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Our Daily Thread 6-9-17

Good Morning!

It’s Friday!

And today is Chas and Elvera’s 60th Anniversary! 

💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎

Congratulations and well done!

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Anyone have a QoD?

 

68 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-9-17”

  4. It’s been several hours, things are really slow around here. 🙂
    Off to the grade 6 graduation.
    We finished well. I even forgot they had PE today and that took care of the first 45 minutes and lots of the energy.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Good evening Jo.
    Good morning Aj, Linda, Rk and everyone else.

    The picture is The Sweetest Woman In The World standing in front of a cabin in Highlands, NC. She is on her honeymoon.
    That was sixty years ago.

    I posted the story five years ago. But I will retell what I call “An arranged wedding”… It wa salmost miraculous the way it happened.

    Liked by 8 people

  7. God created Eve for Adam, he created Elvera for me.
    It isn’t that we haven’t had cross words, falling out, and misunderstanding. There have been plenty. My dad never had advice worth taking, except one.
    He told us, “Don’t ever go to bed mad at each other. Work it out first.”

    An issue of contention was moving from Annandale to Hendersonville. I didn’t want to move. This went on for over a year. Then I agreed.
    But it turned out better that we did.

    Liked by 7 people

  9. You have seen this before. It’s an edited copy of something I sent about five years ago on Valentines Day.

    An Arranged Marriage:
    On February 13, 1955, I was attending the evening service at the First Baptist Church of Columbia with three friends. At the invitation, a young woman joined the church. I was immediately smitten. Never quite got over it. When Dr. Ellis introduced her, I wrote her name in my Bible. I left with my friends after the service, but was on the lookout for her thereafter. I later met her at an after church gathering at someone’s home. I talked with her and offered to take her home. But she had her car. Again, after a Wednesday evening service, I was walking past the parking lot. Her car had a flat tire. I changed the tire for her and she got in and left with Ernest, a soldier from Fort Jackson. She says that Ernest came up later, but that’s not the way I remember it. I think Ernest didn’t know how to change a tire. One evening, Al Tolley and I went into Taylor Street Pharmacy to get something to eat. Elvera was there and we sat with her. I offered to take her home, but she lived just around the corner.
    Elvera wasn’t a student; she was a secretary at Colonial Life Insurance Co.

    Our group usually sat downstairs at church, near the front, right side during worship services. (Never in the balcony.) On November 5, 1955, all my friends were somewhere else and I attended church alone. That Sunday, for some reason, I decided to sit in the balcony; very unusual for me. I hadn’t noticed her during the service, but while going down stairs after the service, I found my self beside Elvera Collins and invited her to lunch. She agreed and I took her to Walgreen’s where we had eighty-nine cent steaks.
    During lunch, I invited her to attend a meeting that afternoon at Sandy Run BC (now FBC Gaston) in Gaston where a friend Everett Talbert was pastor.
    The next Saturday, 12 November. I took her to the Duke-Carolina football game. As I said before, we initially had problems getting together. I was going to school and working two jobs. So, I had no weekday evenings to spare. Also, she was still going with Ernest. But she started going to the Service Center and USO (where we conducted evangelistic services on Saturday evenings & Sunday afternoons) with me. She became part of our team and we became a couple.
    (My parents didn’t know abut her until I took her to Charleston in the spring of 1956.)
    We got engaged during the summer of 1956 and married on June 9, 1957 the second Sunday after I graduated from USC.

    Liked by 10 people

  10. I went out to the mailbox Monday and got three letters I couldn’t understand.

    When I opened them, I found Anniversary Cards.
    And I got some since then.
    Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it. Elvera would too, but is not capable of understanding. now.
    I think we’ll dine at Cracker-Barrel for lunch Sunday..

    😉

    I especially appreciated the pictures.

    Liked by 10 people

  12. Re: The “Arranged Marriage” thing. WRT my three attempts to get with Elvera before our encounter on the stairs.
    It wouldn’t have worked out!
    As I said before, I was very busy. Working at the SCHD testing lab after school. When I finished there, I put up stock for Cornell Arms Buffet, then had dinner and went home to study. I didn’t have time for her.
    And she has never been able to handle neglect well.
    And she was going with Ernest. Ernest was a soldier at Fort Jackson, taller and better looking that me. Ernest took her to a movie and then to a drive-in for something to eat.
    I was at home studying.
    For about a month, I only saw her on weekends. But when the break for Christmas, New Year and new school year came, we were together all the time. We became a couple then and Ernest was no more.
    Many years later, we were talking about things and Elvera said that Ernest often went home to Atlanta on the weekends. That’s the reason for the weekend thing. She thought he had another girl in Atlanta.. Columbia to Atlanta wasn’t an easy trip in those days.
    I was just stumbling through life and things were working out as planned.

