DELLA chapter 125

Before I write about Della as my wife, I had asked a couple of friends to give me their insights growing up with her. This note is from Donna Barach, Her and John were visiting us in Canby, OR the weekend before Della died. Being the consummate hostess and wanting them to be more comfortable than herself she bravely tried to visit, but we could all see she was struggling. They did not stay as long as the planned and when the left that Saturday, I did all I could to convince her to let me take her to the hospital. As usual she refused to go, I argued with her on Sunday morning telling her I did not want to lose her without doing all we could to save her life. She conceded.

1953 class photo

What do I remember about Della? Well, I've already mentioned the little girl, dressed in pink, with the golden ringlets. I think I remember her, more than any of the other kids, as part of the Red Deer Alliance Church. Merla was there, too (one of her best friends from grade two), and the two of them were invariably together :). There were also the Crosley kids (Ron, Stan, Kathy), but I think they'd moved to Edmonton before you (Clyde) went to Red Deer. Others came and/or left: Jean Gifford (she was the other life long friend who lived two blocks away), Floyd & Audrey Grunau, Bob & Vi Rose--but Della was always there.

And she almost always had that beautiful smile, even though I seem to remember that she didn't necessarily feel great (she lived with a heart murmur her whole life). She was very active in the Youth Group and I recall at one campfire social that she asked us to sing "Dear Jesus Abide With Me" which was a favorite of hers. She sang is various groups, and since we were both altos, we often sang side by side in the choir. (She convinced me to sing “Abide With Me.” as a duet at the Red Deer church after we were married. That was the one and only time I san in church.)

Della and Leroy, her brother, as teens
at the corner of mom's house,

I remember that she worked for several years at the little Corner Store a few blocks from the High School. My grandparents (with whom I was staying during my grade 11 year) lived up on the north hill, but I often walked home from school and I would occasionally stop at that little store and buy something to eat along the way.

We even shared the same boyfriend...not at the same time). I don't know if she ever mentioned Ed to you. (I knew Ed. (We both worked at Alpha Dairy at the same time and he came to some of the college events the summers I lived there.) He's another one I had always known, He passed away before Della,

Although I didn't actually live in RD for any great length of time, I always kind of felt like I belonged. In fact, when you mentioned on your blog about the great number of Red Deer young people attending CBC the fall of 1964, I thought, "Yes, and you could probably have added 2 more." Arlene Dyck Peters and I were quasi-Red Deer Alliance young people because we often spent days off in Red Deer during nurses training and the year we worked before going to CBC. We attended Beulah Alliance in Edmonton, but felt more connected to the church in Red Deer.

PS: I should have remembered Donna had Red Deer connection. I have posted a photo of Della talking with here grandmother. I don’t think I knew about Arlene, We were all at CBC together. Arlene married Dave who wrote earlier in my blog. The whole Red Deer connection gets more and more entwined. Those days there were terrific.

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AN ARTICLE OF QUIZZING chapter 124

Lorraine Willems sent web links to several locations in the C&MA archives in Alliance Life where my name appeared. Most were as camp director of Canby Grove Family Camp the following was about the 1970 quiz championship. A photo of Bob Peters and Jan Abramoff accompanied the article but was not clear enough to reproduce,

ALLIANCE LIFE October 14,1970

Trophies and awards were presented to the first- and second-place teams (Canadian Midwest and Western Pennsylvania) on Saturday night. Each member of the winning team was awarded a $100 scholarship to the college of his choice. In addition, should he choose to attend an Alliance college that college will give him an additional $100 scholarship. Also receiving trophies were Lisa Moore, from the Southeastern District (highest scorer), and the second place scorer, Jan Abramoff, from Canadian Midwest.

Overriding the jubilation and disappointments was the knowledge that all had been winners-this had been a spiritual highlight in their lives. It was obvious that what had been diligently studied over the year was not only head knowledge but also a heart experience.

As Clyde Walker, coach of the winning team, said: "Quizzing starts early in the year, but it doesn't start with facts-it starts with the dedication of the heart. We start quizzing by praying and asking the Lord to give us understanding that applies to the heart, not just a bunch of facts.

