Small Town Roots

I grew up in a small farming town in Southwest Iowa. Back in the day. I have so many fond memories of my childhood. I went from kindergarten through the 12th grade with about 15-20 of my classmates.  Many of us still stay in touch with email, Skype and blogs.  Any of you who might fit into the 1960’s category have no doubt seen the thousands of sayings, photos and memorabilia floating around cyberspace for the past decade or so. I won’t go there. You’ve seen and heard all that. What I most appreciate about my roots is the family atmosphere in the town. Also our church, First Methodist, was one of the focal points of our community.  Church was a big deal when I was growing up. Not only for my spiritual growth, but for my social life as well. Our Methodist Youth Fellowship at 5:30 on Sunday nights was a drawing card for pre-teens and teens from all across town. You didn’t have to be a Methodist to come. And lots of my church pals brought guests when we all started dating. I was in a bell choir that toured all across the Midwest during my teenage years. What fun we had. We attended Bible Study every Thursday morning. We would leave school and go to the church of our choice for a couple of hours.  Can you imagine trying to do something like that today? One of the milestones in my life is that my picture (actually the back of my head) appears in Life Magazine. They did a story on Elm Street USA and they picked Elm Street in Shenandoah and some town in Pennsylvania. They took a picture of our bell choir at Mrs. Brown’s house. She lived on Elm Street. Aren’t you impressed? Oooops. Times up.