More Details for 1972

Comments for 1972

Ardith was the first of our children to marry—June 19, 1971 to Bruce Bonham. They were expecting when this letter was written. A miscarriage ruined our hopes for the expected arrival in June. All of that so the chronology of this letter won’t mess up your thinking.

Another thought is necessary regarding this letter and those yet to come. In order to protect the innocent and save embarrassment for any family members, some items have been who deleted. Sometimes ‘old friends’ are best forgotten.

I think I can share the next paragraph with out upsetting anyone. When we went to Rick and Deb’s wedding, many of the family camped out over night at a near by park. Rick or Deb might remember the name. Anyway it started to rain and we’re all trying to get all dressed up in the rain.

We went to the reception following the wedding, and unknown to the Glass family, Deb’s dad had set up two punch bowls, one for us and another for his friends who liked it ‘spiked.’ So Grandma Susie went through the line and got punch from the wrong bowl. We tried to explain this to her, but she said she liked the ‘other’ bowl better. I don’t remember if she changed it or not.

I don’t remember all the details about Joy’s Opel. She can probably tell us the whole story. I know that we spent as much time trying to keep it running as the time it ran! I was glad to see it go.

Then there was Roy. Roy was involved in many of the stories of this year. This was his year to graduate from high school. The story about a bus ministry really picked up steam and we learned of a place in Canada where we could buy school buses for a good price. So we bought 5 busses, got together a team of mechanics and drivers and headed to Canada to get them—sight unseen. Roy III went with us and missed his graduation ceremonies. Mom was not happy about that.

We had some difficulty finding the place. We knew we were close, but every one spoke French. We had no idea what they were saying or where we were. Finally we found the place—there were acres and acres of buses. They showed us the five buses that were ours and we started for home. We were quite a caravan, five buses and the van and car that got us there. We didn’t go very far before a brake line broke and we crawled along until we came to a store with a very large parking lot. We pulled in and got out our toolboxes. This was no problem. We had planned for it. One of the guys went into the store to get a bottle of soda, but came back empty handed because they didn’t understand him. I told him to go back and ask for a ‘Coke’ and he did okay. We simply squeezed the brake line shut and went home with only the front brakes working. We did fine until we got to Buena Vista, only an hour from Radford and one of the buses blew a motor. This was too much for us so we pulled it off the road and kept heading for home. Several days later we had it towed back to Radford.

Before this trip I went to a bus or Bible conference at Liberty Baptist Church in Lynchburg. I don’t remember which. It was exciting and the speakers were outstanding. I was really charged with what I heard and called Roy and told him to skip school and meet me in Roanoke. He just had to hear these speakers! He may remember their names. It was a defining moment. This is when he decided to attend school there. It is also where he met Carol. You’ll have to check with them for that story.

The summer before, Roy was caretaker at Camp Tuk-a-way, our church camp on the other side of Blacksburg. It was a 45 minute drive from the church. He spent his time painting cabins, keeping the swimming pool clean, and doing routine repair work on the various buildings.

This may have been the same summer of the BIG rain/flood that came through. Roy was stranded on the campgrounds. He could not get across the creek [read river] in front of the camp. He even tied a rope around himself to try to keep the debris from backing up against the bridge.

In the mean time, Joy was at a summer Camp Easter Seal for handicapped children on the other side of the mountain from Roy. She and other councilors spent the entire night literally carrying kids to higher ground. She’ll be glad to fill you in on that story.

Mom and I and the other kids went driving to see what the flood was doing. We were not able to get near Camp Easter Seal, but we were able to drive up the road past Camp Tuk-a-way. We were able to see Roy on the other side of the water. We had to yell over the sound of the roaring water. He was safe, but needed to stay away from that bridge. When the water went down we saw the bridge had been moved off its foundation. It was later replaced.

Our family was rather large for the small parsonage at 13 Oxford Ave in Fairlawn. As I recall Lori and Lisa had the upstairs at the time. Roy’s ‘bedroom’ was under the steps and part of the main thoroughfare. He had no privacy at all.

We had a lot of stuff stored in the garage and when the rains came our driveway was part of the drainage from the land above us. I remember trying to put up a barricade to divert the water, but weren’t very successful.

I don’t remember just when my mom [Grandma Susie] moved in with us, but this is when mom [Arlene] went to the bank to see if we could buy the house at 8 Lee Ave. It had just been put on the market. She told me about it later. I said ‘no problem.’ They will certainly turn us down. There is no way we can afford it. You know the end of that story. We soon moved into the largest house we ever had. Bedrooms for every one, even Grandma Susie!

Well, there is more that could be added for this time in our lives. Maybe Joy, Roy, Lori and Lisa [or others] could fill in the blank spots I have missed. Check the comment section for details! Or if it’s too big send it to me so I can post it here.

Love you all,

Dad, GpaG, & Ggpa

P.S. Here's a better picture of Gabi