The Ohio Chronicles: Chapter Five

Since it's Sunday, it seemed appropriate to feature this set of pictures.
This is the church my Grandmother, mom's mom, belonged to. I still like the architecture of it. The neighborhood it sits in, although old & run down, has a charm about it. Lots of trees and a cozy feeling.
It's quite old.My mom attended here as a child, but I'm not sure how long. At some point, she perceived rejection and stopped going. She told me that she never felt "good enough" to belong. She meant in a social way. Many of the popular girls in her class attended here. Popular Girls can cause a lot of damage, whether they mean to or not. Mom believed we should have some sort of spiritual education, so she sent us to Sunday School. This is the door the kids would enter. She would drop us off & pick us up, I suppose an hour later although it seemed like an eternity. (note: my son's fifth grade teacher had a sign on his desk that said "It's a Sin to Bore Children With the Bible". God bless him.)

If I enjoyed Sunday School, I don't remember. I remember Miss Janice, who was very nice and I just loved her name. In pretend games with my friends, I was always "Janice." I remember two little boys, Jeff B. and Jim H., whose behaviour caused our class to get yelled at every week. These hooligans were also in my class at school...all the way through twelth grade. I remember in sixth grade being so absolutely bored learning about Charles Wesley week after interminable week that I stopped going. And then one day, a Popular Girl, the daughter of one those other Popular Girls, came up to me on the playground, hands on hips, and said, "you haven't been coming to Sunday School, so you aren't going to be confirmed. You can't be a member of the church!"

End of church for me, baby. For a long time.

Notice the circled area on the next photo. A street sign.
Next to the sign someone stuck a cross in the ground. I found it quite ironic, hugely significant. Don't ever, ever be the person who, even unintentionally, puts up a Do Not Enter sign in front of the Cross of Christ.