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Progress in Williamsport, our little, Big Town You are probably thinking that since my siblings and I were growing up that things in Williamsport were also progressing. We got our first refrigerator while my brother was in the army from 1948 to 1952. He mentioned it in one of his letters. He also mentioned our getting a TV. We got a sink in our kitchen but no running water. Bob was home from the Army when we got that. In other words, we had progress but it was slow….at least at our house. I have always considered Williamsport to be a little, Big Town. We had many of the things that large towns had; it was just on a smaller scale. I mentioned that Bal and Bernice O’Conner were our “wallpaperers”. Cliff Jones was the painter and so on. We had skilled workers who provided whatever we needed. We also had Dr. Sheets and later Dr. Gamble. We had a post office, a bank and beer joint. And we had three churches. There are some advantages in going to a small school. One of my daughters asked me one time if so and so was my friend. My response was that when there are only twenty-two students in your class, everyone is your friend…more or less. The school provided the same things that a big school did, which I think was nothing short of amazing. Every year the school put on plays. Since I was taller than all the other girls, I always got the supporting parts of mother or aunt, etc. That continued even through college. As an adult, I saw “Guys and Dolls” at Vets Memorial. David Birney and Meredith Baxter were the stars but neither one was really a singer. Consequently, their supporting actors made them look bad and got all of the applause. I decided that being a supporting actor wasn’t so bad after all. Since Williamsport provided everything we needed in those days, living there was pretty good! After all, didn’t a lot of famous people come from small towns? ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck
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Academics I failed to write about the Eighth Grade Test earlier. Every 8th grader had to take it in order to graduate into high school. I don’t remember whether we took the test at the school or had to go off site to take it. I think we all took it with fear and trembling. Since I had to work for every good grade that I got, I didn’t have any expectation for exultation. : ) The good news for me was that my hard work paid off and I placed fifty-fifth in Pickaway County that year. The superintendent, Mr. Lanman, told me that I had placed 48th in the county in science. I guess they used these tests to counsel us about what classes we should take in high school. I remember how exciting it was on the last day of school when we had assembly. Our names were called and we got to go up front to receive our certificates. We got a certificate for graduating eighth grade. Other certificates were for our tests, grades and attendance. If you hadn’t done well, at least you could get a certificate for perfect attendance….that is if you had perfect attendance. I still have my certificates. We always got new clothes for the last day of school. When the assembly was over, we had a picnic lunch which was held in the gym with our proud mothers coming and bringing picnic food. We were proud of our mothers for being there. Dressed in our new clothes, we trudged home feeling bittersweet that school was over for the summer and we would miss our school friends. Because I was interested in a lot of things, in high schooI, I took shorthand, typing and office practices, biology and chemistry, algebra and geometry, Latin and Home Economics. Was I crazy or what? ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck A New Beginning Our group of summer friends started going to the Christian Church on a regular basis. We liked it and the fellowship we had together. None of us were Christians and actually knew very little about becoming one. I was asked to teach the youth Sunday school class though I didn’t know much about anything religious. I studied and was able to do the job. However, I hungered and thirsted to know more. One Sunday morning Janice O’Conner and one or two others stopped by my house to walk together to church. Janice said, “I got saved,” meaning she had become a Christian. I said, “I have been wanting to do that but I don’t know how”. You know, people like me think things are complicated and difficult. We continued to go to church. My mother and others started to attend as well. Of course, we young people went to Sunday School then left when the worship service started. We went to Red Fry’s Drugstore. He had a soda fountain in the back, so we ordered cherry and vanilla Cokes and five cent bags of chips. Of course, there was a juke box though there was not really any room to dance. We had good times fraternizing with each other and the boys that we were interested in that went to church too. The church got a new young minister, Rev. Rogelio Canales from the Circleville Bible College. He was from Laredo, Texas. He was truly interested in us but was concerned that we left church after Sunday School. One morning he got smart and switched the services. The Scripture he used was, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”. Janice O’Conner, my sister Betty and I, and several others went forward and asked Jesus to come into our hearts and lives. We committed ourselves to Christ that day in early October 1955. It was a life changing decision, and one that we would never regret. Because I had hungered and thirsted for God for a long time, having Jesus in my life was as though a heavy burden had lifted off of me and I wanted to tell everyone. My life changed so much that I think my mother noticed that I was not the same grousing teenager that I had been. She was a morally good person but not a Christian per se. She decided that she wanted to be one too, and in a few weeks made the same decision herself. She was so happy that she sat in a rocking chair and stared off into space for about two weeks. We make several decisions in life that are important but the most important is deciding to follow Jesus because it affects all of the other decisions that we make afterward. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck Sylvia Wilkey Sometime in the early fifties, one of my summer friends invited me to go swimming at Goldcliff Park in Circleville. Sylvia Wilkey was Rose Ellen Shonkweiler’s grandmother. Sylvia and her husband Harry had offered to take “Rosie” and George Jones, who was also related to her, to swim. Rosie was an only child and invited Janice O’Conner and me to go along. I never had living grandparents, so this was a real treat for me. We spent the afternoons romping and splashing in the water and the sun while Sylvia and Harry looked on to make sure we were safe. I couldn’t swim and still can’t today. George tried to teach me but I could never trust that he wouldn’t let me sink. One time on the way home, we stopped at a farm market where Sylvia bought a bushel of peaches. We each got one and ate them in the car with the juice running down to our elbows. We went swimming all summer long and it was a great summer of fun. Sylvia went to the Christian Church, so she invited us to go there. I’m pretty sure that Rosie and George already did. Sylvia taught a children’s Sunday School class and was the church historian. She was also in charge of the Ladies’ Aid Society. Essentially, Sylvia was the church. Not a lot of people attended so she had to wear many hats. She was happy to have a youth group, which all of our friendships turned into. She made sure that we had holiday parties with games and food that she had made and everything that young people need. The church was non-denominational with early historical roots in Williamsport. One couple had left a farm to the church which was never to be sold. All of the proceeds were to go to the church from its cultivation. Sylvia was in charge of that too. She had a few friends that helped her keep the church doors open. Sylvia had determined that if she were the only person there, that the doors would stay open. She and Hattie Wallace got together on certain days and the two of them recorded historical events in the life of the church. I think “Aunt Hattie’s Scrapbook” may have been one of the products of some of their meetings. I came to look at Sylvia as someone that I wanted to emulate. I am still trying to do that today. ©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020 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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