June 7th was the final service at the Hayes United Methodist Church. Located just a few miles East and North of Clay Center, it was my church until just a couple of years ago.
Here I am, in my great big glasses, celebrating my 12th birthday in the basement of the church……July 1982. Those glasses almost look like a disguise. That’s my cousin, Troy, off to the left. (Sorry, Troy :) I’m sitting at the round oak table that was our Sunday School table for all of those years. It has cute little wooden chairs that go with it. It’s one of my favorite memories of the church.
I also love that big tree in the backyard of the church. We’ve taken a lot of pictures in that tree over the years……and now, Jolie and I take photos of our kids in the tree.
I have so many memories. The morning of the final service, I was a nervous wreck. Jolie and I were planning to sing…..something we’ve done dozens of times at that church, but it was just such an emotional day, and there were so many people there. And it was very, very warm in the church (no air conditioning).
We made it through the song, and I started to calm down a bit. People were standing up, sharing their memories of the church. I decided that I wanted to share my memories, too. I had several things in mind that I thought I would say when I got to the front of the church. But when I got up there, I only babbled about how special our Christmas Programs were at the church every year, and then couldn’t think of another thing to say…..my mind went blank. I was fighting back tears….embarrassed about how I’d probably made no sense….and wishing I’d written down what I wanted to say.
I wanted to tell the story about the time that my cousin and I got locked in the outhouse (we’ve never had indoor restrooms at the church). It was during an evening potluck dinner….so everyone was in the basement. We banged on the outhouse door and hollered until someone finally happened to go out to their car and heard us.
Christmas was my favorite time at the Hayes Church. At our December potluck dinner, we’d all decorate the sanctuary together. Someone would play Christmas carols on the piano, and we’d unpack the many old decorations and hang them on the tree. We always had an evening Christmas program. Jolie and I would have a new dress, usually made by our Grandmother (and usually matching). And before we left for the program, we always had a new necklace from Dad, to wear with our new dresses.
Our programs always included a little nativity scene. We wore the same robes and headpieces that had been used for many years, and the angels wore the same foil-covered angel wings that someone made in about 1975. I’ll always remember the year we convinced my Grandpa Harold Anderson, and Caleb’s Uncle Verl Johnson to be the Shepherds…..it was so cute to see them up on the stage with the kids.
I’ll always remember one year, when I was a little older, that I served as “narrator” of the Nativity Scene. I was reading from a script, as the children entered and took their place on the stage. One of the shepherds started up the aisle, and dropped his wooden staff and it made a loud clatter on the wood floor. The next line in my script said something like “With clumsy hand, the shepherds traveled in search of the newborn king”…….or something like that. The entire congregation burst into laughter, thinking that I had added the “clumsy” part…..but honestly, it was in the script!
I also don’t think that I would have been near as “musical”, if I wouldn’t have had the many opportunities to perform at church. From playing the piano, to singing solos later on, to inviting my high school quartet, and Tiger Chorale to perform…….and then of course, singing many times with Jolie. Alyxis even had the opportunity to perform several times, too.
Santa Claus always visited our church after the Christmas program, too. And everyone brought gifts for each other…..so Santa would have us kids help hand them out. It was always so exciting to get a gift or two before Christmas. Following the program, my Mom always had a little party at our house, with lots of Christmas goodies, appetizers, and hot apple cider. We were always so excited for that night.
Easter was always special too…..again, we always had new, homemade dresses. But the most memorable Easter for me, is the one where Jolie and I took all of the children downstairs during the sermon for “Children’s Church”…something we started when there weren’t enough kids left to justify having a Sunday School hour. Because it was Easter sunday, we had an unusually large number of children, including several guests. We took them all downstairs, and up to the Sunday school area. And then we turned around, and realized that there was a huge snake on the floor, which we had apparently all just walked past. Chaos followed, and needless to say, the sermon upstairs was somewhat interrupted, as we sought help with the snake. It was safely removed (alive) and placed outside.
We had to take a photo of one of these poles in the basement……..remembering how many times we were told not to swing/climb/run around these poles!
Above is my Grandmother’s signature on a UMW banner, hanging in the basement of the church.
Here’s another shot of the little Sunday School table and chairs.
This “Roll of Honor” was something else that was hanging in the church….and includes several names from Caleb’s family, who were also original members of the church. Russell Bigler, Caleb’s uncle, is shown here. There were several others, too.
This is me, just finished a piano solo, at the Christmas program……December 1982.
Here’s my high school quartet……. Me; Annette (Siebold) Smith; Janell (Wohler) Johnson; and Angie (Lang) Bettencourt, performing at the Christmas program in 1986.
And here is Tiger Chorale performing at the church…..our Junior year…..1987.
I wish I had some of the older photos to post for you……..Mom has most of them. My Grandma Frances kept a Hayes Church scrapbook that dated back to the beginning of the church. It includes so many neat photos. I hope that I will find the time at some point in the future to put all of my photos together to make a scrapbook of my church memories.