Reflections On A Long and Blessed Life, No. 44:Paradigm SHifts

 ParadigmShifts. 1950 is so long ago I think no one was even using the now over-used term “paradigm shifts”. But for Lutheran schools the early 50’s was indeed a time for great shifts in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod school model. The traditional model was as old as the Synod itself. LCMS congregations were expected to operate elementary schools. This was such an essential element for parish life that it was even written into the Synod’s constitution that every congregation was expected to operate its own school.

Elements of that model included the following. The congregation would operate the school. It would employ exclusively teachers (almost always males) who had been trained in the LCMS teacher training system and the Synod had established two teachers colleges (one in River Forest, IL and one in Seward NB to ensure a steady supply of teachers. Teachers were to be “called”-not contracted. They were considered “ministers of religion” by both church and state. They had life tenure and could be dismissed for only three reasons: teaching false doctrine, gross neglect of duties or immoral public display of behavior. They were to be provided housing by the calling congregation, usually in a congregation owned home called a “teacherage”. These teachers had special responsibilities in the congregation for which they received no special income. Most of them were church organists and choir directors and/or youth directors for the official youth group called The Walther League.

All congregation members were expected to send their children to the Lutheran school. I remember discussion when I was growing up as to whether or not a couple could be excommunicated from the church for sending their children to the public school rather than to the parochial one. Enrolling children who were not baptized members of the congregation was rare.

Financing was completely through the congregation budget-by the regular offerings of congregation members. Tuition was not considered an option.  Receiving state or federal funds was not on any Lutheran school’s agenda.

The role of the principal was to the best of my knowledge not a full-time position in any Lutheran elementary school in 1950.All of this was changing in the 1940’s and early 50”s especially on the East Coast in New York and on the West Coast in California. And that was also happening at St. Paul  Lutheran School in Tracy to which I was assigned. I did have the traditional “call”. I was teacher of grades 4-8 and was the principal. I was the Youth Director responsible for meetings with the youth every single Sunday night. (Note: Today in retirement I often say to my wife Jane as we drive home from church on Sunday morning, “Thank God, I do not have Walther League tonight!”) I was responsible for the Sunday School’s teacher training meetings twice a month. I was not the organist (for which everyone was thankful) but I did play the organ while the organist went to communion. Later the organist was my wife Jane, more about that in a later Blog. Of course, it was my responsibility to organize and run an annual Vacation Bible School.

But changes were coming fast. At least half of the children in my school were non-members. They paid tuition, though I think it was only $10.00 a month. My first year we had a non-Synodically-trained woman teacher in grades 1-3. It was important to know who the “non-member” children were. It was important to NOT have the reputation that the Lutheran school was somehow there for kids who could nor make it in the public school. In Tracy it was significant that both the small city’s top medical doctor and the top dentist sent their children to “the Lutheran school.” I am grateful to say that I embraced the “new paradigm” fully. I recruited from the entire neighborhood and was pleased that after 3 years we were over capacity in enrollment. I was also grateful that more women teachers were available and I utilized interns and graduates from both River Forest and Seward. The role of the principal was expanding and I was very pleased to attend a semi-annual principals conference with my area colleagues. Fund raising was a new and critical responsibility. It took a great deal of my time and I did not do an excellent job.

I was at Tracy for 4 years. It was a very different Lutheran school from the one I attended in Walburg, Texas but it was Lutheran, had member and non-member children, was supported by congregation and tuition, and was well respected by the neighborhood.  It was challenging and rewarding and it prepared me for challenges and opportunities in my future career.

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Reflections On A Long and Blessed Life, No. 43: The Paulsons

My life and work in my first post-graduation life was greatly enriched through the friendship of John and Margaret Paulson. They were the parents of 2 boys and 2 girls and were major Central California growers. At one point they had over a section (640 acres) of land under irrigation and production. They raised tons of tomatoes, loads of melons, bushels of almonds. All irrigated by Central California water lines. All of it picked by hand by migrant Mexican laborers and hauled to the tomato and other plants in massive trucks.

But more important than the crops they cultivated was the people they raised, people, including me. They lived too far out in the country to send their children to my Lutheran school but they were amazingly open to this single guy and later to Jane, then to our son David and eventually to our whole family of seven.

I had barely arrived when they had me out to their beautiful home sitting among their vast acreage. Since I had no car of my own they picked me up for meals and then returned me. They served wonderful food and introduced me to the whole concept of farming with irrigated water (something I had not seen in the Texas farms of my youth). They were by far the most generous contributors of the congregation and when money was short (as it seemed to always be) they would come through and eventually I would get my salary.

