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Posts tagged ‘1960s’

Rural Mississippi Tales: Healing from Poison Ivy in the 1960s

My mother told me this story many years ago. I am retelling it here as she told it to me. Marcus would be my grandfather. This event took place in rural Mississippi in the 1960’s.

“When I was about 2 or 3 years old, my daddy, Marcus, worked for a seismograph company. He was the head leader. Therefore, his job was to cut the trail. We went to church 4 times a week because daddy was in training to be a preacher. While cutting the trail, Marcus would come across many bad things. He had a machete that helped. Daddy wore long sleeves, long pants, and boots. All of this helped to protect him. Marcus had a wife and two babies at home. He needed to work, and this job paid top dollar at this time. However, Marcus was allergic to poison ivy and poison oak. The trails were covered with both. Marcus would come home covered in a rash. Only his eyes did not get any poison ivy or poison oak in them. Marcus would go to church. While there, he would be prayed for. He always prayed for God to clear the rash up. The next time Marcus cut the trail the poison ivy and poison oak rash would return. Marcus was badly tongue-tied. This made it very difficult for people to understand him. This night was a church night. As usual, Marcus was covered in a bad rash. Therefore, he went down to be prayed for. However, he was feed up with being healed and then getting it again. Therefore after a few weeks, Marcus said to the church and the pastor, “Ju-st Vac-cin-ate me!” The church prayed again. God cleared up the rash. The next day Marcus went back to work. He cut a trail that was full of poison ivy and poison oak. However, he did not get a rash. Marcus lived over 40 years from that night and never got poison ivy or poison oak again. My mother, my brother, nor I ever got poison oak or poison ivy. God saved us from that bad stuff and vaccinated daddy for the rest of his life.”

Edited to add: His grandchildren and great-grandchild have not had any problems with poison ivy or poison oak either.

Exploring Family Stories of Faith and Life Lessons

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1967 School Year Begins: Insights from a Child’s View

 
 

The Summer of 1967 is coming to a close and it is almost time for school. I, Karen, will be in the 1st grade. My brother, Paul, will be in the 5th grade. We attend a church school.

The Pastor is also the head of the school. He calls a meeting to discuss the new school year. Everyone that wanted to send their children to the church school is required to attend.

At the meeting, the pastor explained the school rules. He announced who the teachers were going to be. Lastly, he announced when school would begin for that year. School would start in about 2 weeks.

Most of the parents then spoke up and said, “Let school start sooner. I want to get my children back to school and out of the house.”

Well, guess what? My daddy, Marcus, stood up and walked to the front of everyone. He said, “I have something to say.” Marcus was the assistant pastor.

He proceeded to say, “If I felt the way you all have seem to, I would go home and get my gun. Then I would stand my 2 children outside against a wall and shot them.” The people did not know what to say. After hearing this, I hoped that daddy liked us and wanted us around. To the day that my daddy died, every time he heard someone say, “I will be glad when the children go back to school or move out.” He would reply, “If I felt that way, I would stand them outside and shot them.”

Marcus never shot any of his children. Therefore, he must have loved having them around.

Written by Karen, My mother

Edited to say: Grandpa had an interesting way of saying everything. This was him trying to explain that parents should not be in a hurry for their children to grow up or leave the house. They should instead enjoy the time that they had with their children. 

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