Church Mints

  • Friday, October 12, 2018
  • Willie Mae

The autumn leaves are starting to fall and the weather outside is simply glorious today. Lou and I have really enjoyed honey-mooning, but I sure miss Chattanooga and all those wonderful places to eat. Where have I been you ask?

Well, after ol’ Lou and I got hitched and moved out of state, I have been getting settled.  I turned 80 again and life is good.

The area we are living doesn’t have the plethora of eateries that Chattanooga had, so I decided I needed a new hobby. Oh, I might still talk about food from time to time, but I have other adventures to talk about!

One thing I have thought of doing is to play bridge with a few gals here. They meet about three times a week. I meet several ladies for lunch, though nobody could ever replace Lois. She and Phil have talked about moving close by to us because they like the area. They have visited a couple of times. Lois recently celebrated her 80th birthday again too. I don’t think we will ever get old.

My granddaughter Natalie is not far from us and she is married now and has her own baby named Alaina. That little thing is the sweetest! I could just eat her up! She looks just like her sweet mother.

One day, I was visiting and had Alaina in my lap. She was so squirmy and such an independent little thing. I tried to read her a book and she babbled and talked over me so she could read the book to me!

Natalie says she’ll be a storyteller like her great granny. Bless her heart.

Lou just loves her. He will throw her up in the air and I’m always afraid he will miss and not catch her. But that Alaina loves it and squeals with the biggest grin on her face.

After a few tosses this last time though, he confided that he needed some liniment rubbed on his back after we got home (I think he uses that as an excuse when he just wants a backrub).

Lou and I have joined a church called Hardin Baptist. The preacher “Brother Ricky” is a young whipper-snapper in his fifties, but his son Kory who also will preach, is even snappier! His boy will get so excited when he preaches and he brings in theatrics comparing something to a movie he has seen as he waves his arms talking about the good guys and the bad guys. I like the way he ties anything he does into a message about Jesus.

That is when you know someone is living right – when everything they do, they see Jesus in it! Kory’s daddy is the same way. He gets excited in his own right, but mostly he is focused on getting us to wake up to what God wants us to be a part of (and I know he just wants Lou to wake up period).

Lou does his best to stay awake in church and I know he is really getting a lot out of it, but he just can’t help getting the nods!

Just when Brother Ricky is hitting on the very thing I know Lou needs to hear (even though I am minding my own business) I will feel Lou jerk and when I look at him, his face is red and his eye lids are so heavy even a toothpick couldn’t hold them open.

I always reach over and hand him a mint from my purse. Surely giving his mouth something to do he can’t fall asleep – and it works! The only thing about that is… Lou is a noisy mint cruncher! I just know the people in front of us and in back of us hear him. I sometimes wonder if the preacher can hear him too.

It is funny when I think about Lou falling asleep though. When I am intent and watching the preacher walk back and forth I sometimes forget about Lou. So when I am not checking to see if he has fallen asleep to rescue him with a mint, I bet there are many times he has his eyes closed and Brother Ricky sees him.

It makes me wonder how he can keep from getting tickled at the congregation of nodders while he’s preaching.

It reminds me of the time I was in church with my boy Jack. In his younger days, Jack led the youth at our church and one Sunday he was sitting on the front row with all the students on Youth Sunday.  I was behind him and could tell he was getting the nods.

Jack had just had a lock-in with the youth and they all seemed to be fine that Sunday, but my boy didn’t have any energy left. He had his bible open and holding it in the palm of his hand. I got tickled watching his head oscillating  with a droopy sway as he tried to stay awake, when all of a sudden –  bam! He slapped himself right in the face with his bible!

I believe I may have laughed out loud on that one. I still do just thinking about it. Yes, I bet preachers have a lot of stories to tell outside of the pulpit.

And what is life without our stories? I’m glad to be jotting these things down again. And you know me, I’ve got an opinion and I always like to have fun.

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