 Tall and Thin Karen Blixen, author of “Out of Africa”, started her book with the words, “I had a farm in Africa”. If I were to write an autobiography, I could probably start it with, “I was tall and thin”. When I was a teenager and sick of being tall and thin, I prayed that I would gain weight (imagine that) especially on my scrawny arms. A few days later while walking to school, I slipped on some snow and hit my forearm on the corner of the sidewalk where Mr. Alspach lived. I ended up with a goose egg on my arm right below my elbow. I decided that was not a good prayer to pray. When I was in college, I was still bemoaning the fact that I was thin and decided to eat after I was no longer hungry. I got sick and threw-up. I decided that I needed to be happy the way I was. In recent years I have gained some weight in places where I don’t want it. Of course, my arms are still scrawny. Then God gave me the Scripture from Psalm 92:14, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing:” I do know the real meaning of that Scripture and I thank God for it. However, I like the flourishing part but I’m not too keen on the fat part of that verse. I have talked to God about it. I have always heard that Jesus has a sense of humor from remarks He made about the Sons of Thunder. I have a feeling that He is laughing about my prayer regarding that Scripture. : ) ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2021 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck
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Epilogue When I was growing up, my Dad watched “Hee-Haw” on TV. I didn’t really like the singing and corny humor. I preferred Sid Caesar and Imogene Cocoa of “Our Show of Shows”, Ed Sullivan and so on. Years later, when I went to language school in Brazil to learn Portuguese, the teachers said I had an accent. They said that I sounded like someone from southern United States. I put diphthongs in words where they didn’t belong. Instead of “bolo” (cake), I said, “boulo”. I attributed that to my growing up in small town Ohio. Ohioans do have an accent you know. After that, I tried very hard to lose my small-town accent. It wasn’t helping me with my new language. My accent got better but I never really got rid of it. A few years ago, I stayed overnight with my sister Kathleen. We watched some of her favorite videos. Her favorite film was always, “The Last of the Mohicans”. Everyone who knows me knows that I love western and Indian movies and books. Then she introduced me to Ray Stevens videos. And today, I think “Hee-Haw” is really funny. I guess “you can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl”. As I write this, I am thinking about how we all grieve for our lost parents. In some ways, the places where we have lived are also like our lost parents and we grieve over the loss of them as well. I am proud of where I came from and if you are from Williamsport, you should be proud too. You know what people said about Jesus coming from a small town, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Well yes, He did! ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2021 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck Leaving Williamsport In my Sophomore year at Circleville Bible College, I no longer had a ride to get there. I had to move into the dormitory. I didn’t want to leave home and Williamsport, so it was gut-wrenching for me. After college, I married, went to Missionary Internship in Farmington, Michigan, then to Brazil. When I came back to the States for good in 1973, the town’s decline was evident and became even more so as the years went on. I thought it was heartbreaking when the school and Horch’es Red and White Store were torn down. I couldn’t repair my parent’s house, so it was demolished. Then Archie Rawlinson’s IGA Store, where my brother had his flea market, was torn down. That is just mentioning the few structures that I know about. My hope for Williamsport was that it would have been made into a tourist attraction like West Liberty or little Ohio Amish towns. The attraction might have been Clarence Harmount and his Uncle Tom’s Cabin troupe. Ohio State University has a collection of articles related to that. I would like for my parent’s house to have been made into a boutique with flowers inside and out. But none of that was to be. Psalm 103:15 and 16 state, “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone: and the place thereof shall know it no more.” I guess the moral of this story is to enjoy and appreciate your parents and family, your home, your friends, your lifestyle and the place where you live while you have them. 309 South Water Street, Williamsport, Ohio My mother loved her little home in Williamsport, as did all of her children and grandchildren. I asked Wellman Funeral Home if they would drive past the house and stop for a few minutes in front of it so my mother could pay homage one last time to the place that she had lived and loved for sixty-one years. They did. Epilogue to follow next week. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2021 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck  ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2021 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck |
Marilyn Francis FergusonGrowing up in Williamsport, Ohio is a blog by Marilyn Francis Ferguson which describes small town life in the 1940s and 1950s. Blog Categories
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