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51 5 Searching for a Church Home “Tell us about how you met Mommy!” we would o#en ask Dad. The story became a family favorite, a romantic tale of love and destiny. We children understood that we would not have been born if Mom and Dad had not met, had not decided to join their futures together. Dad would begin: “I went back to Ann Arbor to finish my degree, then took a summer job at Babcock &Wilcox, in Beaver Falls. One Sunday I visited the First Baptist Church. I asked a young fella next to me, ‘Who’s that good-looking brunee in the choir?’ He said, ‘That’s my sister. Would you like to meet her?’” “I thought he had a lot of nerve, walking right up to speak to me!” Mom said. “Even with Doug to introduce him. But he was handsome—dark wavy hair, big smile—and he was persistent!” Dad said, “It took a while to get her to go out with me, but finally she agreed. Your Granddad was prey skeptical about some stranger dating his daughter.” Mom said: “I had only known him for five weeks when he proposed!” Dad explained: “I had to go back to college, and didn’t want to leave her behind.” They married on September 12, 1947, seven weeks a#er they first met in church. A#er a brief honeymoon at Cook Forest State Park, they returned to Ann Arbor. This story taught several related lessons: first, we should always go to church; second, a church family was the best place to establish one’s own family; third, faith is the best foundation for one’s life. The other lesson that this story seemed to suggest—not part of the moral our parents intended—was that it was good to act on impulses, to trust feelings more than rational calculations. At least this was not an idea that Mom wanted us to learn. A#er all, that’s what had brought us into the turmoil we faced in Alabama. 52 shattered glass in birmingham™ The Baptist church had always been a second home for my parents. Along with the essential support of family and friends, the church provided a valuable source of inspiration, reassurance, and acceptance. Wherever they lived, they quickly found a church home. In a new city, the local church offered a welcoming community and peace amidst the world’s problems. Having a minister for a father—even when he was not in a church pulpit— meant that there was no negotiation about going to church and Sunday school. Unless we had flu or measles, we had to cover our coughs and sneezes with a handkerchief (hankie for the girls) while fidgeting on the hard pews. Many of my early memories centered on church activities: Sunday school, hymns, vacation bible school, Christmas pageants, Easter services (sometimes with trumpets to accompany the triumphal hymns of resurrection). As soon as we arrived inAlabama, Dad and Mom searched for a new church home. They knew that participating in the civil rights movement would pose dangers of harassment, intimidation, perhaps even violence. The church would provide sanctuary—in the double meanings that word conveyed—and comfort. However, as Mom would later say, “I fully expected harassment from the Klan, but not from the church! It hadn’t even entered my mind.”™ Someone had told Dad that a fellow Andover Newton seminarian, Reverend John Wiley, served as minister of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. Within a few days of our arrival in Homewood, Dad phoned him and received a friendly welcome and an invitation to come to church on Sunday. Wiley had been in the seminary class one year ahead of Dad. In Alabama he had a reputation as a moderate, interested in human rights. On Saturday night, Dad and Mom followed their usual rituals. Dad told each of us to bring our Sunday shoes. Then he lined them up, took out his shoe-polish tins and brushes, and buffed each shoe until it gleamed brightly. White for the girls, black or brown for the boys. We all took turns in the bathtub. When Ann and Susie were ready, Mom “put up” their damp hair in bobby-pinned ringlets, while we watched TV. The next morning, a#er the usual last-minute frenzy, we clambered into the ’55 Ford Country Sedan. Vestavia Hills was the next community south of Homewood. [18.221.41.214] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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