and needed to get right with God. So
there were traveling evangelists and revivalists who came through and livened
things up. Over in Star Idaho, a long
morning’s drive away they had a tent revival camp meeting every summer where
Friends came from all over the region, camped out, and the service were held on benches over straw. The
weather was hot and so was the preaching.
Imminent, eternal and literal hell was right there waiting for anyone
not inclined to accept the restoration of the second Adam. Arthur saw this as glass half full - immediate
and abundant grace for any and all.
Mahlon admitted that he thought that they focused a little too much on
conviction and not enough about assurance.
For Charlotte and her sensitive peers this meant
that they got saved - A Lot.
Charlotte may not have remembered her first
conversion. It was likely to have happened at a family altar at a tender age,
like as soon as she could talk. But she
remembered many others. Gerry Wilcutts recalled
going to the altar with Charlotte many times. “We were spiritually sensitive,
and we examined ourselves for any sin and then came forward and made it right.”
No record has been found of when Charlotte achieved
sanctification. In the Greenleaf FC
records there were many each year, but not reported by name. She was surely
one of them. She was recorded as a minister
at the age of 27 and that would not have happened without her profession of being a saved and sanctified
soul.
.
5.13.2012Macy Mother's Day By all reports, Clara Macy was a great laugher. Nothing delighted young Charlotte more than making her hard-working mother laugh. This may be the origin of Charlotte famous sense of humor which we will explore later. But the vein of humor is rich in Macys and usually near the surface. Here is a picture of Charlotte and Clara from 1958. Charlotte is 33. I fear that the joke is lost to history. We can speculate as to why Charlotte has a babydoll on her back, but if there is a living witness, I would like to know. 4.29.2012Sabbath Keepers
As important as the stories told about us are
the early things we remember and the stories that we tell about our
families. The Macys were Sabbath
Keepers. So were most of their neighbors.
Since no stores were open it was not hard to not buy on the Sabbath. There really no public entertainments to be
had, so refraining from them was not hard. The only thing to refrain from was
work, so farm chores were kept to the essential care of the livestock.
Children played quietly, if at all. And church was attended; Sunday School,
worship and Evening Worship, which was another preaching service much like the
morning one. At home, Bibles were read
and hymns played on the piano. Food was mostly cooked the day before and
enjoyed at family tables. People stayed in their best clothes all day, and often paid visits to family and neighbors. The Macy children had one tale they told about
Sabbath Keeping. It told you everything you needed to know about their father.
It went like this.
Out at the end of the lane, Harlan kept a
chalkboard. On it he posted any extra produce or supplies that he had for
sale. His prices were fair and his
produce and stock were always quality. Folks noticed what he put on his
board. One Sunday a man stopped by the
farm during the afternoon rest period and asked for Harlan. The board said that there were lambs for sale.
Harlan took the man out to the barn and let him inspect the lambs. The man offered
him his asking price for the lot of them. Harlan said that he would be happy to
promise them to him, but that being as it was Sunday, he could not take any
money or let the man take the lambs. He would have to come back on Monday. The
man was put out, and thought it an attempt to get a better price. He hemmed and
hawed and raised his offer just a bit. Harlan stood firm. He was not selling
any lambs on the Lord’s Day, - it was unscriptural. The man left angry and didn’t come back.
Now, being the depression, Harlan could have
used that cash. It was a hard loss. The man was not a neighbor or a Friend, all
of his neighbors and Friends had plenty of lambs and little cash just like he
did. No one would have known if he made that sale, but his own children, and
his own conscience, and his Lord. Harlan was an immovable object when it came
to the Sabbath. A couple of children thought to themselves that perhaps dad should
have taken the money. Harlan did not
give it another thought.
Come Monday, mid-day, another stranger rolled
up the lane. Two strangers in two days was a noticeable event. This man was
also interested in lambs. He thought the lambs in question were excellent
quality and without prompting or negotiation offered a higher price than the
best price of the previous day. Harlan sold
those lambs. And at the supper table read
to his children about Sabbath Keeping and God’s abundant provision for those
who follow His precepts. The children
took the lesson in somewhere deep and were telling the story 70 years later.
.
4.22.2012First Stories
.