"One day our team was discussing what it means to win a championship. The glory of it lasts for a minute- and then it's gone forever. Your church, parents and friends are excited-but only for a moment. And then it all disappears and if you didn't get God out of it, you've nothing. "I thank God that our team has had such a tremendous relationship with God this year. We didn't wait until we came down to this week to decide to get straightened out with God."

WHY NOT — BONUS POST 8

The creative writing skills were broad in our youth group. When Lance finished his series, others took over. I believe this was written by our editor Dorothy (Dot) Hildebrant. She arrive every Friday night with articles eithrr written or in mind, news and a clear concept as to the direction the paper would take that week. If I'm not mistaken, we have about three hours to put the whole project together and made it every week. What a team.

FOCUS ON TWELVES chapter 123

The intent was to run a series on all the graduating seniors, but I believe we only got these two done. We were operating in a different church culture in the 60's and it almost demanded that people in leadership be Christians. I concur, but there was something about this young man that seems to me God was drawing him closer and closer all the time.  His comments to the reporter here were a surprise to many, but a blessing and a confirmation in my heart that placing him in leadership was the  right thing to do.

Dale certainly would have been voted most likely to be a farmer. Now, I do not know where he ended up, but he was a handy guy to have around. His skills helped the group out on many occasions. He was handy with tools, and know how to improvise.  He was a mean, moving machine in CSB floor hockey.

UNFORGETABLE OUTING chapter 122

      I told this story in chapter 104, but just discovered all the details reprinted in the AYF Valley News. I wasn't even sure what year the outing occurred, but I'm glad all the details have been preserved. There is much more to it than I remembered. I told it as a little story, but it was the biggest thing to happen in Christian Service Brigade in my five years in Saskatoon. It is unforgetable and a great story.
  

The things we forget. I had no idea I had a flat let alone two flats on one trip. It was so bad I  must have put it completely out of mind.

    

There is nothing like the search for the right spot. That was always fun.

Disappearing positive spirits is mild. I remember fear, confusion, panic and a pryer meeting in the woods. Am I wrong?

Some of my best Saskatoon memories are from my time with Brigade. Their camp, the outings. All were great. For a city boy I think I finally adjusted rather well, but I always needed some real woodsman to be with me.

BONUS POST 7

The continuing, ongoing and almost never ending adventures of Boldtman and Rudolph — except this post leads to the end. I love that these two characters real alter ego is that of Canadian pastors. I am delighted to have known them both. Readership has significantly picked up. Consider becoming a follower. I would love to know who is tracking with me, even if it is only from time to time.

This next and final installment of Boldtman and Rudolph appear on April 1, April Fools Day. Every page looks like this. I suspect it will be a challenge to read.

1971 CHAMPIONSHIP chapter 121

Our local quizzing program made a complete turn around in the 1970-1971 season. The boys who had dominated the program from the beginning had all graduated and the girls took over. We went from a male dominated program to a female dominated program in one big fell swoop. While several guys were local quizzers, only one kept punching into the top five.

Any youth pastor wants to know what will happen when your first core group of youth graduates. Well, we got bigger and better and certainly even more active. Even more leaders sprang forward and we created a leadership team for Sunday school to match the one for AYF. Like Melanie said in an email, “We didn’t get in trouble because we were too busy.” Probably, but I wanted it to be meaningful.

The AYF Valley News began publishing in the fall of 1970, so my knowledge and the official records of what the team did and who were the top five quizzers is only partial for 1969-1970. I don’t even have a photo that I can find. It’s got to be here somewhere, but it didn’t make an album and so is loose. Those are the hardest ones to find. Besides, I lost most of my memory when Della passed away in 1992,

Rather than writing from my memory I’m going to let the AYF Valley News report what happened from that year.

     Each year we had two huge competitions. The first was always a meet at the Canadian Bible College Youth Conference with the potential of meeting teams from across Canada. Later we faced only the district teams. It looks like someone spilled coffee on this paper, but it is still readable and can give you that "good morning feeling."

Clyde Walker, Glendene Summach, Errol Rempel, Brenda Ratzlaff, Jan Abramoff, Bonnie Peters

      And 1971 made three. Wearing red and white was life waving the Canadian flag. It was an incredible run with a tremendous group of quizzers, 40 or 50 in total. Jan is the only three time International champion having quizzed on all of those first three champion teams. Brenda was the top quizzer at Internationals.