Most of my memories are from the Nazarene side. My Grandmother and Aunt Sara and Uncle Russ went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and on Wednesdays. I managed to escape Sunday night and Wednesdays. My Grandfather managed to escape, as well, including Sunday mornings. Not sure how he got away with it but he did. Come to think of it, my father escaped, too. After Sunday morning church I would go back to my Grandmother’s house for a big Sunday meal. My Grandmother would then take her afternoon nap and my cousins and I would wait until we thought she was asleep, crawl on our knees keeping as quiet as 3 young girls could, with me holding a glass of water. You see, we had heard somewhere if you put a sleeping person’s fingers (just the fingers) in a glass of water they would spill the beans about anything you asked them!! We knew Grandmother had secrets and we wanted to know what they were. Well, it didn’t quite work out the way we thought it would. I spilled the glass of water, we started laughing and woke Granny up. Needless to say, we had some explaining to do.
My other memory is when the Nazarene Grandmother took my cousins and I to church camp. Don’t remember much about it except every night we would all form a big circle and each person would give their testimony. I was about 10 or 12 years old and I wasn’t sure what “testimony” was. I felt guilty because I just knew I didn’t have “it” after listening to the other kids speak of seeing the light, hear the calling or meeting up with the Three Kings. I would look at my cousins and even they managed to come up with something original. I really knew I was screwed then. When it was my turn I basically said “ditto”. After the 3rd night my Grandmother caught on to my “dittos” and I got THE look. That was the end of Church camp.
I checked out of organized religion when I was about 15. And, I stayed checked out for a very long time.
