Page 1 - Good News February 2015 paper

’ll never forget Easter 1946. I and didn't listen to the radio, we’d
was 14, my little sister Ocy was
I12, and my older sister Darlene
16. We lived at home with our
mother, and the four of us knew
what it was to cope without many
things. My dad had died five years
before, leaving Mom with seven
school kids to raise and no
money.
By 1946 my older sisters were
married and my brothers had left
home. A month before Easter the
pastor of our church announced
that a special Easter offering
would be taken to help a poor
family. He asked everyone to save
and give sacrificially.
When we got home, we talked
about what we could do. We
decided to buy 50 pounds of
potatoes and live on them for a
month. This would allow us to
save $20 of our grocery money for
the offering. Then we thought that
if we kept our electric lights
turned out as much as possible
crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for
save money on that month’s
electric bill. Darlene got as many
house and yard cleaning jobs as
possible, and both of us babysat
for everyone we could. For 15
cents we could buy enough cotton
loops to make three pot holders to
sell for $1. We made $20 on pot
holders. That month was one of
the best of our lives.
Every day we counted the money
to see how much we had saved. At
night we’d sit in the dark and talk
about how the poor family was
going to enjoy having the money
the church would give them. We
had about 80 people in church, so
we figured that whatever amount
of money we had to give, the
offering would surely be 20 times
that much. After all, every Sunday
the pastor had reminded everyone
to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I
walked to the grocery store and
got the manager to give us three
shoes to fill the holes. The
all our change. We ran all the way cardboard came apart, and her
home to show Mom and Darlene. feet got wet.
We had never had so much money
before. That night we were so But we sat in church proudly. I
excited that we could hardly sleep. heard some teenagers talking
We didn’t care that we wouldn’t about the Smith girls having on
have new clothes for Easter; we their old dresses. I looked at them
had $70 for the sacrificial offering! in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was
We couldn’t wait to get to church! taken, we were sitting at the
On Sunday morning, rain was second row from the front. Mom
pouring. We didn’t own an put in the $10 bill, and each of us
umbrella, and the church was over put in a $20 bill.
a mile from our home, but it didn’t
seem to matter how wet we got. As we walked home after church,
Darlene had cardboard in her Continued on p. 8
Continued on p. 8