    Liked by 7 people

  13. Happy Anniversary Chas and Elvera! I’m so glad that you have each other and your family to cherish and lean on. Thank you for being a wonderful example of love and loyalty! :–)

    Liked by 1 person

  14. What a beautiful picture of Elvera! God blessed you both with a sweet beginning and everlasting love. ❤ HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

    I wanted to send a photo of Art and me, but I did not find any recent photos. If I find one as I go through some things this summer, I will send one.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. What a happy bride! Such wonderful stories, proving that excellent point that what God ordains, He ordains no matter how we try to “help” Him!

    Blessings to Mr. and Mrs. Chas–always!

    Liked by 2 people

  20. Chas, what a beautiful bride you have! Cherish her, and tell her (from us) that many people who have never met her love her.

    The photo I sent was from outside our own honeymoon cabin. My husband parked the car in the right spot, attached the camera to it, and set it to take several photos.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Chas, you are hereby officially invited to legally and legitimately claim fifty seven on here. If you can. Though we are aware you have sneaked around and claimed it in the past. But do be careful as there are a couple of pushy people grabbing for it. And me, quietly and gently requesting it once in a rare while.

    And Chas, thanks for praying for us. May God continue to bless you and your beloved in the coming years until He calls you home and gives you the welcome He has paid for and you have worked to fulfill.

    Liked by 9 people

  22. Isn’t she lovely? Beautiful — and clearly beaming 🙂

    What a great story, Chas, it always seems new to me when I read it again. Blessings to you both.

    Liked by 3 people

  23. Two and a half months after that picture was taken we both quit our jobs and she got into my ’50 Chevvy and we drove to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. Neither of us had a job nor knew what we were going to do.
    Some might think it was an act of faith. But in retrospect, I think it was sheer stupidity. I wasn’t thinking “faith”, I was doing the “next thing.” She was with me all the way.
    It was her work and money management that got us through the first seven years of our marriage. I didn’t have a permanent full time job until 1963. My first was a GS-5 in Washington. I made GS-7 when I got my Top Secret clearance in nine months. We could live on that. Things started to improve after that.

    You can tell that she wasn’t “FoxNews Beautiful”, but she looked good to me. I don’t know what she saw in me, I was not good looking, but I was a Christian, that was her first criteria. She knew I was a hard worker. I was a college graduate and that was something for her, but not her family. And I wanted her. …

    It has worked for sixty years.
    And my only job now is caring for her. And I will.

    Liked by 9 people

  25. DJ, but if that is an ape swinging through the trees, kind of cool. I wonder what it will do to the local fauna. It could decimate the coyote population though, so, in CA thinking, you might want to rehome it.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Mumsee, yes, and I enjoyed the efforts of the reporter who seemed to be trying hard not to crack too much of a smile.

    On my (rare) 2nd cup of coffee this morning, I’ve already been up for 2 hours having to take the trash out first thing. Two stories to do today, including a coyote story, and I’m trying not to dwell on the lost vacation time that we learned about yesterday. They cut our vacation time by a week every year (just those of us who had 5 weeks — now it’s 4). That’s still generous, I realize, but it is mentally hard to lose a week every year. Guess the fiscal year is coming to an end and it’s the annual cutting game we’re all going through again. Just hoping there is no further pay cut in store …

    Like

  27. She’s far prettier than any woman on television or the movies– she has that 1Peter beauty on the inside that radiates to everyone on the outside. May we all be so blessed to find someone who loves as well.

    Liked by 3 people

  28. Yes, the snickering was not helpful at reporting the enormity of the situation, should the ape become a predator of people.

    Like

  29. Just ran into this for the first time in a long time. I understand the history behind it, but…
    What would be your first thought in getting a voicemail that said:
    This is Mrs. Smith rather than this is Kim Smith?

    Like

  31. There is a link on one of the sites, I think it’s ATT, that shows the most popular name in every state. . “Smith” is first in over half of them and present in almost everyone. Hernandes (I think it is) is first in New Mexico, but doesn’t show up in any others.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. Kim, I would assume it’s a business call or an old person you know from some context like church. (Though the old ladies I’ve known, even if I call them Mrs. Smith, would still write to me or leave me a voice mail saying “This is Nancy” ar at most “This is Nancy Smith.” But my mom’s generation–she was a bit old-fashioned on such things and acted more like people who would today be 100 to 120–would probably have said, “This is Mrs. Smith.”) Now, I will say that I was surprised to find books in the publishing archives at my publisher that said they were authored by “Mrs. Ken Smith.” Now, if I am introducing myself to someone who knows my husband, I’ll use his name right away. But to publish using his name with only a “Mrs.” attached seems bizarre to me.

