This year, I've decided to make a "travel edition". I'm going to regale you with some of the travels I've had in my lifetime.
I'll start right at the beginning with my earliest travel memory: going to church.
I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For the first three years of my life, we lived in the northeast part of town, then moved to the house my parents shared until the early 2000s, and where my brother Paul still lives today. There was a small baptist church in the neighborhood where my parents lived that we attended regularly. And by regularly, I mean multiple days per week. Sunday morning: Sunday school and big church, Sunday night: choir and night church. Monday night: visitation. Tuesday night: WMU, deacon's meeting, RAs and GAs. Wednesday night: potluck dinner and Wednesday service. Thursday night: off, Friday night: off. Saturday: family activities at the church.
I have memories of this church way back from in the nursery. I remember playing with the giant blocks. Newborns, "rollers", "creepers", and "crawlers" were all on one side of the hall, with "toddlers" and preschool age on the other side of the all. Out of the Nursery and to the left took you to the stairs that led up to the primary classrooms Church offices were all underneath the primary classrooms. At the end of the primary hallway and to the right and over the main church entryway was the teen hallway. Adult rooms were situated over the fellowship hall.
The main sanctuary, in my memory anyway, is large with wood accents and long, stained-glass windows. The organ sat stage right and the piano sat stage left. Front and center on the alter-stage was a giant pulpit, behind which lay the choir, and behind that the baptistry.
I remember my first friends were from that church. Lisa, Melinda, Laurie, Angela. Even though my family moved from that neighborhood when I was three, we still went to that church until I was in the fourth grade. I kept up with my friend Lisa well into adulthood. I sang in the primary choir. My daddy played on the church softball team and was a deacon. My mother taught sixth grade girl's Sunday School and served on many committees.
I have very warm, fuzzy memories of my first church and all the trips we made there.
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