I recently received (from a 2nd cousin) this picture of the house in Virginia where I lived as a kid. It's my wallpaper on my laptop and I find myself just looking at it and reminiscing back to when I was 7, 8 and 9 years old.
Dad built this house when he was working for the Church of God of Prophecy on the Virginia State Campground.
- The windows for the living room were on the left of the house.
- Behind the living room was the kitchen and dining area.
- There was a back door off the kitchen with a screen door. One summer I remember Dad made me open and shut that screen door 100 times. I never slammed that door ever again.
- Mom and Dad's bedroom was on the right front of the house with my room behind it and a bathroom in between the kitchen and my room.
- In the area around the bedrooms and bathroom was an under the floor furnace with forced air heat. I remember often in the wintertime coming home from school and finding Mom sitting on chair over the furnace floor grate crocheting.
Behind the house Dad had built a huge shop.
- We always had cats and kittens that lived in the shop. They weren't allowed in the house. We never had a dog while we lived here....only cats. I would dress the cats in doll clothes and play with them and feed them milk from a doll bottle. They were more fun than dolls.
- Dad always had left over pieces of lumber and wood laying around which I loved playing with. A long remnant of lumber became my friend, Lolly, which I would carry all around the many acres of property on the campground. I never took her inside the house. She was only my outside friend, I guess. I also remember tying wooden wedges to my feet for high heel shoes.
I got my first bike at this house. We had visited my cousins in Ohio one summer and I was trying to learn how to ride a bike. Dad told me if I learned he would buy me one. I don't think he thought I could do it, but I did and when we got home he bought me a bike.
On this property the church held annual conventions, youth camps and other activities.
- There was a large tabernacle on the property where the conventions were held and there was also a church building where we attended church for a little while until a new church was built a couple miles down the road.
- One of my cousins came and spent part of the summer with us. When there wasn't church activities going on, we would play "church" in the tabernacle. We would bang on the piano and sing and have church. We would take turns being the "preacher" and the "sinner." I would preach and my cousin would be the sinner and come to the altar to be saved. The next time he would preach and I would be the sinner. We knew how to have church! Several years later (after we moved to Tennessee) I started taking piano lessons and eventually became the pianist for churches I later attended.
- I attended my first Youth Camp here. I was too young to be an official camper but I was allowed to stay with the girls in the old church they used as a dormitory for camps. It was actually at the end of this youth camp that I gave my heart to the Lord and became a Christian.
The last year we were in this house (before moving to Tennessee), my Mom got deathly sick. If I remember correctly, it was around the Christmas holiday from school.
- The doctor came to the house - back when they made house calls. She had the flu, pneumonia...several things going on at once. She was in bed and continually got worse - not better. I remember on numerous occasions laying at the foot of my bed, crying and afraid.
- After about two weeks of her being in bed the doctor told Dad that she was dying and there wasn't anything else they could do for her. He prescribed a couple sleeping pills for her so she would go out in her sleep. Dad gave her the sleeping pills, and he sent me home with the Pastor's family. He didn't want me at home when Mom died.
- The sleeping pills had no effect on Mom, although the doctor said they were strong enough to put a horse out. She knew she was dying and had Dad help her get out of bed so she could kneel and praise God till the end. It was at that particular time that God chose to instantly, divinely heal her. She got up and didn't go back to bed. Dad called the doctor and the doctor thought Mom had passed away and Dad had lost it. Dad called a friend to go get me from the Pastor's house. Apparently the Pastor didn't have a phone. It just so happened that the friend who went to get me was the town mortician so the Pastor also thought Mom had died. We finally got to the house and found Mom alive and WELL, and not in bed. Later that day Mom made cherry pies and, if you knew my Mom, she didn't sit down much after that.
- When I look at the picture of this house, I think how differently my life would have been if she had died there. Instead of losing her when I was 9 years old, I was able to enjoy her another 50 plus years.
I love the line from the song "This Ole House" by Shakin' Stevens:
"This ole house was home and comfort
as we fought the storms of life."
This picture was taken during an annual Virginia State Convention.
My Dad's uncle, Willie Lowman, was the State Overseer and in this picture they were honoring him and his wife.
My Mom is in the front helping with this presentation.
My Dad is the one in the rear looking up.