When our first son, David, was born naturally Margaret was a sponsor (godparent). Later when our first daughter was born we named her Margaret.

Their children were models of good behavior and commitment. Their eldest became a Lutheran pastor, the next eldest a Commissioned Lutheran teacher who later married a pastor. The next daughter was/is my goddaughter and still is a successful California famer. The youngest son was/is a community leader.

But there is also sadness. One year John borrowed a lot of money (as he did every year) to plant and irrigate his crops that in this particular year focused upon acres and acres of melons of various kinds. Just when the harvest season arrived rains came-and they kept coming and kept coming. They prevented the fields from being harvested. Not a single melon was ever picked and delivered. So there was not only no profit, there was no money to repay the short-term loan. The lending bank was merciless. It moved in, took John and Margaret’s land leaving them only their home. This was devastating. But they remained steadfast, continued to work as tenant farmers and eventually retired. After John’s death his son told me, “You know dad scrimped and worked and saved and he eventually paid back ever penny of that debt that they owed, but never got their farm back.”

Meanwhile their friendship with us endured. They wonderfully took Jane and me to San Francisco on the night before we left for our first term of service in Hong Kong. They rook us to the famous Mark Hopkins Hotel. There they treated us to a dinner in an environment the likes of which we had never experienced before. They sent us gifts while we were in Hong Kong. When my wife Jane was flown home due to a medical emergency and we had to spend a night in San Francisco between airplane flights they heard about our situation. They came to he airport, picked up our five kids, took them for the night and returned them the next morning with every single one of them decked out in a completely new suit of clothes.

Later they suffered deep disappointment at St. Paul’s church. The new pastor decided that “contemporary worship” was the only way to go. The Paulsons’ (and other’s) preference for the traditional liturgies were ignored. (They were finally offered a Saturday morning worship opportunity.) The Paulsons left St. Paul’s and when we, a few years ago, went to their burials and memorials these were not held at St. Paul’s. Nevertheless the memory of them is forever etched into my memory and into my heart. They were critical in helping me (and Jane) get off to a wonderful start in our careers and ministry.

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Reflections On A Long and Blessed Life No.42

As mentioned earlier: When I graduated from college I was “assigned” to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School in Tracy California. My job assignment was to teach grades 4-8, serve as principal, and be the congregation’s Director of Youth and Christian Education. I was single. Upon arrival I was informed about my plan for living arrangements. I was to live with the family of Lydia and Arnold Zielske and their three children. I was assigned a bedroom and a shared bath. It was just a block off Main Street and 4 blocks from the school. Lydia provided all my meals including packed sandwiches for lunch .I think the cost was $85.00 a month. It was good deal in every way.

The Zielskes treated me with respect and then affection. Lydia introduced me to foods like lasagna which I had never eaten in Texas. And she had a brother in Lodi CA 70 miles away whom we visited together. He was the master wine maker at a well-known winery and introduced me to the wonderful variety of wines. Prior to that I only drank what I now remember as terrible: Manischewitz, a very sweet red wine!

Arnold was a devoted father and husband. He knew that his intelligence was not a match for Lydia’s and he accepted that. He had a job as a radio repairperson and he did that well. The situation got a little complicated because I had the eldest daughter as a student in my classroom. She was a sweet but underperforming student who tragically died of cancer at a young age.

The Zielslke’s had a most interesting and unique travel habit. As mentioned above we often visited some of the Zielski family in Lodi. We would arrive home well after midnight. Arnie would drive the car into the garage and close the door behind him. Then, at his suggestion, we all stayed in the car and just slept there for about 30 minutes, then picked up ourselves and the sleeping kids and went into our beds in the house and slept there till morning.

The family stayed in touch with me through the years. Some 20 years later they came to visit me in St. Louis. One little interesting detail of that visit is that Arnie asked me to assist him in purchasing the full multi-volume set of all the writings of Martin Luther. I doubt that he ever got through that virtual library! But I am eternally grateful to the Zielske’s for helping me get off well in my professional career.

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Christmas Memories II: Good Food

My memories of Christmas food and drink are all positive and wonderful. I was born in 1927 so my early years were during the Great Economic Depression and we were poor-but I never felt poor at Christmas and especially not when it came to the matter of food.

