CHAPTER 25

FARMINGTON

This morning, July 21, 1985, was Communion Sunday at our church in Farmington. I decided one chapter should be contemporary, and during the service today I was very much aware that there are relatively few times in the future for me to receive communion from Bob, provided we retire as planned next June. It was a particularly small congregation. Bob preached on "Walls and Fences" and read Robert Frost's poem beautifully. I felt quite tearful, yet profoundly peaceful to think how well he does this. His ministry has seemed so short, like yesterday that he was having his first wedding and his first communion. Our kind of church seems weaker than when we started over 40 years ago. None of our children is a Methodist, though I feel content with the direction their lives have taken. What has it all been about?

Bob preached his first sermon at Farmington on July 1, 1984 after a strenuous week of moving from Redding through all the heat. We had so many adjustments, repairs, and services to take care of that first summer that there wasn't much time to be philosophical. Taking retirement seemed more symbolic and financial than real, for although Bob was signed up for "half‑ time" service at Farmington, it was hard to tell which half was work. People seemed glad to have a resident pastor after ll years of tenants occupying the parsonage. But it also meant that the church lost that income, and we knew there had been some opposition to the move.

We were dismayed to find inadequate television reception, plumbing problems, mice behind the drawers in the kitchen,and air conditioning problems (caused by the previous tenants allowing their monster dogs to bite through the copper tubing). These same tenants had used one set of rails in the fence for firewood! But we were amazed at the cheerful help we got in solving all these problems. And Bob made many repairs and improvements. That took up most of the summer and we took a couple of weeks to visit the Marks and the Wollams in Southern California before the fall program would begin.

On September 11 Bob had heart surgery. The first warning he had was what seemed like indigestion on Friday night, September 7th. Saturday morning he mowed the lawn and complained about chest pains but insisted on going through the Sunday schedule. Monday morning he awoke at 5 a.m. with worse pains in chest and arms and we alerted the nice young Dr. Wallace who had visited our church the day before. He arranged to meet us at the emergency room of Doctors Medical Center in Modesto and after the surgeons did an arteriogram and found his main arteries dangerously blocked they went right ahead with the surgery.

We're still taking in the significance of these events. In a way it's good to focus on how precious our days together are and how unimportant it is to get all steamed up about "accomplishments". On the other hand, one needs to feel useful. And one makes choices a little more wisely.

We are thankful for our five sons, our four daughter‑in‑laws and nine grandchildren. Charles and Keiko and their four, Michael, Carol Yukie, Julia Sachiko, and David Hiroyuki came from Japan this summer. They worry about the children's education and how they can learn English. Charles carries his regular job as professor of Linguistics, German, French, etc. at the National University of Chiba and in addition is Tokyo correspondent for the Journal of Higher Education, writes a column weekly for the English edition of the Asahi Shimbun, teaches at the Sacred Heart Academy in Tokyo, teaches translation, acts as a consultant for National Television, and tries to write other things on the side!

Tim and Judi's girls are young ladies ‑‑ Emily 16 and Leah 12. Tim recently left the Earth Science Library at the University of California in order to work for Utah International in San Francisco. Judi continues to work for Macy's and Emily has been enterprising about getting a job with Baskin Robbins. She and Leah always give us a lovely welcome when we see them.

Bill and Kathy enjoy their garden and their view of the Golden Gate from their house at 3445 Rubin in Oakland. Their Heather is our youngest grandchild. Her baptism was the occasion of a great family gathering last Christmas. Bill has his practice in Internal Medicine near "Pill Hill" and Kathy commutes daily to her job as vice‑president at the World Division of the Bank of America.

We had a great trip to Oklahoma City last spring where David is teaching at the Graduate Law School and Priscilla manages to care for Charles (3) and Maja (l l/2) in spite of heat and lack of sidewalks and other amenities.

Paul has a fine reputation as a Computer Engineer in Mountain View where he works for Geodynamics.

It's always hard to write about the present for it seems as if it will continue indefinitely and doesn't NEED writing about. It would be fun to boast about each one, but there isn't room. Besides, they will have to write their own accounts of things.

We are constantly impressed by the stalwart quality of the people in Farmington. One would like to feel that all over America there are good small rural towns like this with people who join the volunteer fire department, help their neighbors, and raise the essential food for the world. We have been surprised at the religious conservatism. It isn't something one wants to quarrel with. Yet one senses that the more fundamentalist denominations have made great inroads. We sometimes wish that the Methodist Church would address itself to bridging the gap instead of exacerbating it through espousing causes that create deep divisions. On the other hand, we find it rather scary to hear some of the bitterness and distortion that the so called "true Christians" express when they attack anything Liberal. These people seem to have delightful children but they seem to be stuffing them full of a very simplistic and perverted form of the Gospel.

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