    Like

  37. Wishing you and Elvera a most beautiful anniversary, Chas. Seeing your bride’s lovely picture and reading your memories of meeting Elvera are precious beyond words. A tear-jerking thread for me, in a good way. Thank you both for your wonderful example of love and enduring commitment.

    Liked by 2 people

  38. Chas, I’ll admit that the picture I sent you is 2 1/2 years old, taken around Christmas 2014, the last family picture we’ve had done. The kids look pretty much the same still, though, except for those youngest three have really shot up in stature. I think they have each grown about 6 inches since I mailed the card and pic. 😛

    Like

  39. 6 Arrows, my own photo was 5 1/2 years old (taken on our honeymoon), because I couldn’t lay my hands on one including the kids. I haven’t gotten any copies of family photos taken at our daughter’s wedding last year.

    Like

  41. Cheryl, our next-most-recent family photo was from about a year before yours. Our youngest arrow was three at the time, compared to her current age of 9 1/2. Six and a half years is a big difference when it results in tripling one’s age. 🙂

    And if I had sent that picture, Chas and Elvera would have seen a little girl scowling at them. Fortunately we had a more recent picture where everyone is smiling at the lovely couple. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  43. I appreciate all the cards, pictures and well wishes.
    Chuck, Linda, Becky, Brian, Jennifer and Jeremy are taking us out to dinner.
    Tom and Mary are in Florida. This is their fifth anniversary. They are the ones who are adopting Ellie from China. They paid for a party the orphanage had for her first BD.

    Liked by 4 people

  46. No photos from me and my card (which Chas may or may not have received yet) was admittedly a little unusual — I had a beautiful Christian card I’d wanted to send but I had to order it and when it still hadn’t arrived by Wednesday, I figured I’d better find something else among my existing blank card stock on hand and make it work as an anniversary card.

    So Chas and Elvera got a folk-artsy card with a drawing of a black-and-white cat in an old-fashioned clawfoot bathtub.

    Yeah, I guess it sorta worked (though not according to all the etiquette books, I’m sure). I decided at least it would be unique and stand out from all the rest. 🙂

    The card I’d ordered arrived on Thursday. Hmmm. Maybe I can make that into a ‘Happy Retirement’ card for my girlfriend this weekend …

    Liked by 2 people

  49. We planted a bunch of seeds today, We just finished and filling the new raised beds by the rose garden. Husband and children built them and small children and I filled them. Family projects are a healthy way of getting things done. Now it is raining as God shows He is involved as well.

    Liked by 1 person

  53. I snapped a photo this afternoon that isn’t a good shot by pretty much any standard, but just getting it at all was nice. I walked my neighborhood, and saw a creature cross the road away from a swampy area. It was over a rise and I couldn’t see the whole animal, but I thought, “Anywhere else and I’d think that ws a squirrel. Right there it’s probably a muskrat or mink.” As I walked back by that same section of road where he had crossed, apparently he didn’t want me between himself and the water, for he raced across and I snapped one quick photo (but not zoomed in very close) and was able to confirm what really I knew when I saw it: mink. That is the only place in the world I’ve ever seen the species, but I have seen three glimpses of them along there, and finally one that netted me a photo.

    Liked by 1 person

  55. We are supposed to have them here, along with fishers and martens and wolverines and ermine and weasels.

    Like

  56. We have mink up here, too. And fishers and martens and weasels and ermine and wolves and bears and cougars and lynx 🙂

    Like

  58. 🙂 I had to click SEND before someone sneaked in and grabbed it.
    It was a nice dinner. And good company.
    We had a very nice anniversary and I got a bunch of cards in the mail, but didn’t have time to go through all of them.
    I am wondering tho how everyone got my address.

    Liked by 5 people

  64. A most blessed anniversary to you Chas and Elvera! I did tear up when I saw that photo…she has been beautifully and wonderfully made…by Him…what an incredible blessing your two are! ❤
    Kim if I got a voice mail saying this is Kim Smith I would believe I had called my daughter in law! 🙂 I think our voice mail does not identify our names…just that we cannot answer the call, leave a message and we will return the call as soon a possible…

    Like

  66. I have the suitcase out and am officially packing. Over here though, you have to pack everything. What you are taking with you and what you are leaving. Have to leave your place ready for someone else to move in. Oh, my, what to do with all of this. Donna, I think I need your help.

    Liked by 3 people

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