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WOW! 60 Years!

I have fond memories of our original church home on Broad St, the crouded sanctuary (2 services) and sunday school in every nook & cranny - the kitchen, basement areas and the gym at the Broad St School.  The year we moved here, I was in college and was teaching a 5th grade sunday school class, sharing a room with Lucky Powell's brother, George Dudikoff.  What a difference from an area near the furnace at the old church.  I remember our last service at Broad St. the final hymn being "Bless't be the tie that binds, " the final verse "when we are called to part" had everyone in tears as we left our beloved church home for the last time.  Would you guess how many people attended church and sunday school that week?  341!

In this new church, in our worship space, we had tile floors with shuffle board inlayed.  The chairs were folding chairs, the chancel area looked similar to the old church becauase some of the furnishings came with us, including the alter and chairs on the side of the alter.  The window was ramdomly placed rectangles of different colored glass. The walls were cinder blocks painted a yellowy beige.  Over the last 60 years, many improvements have been made to this room as the dream of this being the fellowship hall and building a new sanctuary never materialized.  In 1980, it was decided to remodel this room to be our permanent sanctuary and moveable/stackable chairs - not pews, were selected and rug covered the suffleboard so this area could still be an all purpose room.  We will be arranging those charis today to accomodate the Red Cross blood drive this week.  But before the rug went down, we had an awesome square dance with live music.  So many memories and so many more to make.  We must work to fill these chairs again!

Memories by Nancy Burns