From the Past

This grand old church building is located in the older part of our town.  Some would call it the rougher part of town.  I am familiar with it, as I used to occasionally substitute there as a piano player.  Several times the kids and I would go to that church, for that purpose, when Mike was working weekends.  I remember looking at the various hallways and rooms and thinking what a great, solid building it was - and what treasures could probably be found inside.  I saw third floor classrooms and thought - Those would make a great preschool or community center of some sort. 

The congregation was small, and probably could no longer utilize all the space that they had.  A lot of dust covered a lot of things.

The Saturday before surgery, I told Mike I was going out for the morning, for various stops.  One stop was at a massive yard sale taking place at this church.  Apparently the membership finally dissolved, and the leadership handed the key over to another young church that needed a larger building.  So the people of the church were cleaning out all these old classrooms, storerooms, the church library, and anywhere "stuff" was stored.  Much of it probably hadn't been used or looked at for many years.

(My siblings and parents will know what I mean by saying that stepping into that church fellowship hall was like stepping back into the Athens church.  The scent was identical. That old, big, cool, musty, barnlike smell that is unique to those old buildings. That childhood feeling of "What will we find" upon entering the old storerooms, at the back of the baptismal in that huge old structure in Athens.)

And then I started poking through the stuff.  It was like revisiting childhood.

Visualized songs.

Vacation Bible School materials.

And then this.  An old filmstrip projector.   I wish I had a nickel for every filmstrip I've ever threaded up for a Sunday school class, or a church kids' class, or who knows what purpose.

And these are only the things I got pictures of.  Lots of plaster pieces used for some painting craft.  (Shades of old Vacation Bible Schools!) I saw a lady happily rooting through that box, for things for her ladies' group somewhere.  

Sunday school materials.  Cabinets.  Old-fashioned wooden chairs.  Books for all ages.  Choir materials and hymnals dated from the '50s and '60s. Some Gaither Homecoming songbooks.  Old office supplies.  

Then the lady in charge, who has a son in one of my classes, offered to let me go up to the library.  Some of the books up there were old theological books, or directories of church conferences long since outdated, but I also got good stuff.  A first edition hardcover of Elisabeth Elliot's only novel.  A book written by her brother.  Biographies.  Children's Happy Days books.  Old stuff that most people don't really care about any more, but book lovers do.

I would have bought one of the cabinets on the spot, because it would have been perfect for my classroom - in far better condition and with more shelves than the one currently there.  However, since Mike has a bad shoulder, and I was having surgery first thing Monday morning, I could not think of a way to get it to school.  So I reluctantly passed it up.  But I did get a stack of books and a couple of boxes full of miscellaneous things.

And I also got a trip back into the past.