9 years ago
Friday, October 2, 2009
Bribery
In order for Miss Dodge to get my dad to behave better and do his work in Children's Church, she pulled him aside one day and told him she would give him a nickel if he learned the 100th Psalm. Well, heck!, a nickel was a lot back then, so he set to work to memorize that Psalm. He worked really hard and learned it and recited it to Miss Dodge and got his nickel. She realized this was the way to encourage my dad, so she continued to give him verses to memorize, all with the promise of a nickel if he did. He learned several verses this way. I didn't ask him if Miss Dodge lived long enough to see him become a pastor, but I wonder if those verses he memorized to get those nickels were verses he remembered and used when he was in college and later seminary and if she realized that she planted that seed all those years ago just in her attempt to get a little, ornery boy to do his lessons at church.
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Miss Josephine died before Miss Camilla, stayed around for many years after her sister's death. The house where they lived is where the pizza place is now. I'm not sure your dad has the Misses Dodge as teachers for very long because I know Miss Josephine died before I was a teenager.
ReplyDeleteMiss camilla was the sister who thought it was a sin for a woman to wear slacks, and whom I would avoid religiously, whenever I was wearing slacks so I didn't have to listen to her tirade about women wearing men's clothing.
Miss Josephine was a teacher. When she was teaching the children at Mt. Calvary, she had been retired for almost 20 years, so that tells you how old she was. She was in her late 80s when she died. The younger Miss Dodge (Camilla) died at the age of 94, if I remember correctly.
Don't ask me how I can remember their ages when I can't remember my own name. What can I say? I'm good with numbers! Some things just stick!
I know I remembered the verses I learned from Sunday school and children's church and from hearing my father repeat certain verses over and over. I really believe that teaching scripture to children is training them up in the way they should go. The promise being when they are old they will not depart from up (the training -- scripture).
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