photo wikicommons(Glasford Illinois)
We are our histories. The stories we tell ourselves and the stories that are told about us. Most of us, if we think about it, can come up with our earliest clear memory. It usually comes from our third to fifth year of life. Just as interesting is the first story that is told about us. This story may come from our babyhood, even the pregnancy that held us. But the best ones are the stories that encapsulate our nascent personality. Our family tells them as retrospective evidence of what they believe about us. And when they are told about us in our presence while we are still growing they shape who we become. Such powers stories have. Charlotte's parents were long gone before I started collecting these stories. But I was able to spend some good time with her brother Mahlon. Mahlon and Charlotte were buddies. Her whole life, they were close. He was two years older in a family of nine children. He watched her as often her as her mother did. For the first few years of life they slept at opposite ends of the same old iron bed. They knew each others' nightmares. He made her toys. They learned the children's games together - kick the can, rolling a barrel hoop with a stick. And the the first story of Charlotte was told to me by the last person alive to remember it. It is a story of adventure, of temptation, crime and punishment. And it goes like this... "We were little, preschoolers really. And we took it into our heads to leave the farm without asking and walk the mile or two to our Aunt Huldah's. Aunt Huldah made the BEST cookies. At an opportune moment we lit out. Holding hands and walking fast we made it the best part of a mile before we were caught. I don't believe we were spanked, but mother did tether us to an outdoor table for most of the afternoon so that she could get some work done." Because Mahlon lived to old age, and Charlotte did not, he got to be the historian. It is probably more his story than hers. Odds are he was the instigator. But she was his partner in crime. She was a good person to have around if you were trying to pull off something bold. And she would do the time with you as well as the crime. The first story is one of risk-taking and comraderie. Didn't pay off that day. But that didn't even slow her down. . 4.14.2012The Root StockHarlan and Clara Macy had nine children in 20 years. Baby Howard died in infancy, the rest made it to adulthood. Losing one in nine was about par for the course, many lost more. They considered themselves to be stewards. They practiced stewardship in every area of their lives. We have only an echo of this attitude. For younger readers, think about the Tolkien story. The steward runs the kingdom in trust until the return of the King. This was not a metaphor for the Macys or their Quaker kin. They believed they held everything in trust from a Christ who would imminently return and that an accounting would be made. The land and all its produce was held in trust. Health and physical strength was a trust. The children were given by God to be raised for God - you fostered your own children. They owned nothing, but took care of it all. They attempted to run all by God's precepts. This attitude pervaded every area of their life. On one corner of their 80 acre farm sat the two room schoolhouse to educate the community's children. They tithed their land as well as their money. Harlan was known as an especially good steward. He worked hard and smart. He saved some of whatever cash came through his hands. He gave ten percent and more to the work of the church. But that was not God's share - it was all God's - that was the share that God wanted to be given to the church. Harlan was the man you went to if you needed a loan. He loaned freely, without interest, to members of the community, because this is what the Bible said to do. And because of the respect he had in that community he almost always got his money back. Clara was the nurturer. She had an easy laugh and a forgiving nature. She did all the hard work that farm wives did while bearing those 9 children. She cooked on a wood stove for most of that time. Once Charlotte and young Hazel McIndoo, (then a friend and neighbor, one day to become a sister-in-law,) were left with the task of preparing food for some Iowa relatives about to arrive. Clara had business out of the house. Charlotte and Hazel stoked up the stove unaware that Clara had left one of her shoes in the cooling oven to dry out. When the aroma of their food suddenly seemed off, they checked all the compartments of the old giant. They had cooked Clara's shoe to ruination. A shoe was a valuable, cash paid for, object during the great depression most women owned no more than two pair. But Clara neither punished nor scolded the girls when she arrived home to grave faces and apologies. Young stewards were imperfect and Grace was God's way, and so grace was applied. . 3.19.2012The Ground in Which We Were Planted (Idaho Farm 1920's Wiki-commons) You do not grow coconuts on the tundra. The place and time from which we spring has great influence on who we will become. Charlotte was born on February 1 1925. near Riverside which was outside Greenleaf in the Treasure Valley of Idaho. She was a child of pioneers. That is how her generation thought of themselves, and this in itself should not be underestimated. Their people were Quakers, come out from Kansas and Nebraska. They came intentionally. They wanted to up set up Quaker communities. They sought fertile fields both physically and spiritually. They found them. The land was good, the water was adequate. They irrigated and grew wheat, alfalfa, corn, and clover. They built schools and churches. Hard work and good stewardship paid dividends. Their homes were simple, but comfortable. Homes had books. No one worked on Sundays, and you would have had to go a long ways to find someone to sell you a drink. But it would not have been hard to find a bed or a meal. People were hospitable and trusting. Everyone worked hard. Quaker children did chores like all farm children with the interesting distinction of a certain gender neutrality, boys did dishes and girls worked in the barn. All the children studied and all were expected to finish High School and most expected to go to college. Pioneer parents liked to send their kids "back east." William Penn College in Iowa was a favorite among Friends. The pioneer children came to understand that there was a depression going on in the outside world, but they did not feel much of it personally. Their parents may have not had much cash, but there was plenty of food, and adequate clothing. If children had toys it was mostly because they made them. How else would it be? When in the early thirties there came a wave of Okies and Arkies, the pioneer children had their first experience of poverty. Homes with dirt floors and children with shoes that had the toes cut out to accommodate growth. The now elderly pioneer children that I have spoken to, admit that at first they felt a bit of superior. But they were also raised to be tender of conscience, and some of them developed a strong sense of social awareness. It was a social conscience dedicated to getting people an equal chance, leveling the playing field. Because if you did that - then surely hard work and good stewardship would supply the rest. A man might be poor because he was a drunkard, but not a drunkard because he was poor. The well nourished, hard working, educated pioneer children believed these things. Because they had no experiential reason not to. They grew strong, and they grew straight and they were hopeful. . |
