Along a winding road in the hills and hollows (pronounced holl-ers) of northeast Tennessee sits a small church. From the days of no indoor air conditioning to now, this church despite its building and attendance size has shown love and created many pleasant memories. Summer Sunday evenings would find the windows open and funeral home fans being used while the elderly gentleman from down the road led the singing. The before Sunday School assembly found the second grade teacher leading a few songs and asking who had birthdays. The birthday person would get to walk in front of the church and place money in a small Tupperware cup. Usually this consisted of change equaling the child's new age. When it was an adult's birthday having the exact change for the new age may not have been as important. "Happy Birthday" was usually sung as one was walking to the front to put in her change. The preacher had a very commanding voice. His voice did not make you feel like you were in trouble...you just sat mesmerized by it...whether you understood the sermon or not. As a side note we girls must have been very wiggly one morning. I remember coming home after church and Mother telling us it would not surprise her if Uncle Guy walked down from the pulpit and took us outside to spank us. He had done that with a boy one time. I remember the next few weeks being scared to move. Not necessarily from fear of Uncle Guy spanking me but more from the embarrassment of if it were me he took outside to spank.
The pastor's wife had a vision for a Sunday evening program for the children who were not old enough for the youth group. The first Sunday evening each child was handed a strip of paper. We were given three choices for a name for the group....Young Learners, Happy Growers and I can't remember the other one (maybe Eager Explorers). We were to each write the name we wanted the group to be called. The votes were tallied and Happy Growers became the name of the program for the new group. Sunday evenings found us listening to flannelgraph or flashcard stories. Aunt Evelyn & Uncle Guy both could tell a story. We were especially fond of Sunday School Charlie and his adventures. The most exciting part of the evening was the golden nuggets. What's a golden nugget? Well I'm glad you asked. A golden nugget was just a piece of gravel that had been spray painted gold. But to us children it was worth gold. We earned golden nuggets for memorizing verses, bringing our offering, Bible, attendance, bringing a friend, etc. Every so often we got to spend the golden nuggets we had earned. Aunt Evelyn made sure there was something that every child could purchase. So for the ones that may have very few nuggets (because of not being there every Sunday or not having as much help from home) there was a small trinket they could purchase. And for the ones who had earned every nugget possible there was something of a greater value. Now to an adult these may have seemed to be items which were junky or not really necessary. But to us Happy Growers they were the best thing (second only to being out of school for a holiday or snow day).
One Sunday Aunt Evelyn announced that every month we would send our offering to a missionary. We were then each handed a fold out brochure that had the name, country and picture of each missionary/family for the denomination. We looked at the brochure and each wrote down which missionary we wanted to help support. It was decided we would help a single lady in Taiwan (I believe). She reached out to us Happy Growers. You know the month change could not have equaled more than $5 but she treated us like we were the group that gave her the most money every month. We had fun learning of Taiwan and preparing packages to send her. I'm sure the church probably helped us in that endeavor.
Happy Growers would not have been the same without Edna and Ruby. They were twin sisters who were the food committee for us children. If we decided to have a cook out they were the ones to organize & in my mind they prepared all the food for the cook-out. (Now maybe they organized and church members helped contribute, I'm not sure). I looked forward to the evening closest to my birthday. You see Edna and Ruby would have a cake for me (as well as for each child when it was their birthday). It would be a doll cake. (The cake would be the dress of a non-name brand barbie doll). Edna and Ruby made sure the icing was your favorite color also.
The faith is now sight of each of these ladies who were so instrumental in organizing and running the early days of Happy Growers. I thank the Lord for them & Uncle Guy (because I'm sure he helped Aunt Evelyn plan and prepare). I pray that the children I now teach will see the Lord in me just as I saw Him in Aunt Evelyn, Edna, Ruby and Uncle Guy.
