There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous*
by chuckofish
And I’m going to take it today. Let’s begin with the sublime. I got up early this morning, gathered up my Presbyterian Session books and my friend, Wanda, the indefatigable, octogenarian Clerk of the Session, and we made our way to Heuvelton, NY
tiny town, lots of churches
for the annual review of the books. You’ll recall that I posted last year about my trip to Evans Mills for the same purpose. I love all the nice, old churches in the North Country. The First Presbyterian Church of Heuvelton is a lovely clapboard building with a funky, lighthouse-like steeple and a dark interior. The people in charge were very kind and welcoming and the whole meeting was pleasant, though in some ways kind of depressing…
Time was all these churches had large congregations, but not anymore. The other Session clerks spoke of their churches having membership in the 10-35 range and none of them under 60 years old. How sad is that? What will happen to these places? Well, I guess as long as three or more gathered in His name… I do feel blessed to belong to a church that has about 130 members, even if most of them are older than I am.
Now for the ridiculous. Son #2 and I are going to a matinee today to see
I know, I know you are shocked that we would stoop so low, but I’m doing it for academic purposes only and since I don’t want to go alone, my darling son has agreed to accompany me. He is so good to his mother! I never made it through all of 300 and it’s possible I won’t make it through this either, but we’ll see. But I do have to go. I’m teaching Ancient Greek Warfare this semester and my students convinced me to give them extra credit for critiquing the film. I made the assignment difficult. Unfortunately, I can’t grade their papers unless I have seen the movie. I promise to watch something GOOD tonight! See what sacrifices I make for my students?
In other news, we have an update to last week’s post. My DH got interested in Dorothy Chamberlin and did some digging. Along with her obituary he found notice of an auction to sell her possessions in July 1974.
Please note that the sale included a West Point WWI uniform and several WWI ‘insignia pins’. Obviously, she had kept Guy’s effects all those years. Maybe it was a love story after all.
Have a great weekend!
*Napoleon Bonaparte commenting on his invasion of Russia
dual personalities 
I think Hollywood could have given their love story the full treatment with, say, Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones. It could have been told from the perspective of a reporter from Baltimore coming to interview her about her cows and getting caught up in her telling of her brief happy time with her one true love. Sigh.
And, yes, those churches are indeed sad. But so are those towns probably. Who lives there? What do they do these days?
As I drive through these myriad little towns in the middle of nowhere, I often wonder who lives in them and how they survive. Some are farmers, some drive far to go to work, and some people don’t work at all.
I like your scenario, but I’m ambivalent about the casting, especially Jennifer Jones. Maybe Shelley Winters? 🙂
Well, my point is that they would cast someone like Jennifer Jones–i.e. totally wrong!
Hey, on the plus side. we *did* watch something good that night. I’m happy we’re getting back into Wonderfalls.