3. CHURCH:
We attended the St. James Lutheran Church in Starkville. My father taught Sunday school. I attended Sunday school and sang in the church choir. Ila Stiles was the organist and we would have choir practice on Monday afternoons. Ila would give us each a dime afterwards and we'd go to the country store next to the church and buy penny candy. Once a year, she and her husband Everett would take us to dinner at Trinkhaus Manor in Oriskany. It was very fancy and I thought I was really living large. I would order a sherry wine parfait for dessert and feel very decadent.
When I was younger, we would have to learn a piece to recite at the annual Christmas service. As I got older, I would be in the various plays we did at Christmas. In addition to this Christmas service, there was also a Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve. I can remember one year when I was very small, I couldn't stay awake and I slept on the floor, lying under the pew.
In order to join the Lutheran Church, you had to attend Confirmation Classes and I went with Paul Puskarenko, Dick Douglas, and Sharlene Douglas who were both my cousins. We went to class at Rev. Walter Krumweide's house in Canajoharie. We would ride down with my father when he was going to work in the Beech-Nut and ride home with my Uncle (and Dick and Sharlene's Grandfather) Gordon Douglas. Each week one of us had to write a prayer. Of course, none of us ever did it ahead of time and we'd end up doing it in the car on the way to class.
The church had two suppers each year to raise money. Everyone worked the suppers. The youngest kids scraped the dirty dishes for the men to wash. When you got older you graduated to waiting on tables. It was a lot of work. It would be hot inside and we'd go outside when we could to cool off. I remember sitting with Nick Jordan in his father's big red International truck.
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