Civil Engineer, me? probably not.

Something I should have mentioned in the last entry. While still pastoring New Hope, in 1965 We were at Lennie’s house, Sherry’s sister. Susie (Sherry’s mom) had walked out from her house, she had planned to go to church at New Hope with us that night.  There in Lennie’s house, we were all having some good family time, and Susie fell back onto a bed holding her chest. I checked and she was not breathing, I could not get a pulse. After checking her mouth and wind passages, I started CPR, continuing until help got there. BUT Sherry’s mama passed away in my arms, she was 61, one of the best women I had ever known.
My dad officiated at Susie’s funeral. the one statement we all remember is, “I know you are missing Sister Harris, but if you could just see her now, you could not  get her attention, she is seeing what she has dreamed of all of her adult life.”

Susie Geneva Hawes Harris 1904-1965
True, the oft quoted phrase, ‘Life goes on.’  Breakfast in the mornings, a kiss and off to work or school.  The change this time was not as hard as it seemed.  Of course It was much more involved than one can put in 200-500 words of course.  (There are times that a trip to Wal-Mart would take that many words.) Nothing in your life is as simple as it looks to another person. A lot of soul searching, a lot of thinking how this will effect church, friends, family and parents.  But as Shakespeare wrote, “To thine own self be true.”
The life of an atheist is simple. Live morally good, live and die, that is it.  No concern of the hereafter, no worries of where you or anyone else will spend eternity. Of course I continued to attend church with my wife and family.  I understood Sherry and other Christian’s feelings, I had been there. I never tried to explain or push my new found ‘enlightenment’ on anyone.  I was happy to live and let live.
We had the same friends. Life back at the New Hope Church went on under a new minister. Thinking back, and along those lines, I am smiling. When the vote was taken at the New Hope Church for a new pastor, I came out on top as a write-in. There was only one vote cast for someone else.
When my friend Grady Allen was telling me this, I said, “Now you have me wondering, what traitor did not vote for me?”  I asked laughing.
“It was me Jack, you said you weren’t coming back!” He explained, we were both laughing.  We were close friends until he died. My boys loved Grady.  The remaining family members are still  dear friends.
It was many years before I returned to New Hope. I was invited back many times to speak at home comings, but I never accepted.
The little frame house we bought was in what we called ‘Happy Valley’. There were 4 or 5 houses there, Sherry’s dad, her sister and an aunt and Uncle lived there.  My girl can always make a place ‘home’, for her brood. Shucks she can make a tent look good.
We were happy, Sherry working and I attending college on the GI bill, studying Civil Engineering.  Although I did not use the training I received immediately, many years down the road, in construction, it all came back and was very useful.
My favorite subjects were Trig and mechanical drawing.  But the whole time, I was trying to decide what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life, I was getting older, I was 27 years old, and would soon be in a nursing home.
I believe I made it two whole semesters as a student! (I know, that surprises you!)
Nite Shipslog
PS:
I have always admired the boy or girl who knew at the age of 14-16yrs or younger, what they were going to be: Cab driver, doctor, lawyer, nurse, carpenter, plumber or scientist. 
Did you know what you were going to be?  How did it turn out? (I know Jean did not plan to be an Alabama farmer’s wife!)
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Cars of 1967

My favorite the corvair and a Ford I never did see.

Then there was the Muscle car, the Ford Shelby