EASTER MEMORIES

Easter as a child meant waking up to an Easter basket filled with eggs, candy and a bunny of some kind on top of the plastic grass, which I think may have been paper in the early years. Then we got dressed and went to church. I remember a few Easter egg hunts, but mostly inside the house because it was too cold or in the lawn at grandmother Edward's in Kansas.

In Columbus we attended King Avenue Methodist Church. On May 30, 1889, King Avenue Episcopal Church was organized with 30 members. A lot on the corners of King and Neil Avenues was purchased for $5,500.00. The first physical structure was a small stone church built in 1889.  There is an indication that the stone chapel was built on the west end of the lot, facing King Avenue, from which the church derived it's name.  The small stone chapel was outgrown by the turn of the century and a temporary structure called  the "Wigwam" was built. The Wigwam, 40 x 90 feet, was home to  the two hundred plus member congregation from 1902 to 1904, while the small chapel was razed and a new, larger, stone building was built in its place.

In Norman we joined McFarlin Memorial Methodist Church. It was built in 1923 and the plaque inside the church reads: McFARLIN MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH was erected in the years of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-three and Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-four, to the glory of Almighty God, with prayers that His Spirit may dwell here: BY ROBERT M. McFARLIN And His Wife IDA BARNARD McFARLIN In memory of their son, ROBERT B. McFARLIN whose dust now reposes in the cemetery one mile North of this Church. This House

 of Worship is built for the Youth of Oklahoma and the People of Norman, and Whomever may find it in his heart to worship here. McFarlin was a large part of our lives in those years and I will include that in memories of Norman. We had more Easter Sundays in Norman than anywhere else.

Without a doubt the biggest church I went to on Easter Sunday was in medical school in Chicago at the Chicago Temple downtown across from Daly Plaza and the Picasso. 

During its 175-year history, the congregation has gathered for worship in five buildings. Its first services were held in the homes of its members. But in 1834 the growing congregation built a log cabin north of the Chicago River. Four years later, Chicago's first Methodists floated the cabin across the river and rolled it on logs to its present site at the corner of Washington and Clark Streets. From there it has never moved. A conventional brick church with a 148-foot spire replaced the log cabin in 1845. That building served the church until 1858 when the congregation's leaders, acting on a bold new idea, dedicated a four-story, multi-use structure with stores and other businesses on the first two floors and church space for worship and classes on the top two floors.  The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 reduced the 1858 building to ashes. Refusing to yield to the "carrion comforts of despair," the trustees, just days after the fire, voted to stay put and rebuild at "The Methodist Corner." In short order, they dedicated another multi-use building that served the congregation until 1924 when the present skyscraper was dedicated. It was then the tallest building in Chicago. In 1922, at the last service in the old building that was about to be razed, the Rev. John Thompson declared in his sermon: "Changing conditions require new adaptations in methods, and a larger, more varied ministry. So a new building is to be erected on this corner. This great new church building will be known henceforth as The First Methodist Episcopal Church-'City Temple.' During the two years of construction, the name "City Temple" was changed to "The Chicago Temple." Easter birthdays have also been a part of my life with my birthday falling on Easter in 1954, 1965 and two days before Vanessa was born in 1976, my best Easter present ever. My brother, Mark, also had three Easter birthdays in the 20th century in 1967, 1978 and 1989 (just noticed,  11 year gaps for both of us - pretty spooky). The only other Easter story that I can remember is that when we were in Norman in the early 50s, Mark and I got a baby duck for Easter. It was a particularly cold spring and one morning shortly thereafter, we found the duck frozen in the garage - an early lesson that nothing is forever. Easter 2009 is unique in that it is my first with only men present and both Vera and Sammy are out of town today. So we walked (Spencer road his bike) to Surfin Donuts and back, were going to the pool now, we will watch a little of the Masters finish and then have a little friendship at the Johnson's and then on to another day, another year and another Easter.