Mrs.Gentry

I really do get a lot of my inspiration from my childhood memories. This trip home was wonderful for so many reasons.....but going to Perkinsville was just beyond special!

I wrote last night about one of my Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Gentry. Mildred Gentry. I remember she made great pies! She lived in a farmhouse on the bend on the river.



Had a huge red barn with a silo.



and look mom, they still hang the tack in the barn!!!



When I went to church in Perkinsville, we put on the play "Mountain gal" one summer. My dear friend, Karla and I got to dress up as hillbillie girls and put mud all over our legs. We thought it was quite fun! I had the lead role and I remember I had to memorize 110 lines for the play. I think there's a reason why my stage career ended there! (That's me on the right and Karla on the left in the early 60s).

My Grandma Moore (on the left) and Karla's mom, Emma Lou, worked together to help us put the play on.


Emma Lou came to church on Sunday morning to see me after all these years. I swear....she has not changed a single bit!!! She was our youth group leader and I can still hear her say, "Now Jennifer, you be a good girl! You come see me often!"



And here's the coolest part of the story....Karla married Steve....Mrs. Gentry's son. She now lives in the house on the bend in the river with the red barn and the silo. And the best part.....I get to call her "Mrs. Gentry"!!!

Yes, some things just never change!!!

Fourty some years later...I don't think we have changed much at all. We can still talk non-stop, pass notes in Sunday School, forget that anyone else is in the room and listen when our mom's say, "be good....visit often!"

It really is true that your first friends are your forever friends!!!

I remember

I remember the church I grew up in. I used to think it was soooo incredibly big. It took forever to get from the sanctuary to my Sunday School classroom. When did it get so small?

There used to be a bell and you could pull the rope and ring it. I thought it was at least 10 miles up to the top of the steeple. When did it get so short?

I thought the stained glass windows reached almost all the way to heaven. And I know for a fact that the colors of the glass used to be more vibrant!

And then I went inside and sat down in a pew and looked out the window....and there I found them...all the colors of the rainbow!

It was so much fun to go back to this place where I spent so much time as a child. To see how small it really is and to sit and remember all the wonderful times I had in this building with all my friends from church.

That window is dated 1912. The church itself is 150 years old. The "new" addition was added in 1958. I was 7 and can remember them building it. Perkinsville is still just about 3 blocks wide and 5 blocks long. And the church still has an attendance of about 50 every week. Some things never change!

I remember looking at this window as a child. Mrs. Gentry was one of my Sunday School teachers. I thought she was very, very important because she and her family had their name on the stained glass window!

And it was always my favorite window. I just loved the green glass. But when you moved and the sun shines in just right....it will sort of change colors. At least it does when you are 10 years old!

The magic of stained glass - how it reflects in the light and becomes something completely different at night when it is dark outside. The magic of a child's imagination while sitting quietly hour after hour through all those church services.

The magic of going "home" and remembering all the things you thought you had forgotten!

It really was one of the best trips of my life!