Closing in on 49 years ago, my parents brought to their modest Fairmount, Indiana home a small, handsome bundle of inexpressible joy and happiness from the local hospital and named him me. Some say that his hometown is where “cool was born.” I’m sure we all know why, but I’m much too modest to bring attention to it. Other famous people have called this tiny and remarkably boring town their hometown, but their names escape my recollection.
Here is that modest home which looks nicer and smaller now than it does in my ancient memories:
Here is what a typical Fairmount brick-street looked like 45 years ago (and also a few days ago):
A few miscellaneous pics of the town that I found elsewhere:
(Looks like they didn’t have room for my name, but I’m sure they meant to include me.)
Aside from a very brief drive through my hometown, we’ve traveled from NW Indiana and the big family reunion on to the Dayton, OH area where we shared ministry updates with friends and two churches this past weekend.
Yesterday, we moved on to west-central Indiana where we’ll be for a couple days with friends and ministry partners before heading south to New Albany, IN to visit my oldest brother and his family (he now has at least 6 grandkids which we’ve never met and hope to see in our few days there).
From there we’ll be on the homestretch back to Dallas, TX. Having been on the road for 61 days now, we’re all pretty much in that road weary stage and ready to be back home and in our beds yesterday. But, we have 29 days and one other weekend trip with church visit to go. And we’ll need to pull out the shopping list and hit the stores for stuff we need back home. And the van needs an appointment for the timing belt now that we’ve topped 105,000 miles and are still counting. Hopefully, there won’t be other things to fix while they’re at it, but better up here than somewhere along the long stretches of highway in Mexico.
We’re doing ok and enjoying our friends here. The boys have a cold and cough but seem to be surviving it. We’re currently sleeping on bed #21 since we left home on May 8. I think my body is telling me I’m getting a little old for this kind of travel, but we’re still walking upright (I think)!
In other news, I finished my MTS class last week with a 25 page paper. It was very challenging and tiring to study while on the road and thankfully, I get about a two month break before diving into Greek and later adding Systematic Theology. Somehow I managed to do better than I expected on this last class and didn’t miss a single point. God is good! I’m sure my professor was showing me a little kindness as well, but it is quite a relief as I was wondering if I could even pass a class while on the road and speaking and sharing and living out of a van and suitcases. I don’t think I want to make a habit of it!
Knowing Your ABCDs 