My first memories are of Mother making homemade candy. At the top of the list is wonderful divinity candy, then chocolate candy and finally date bars. All were filled with pecans which we had gathered earlier in the year at Grandma Doering’s farm and then cracked and made available in abundance for Christmas baking.

And there was always stolen and fruit cake and lots of cookies. Homemade bread was just a common daily part of the diet

The primary meat was, of course, fresh pork. We raised our own hogs and slaughtering hogs was a big deal in early December. We had to pick a colder day to ensure the meat would not get bad. The neighbors (Schwausch, was their name, I think) came and helped. I was always just a bit taken aback when the hogs’ throats were slit but that was overcome by my love of fresh pork. We had wonderful sausage, fresh pork cutlets, incredible hams and all the rest.

The term “all the rest’ included what we called bone meat. When sausage was made the flesh was all taken off the bones, but always a little remained. These bones were preserved and especially when money got tight these bones were cooked and served usually with boiled potatoes and red beet juice.

We had a smoke house, a simple shack of about 20 feet by 30 feet with a tall roof. We always used the bark of the trees as the source for the smoke, because it burned slowly and produced a lot of smoke.

The sausage was always stuffed into thoroughly cleaned intestines. We even used the stomach of the hog and filled it with stuffing. And I especially loved the fresh or smoked bacon which was always sliced very thick and then fried-but not too crisp!

Christmas was time for dad to buy the once a year bottle of whiskey. Parts of our county were dry-so he had to drive to a liquor store near Jarrell to get the annual bottle of Jack Daniels. I recall my Mother’s disapproval of this practice-as she was convinced that we could not afford it (and my Mother, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary seemed to often fear that we would “drink too much”. The only way the Jack Daniels as drunk was in eggnog. Of course, the eggs and the milk were fresh and the milk was supplemented by a generous amount of additional fresh cream. There was often an argument as to whether or not the eggnog should be cooked or drunk raw. Eggnog was front and center at the Christmas Eve party at Grandma’s house after the children’s service. Two large bowls were always in evidence, one with the whiskey already in one bowl and the other bowl alcohol free. It was a daring adventure for me as a kid to accidently take my eggnog from the wrong bowl.

Frankly- I do not remember Christmas dinner. What was important was all those homemade cookies, cakes and candy.  Glorious memories!

Christmas Memories Part I: Church

Being baptized as an infant and raised in a very devout Christian family made it very natural for me to learn very early that Christ is the reason for the Christmas season. Thus church attendance and church activities were (and are) at the core of my Christmas celebration.

I do not remember any special emphasis on the church season of Advent, though we thought a lot about getting ready for Christmas.

At the heart of the Christmas activities was the Christmas program at church on Christmas Eve. It was led by the children of Zion Lutheran School. By today’s standards it was really simple and would be considered terribly boring. We had no manger scene or reenactment of the visit to the manger. No one played the role of Mary. It was very old-fashioned Martin Luther catechism inspired stuff. The children’s program had 3 important components.

The first was to tell the Christmas narrative through the format of questions and answers. The teacher asked the carefully prepared questions. He called upon students (one by one). Each gave the carefully prepared answer. I still remember the German question (though I do not remember the correct spelling of the German words) that always began the program “Welches hochest fest feiren wie in diesen tage?”(What high feast do we celebrate in these days?) Thus the Old Testament prophecies were recalled and the infant birth story up to the visit of the Wise Men was recalled.

The second element was that most (maybe all?) of the children had to memorize their “Christmas piece.” These were rhymes of poetry. In groups of about 4 students each we would march to the front of the church and recite our piece. There were no mikes and it was a big church so the instructions were drilled into us “Speak slowly and very loudly.”

Thirdly, of course, we had to sing the carols. It amazes me to recall that when we were in the upper grades we always sang in two and even three part harmony.

The Christmas Eve service was usually early in the evening. A huge (30 feet tall) cedar Christmas tree was decorated and in my early years adorned with hundreds of lighted candles. Two special ushers were seated right next to the tree with buckets of water handy should a fire erupt. After the close of the service came another highlight. The ushers distributed a Christmas bag to each of us children. These were plain brown grocery bags, but they were filled with incredibly wonderful gifts. Even during the deepest part of the Great Depression we each got at least one stick of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum, an orange, an apple, some nuts and some ribbon candy. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

The thoughts of those bag contents and trying the figure out what to eat first and what to save occupied our minds not only during the worship on Christmas Day but even on the mandatory-to attend service on Second Christmas Day services on December 26th.