GNNE Banquet speech

Speech presented to the members of Good News: Northeast 1977 at the end of the summer Beautiful Feel Banquet by Ken Danley.

When Jeanette and I left Abilene, the Beautiful Feet Pageant was recent history with WSO taking a clean sweep. It hardly seemed fair that they should have Mister AND Miss Beautiful Feet. After all, it was Bill’s baby. C’est la vie.

But, even though we were unable to share those next few memorable days with you, a little bird filled me in on all the details. Thanks Steve.

Word has it that you left on a beautiful note with many warm well-wishing WSOers and others on hand to bid you good-bye. So what if you left an hour and a half late. Bill, …tsk, tsk.

But off you went. Good News: Northeast was destination bound. There you were, all for seven and seven for all. What? What’s this? There’s only six! We’ve lost someone already? Gloria!? Where’s Gloria? Oh, here she comes. Whew! Wouldn’t want to lose one yet!

And thank you, Kathy, for the rest in Dallas. Flat tires aren’t so bad… I mean you did see more USA because you had a Chevrolet!

And the gasoline stops. I tell you, you guys must have been trying to give Bill ulcers. I mean, getting out of the car to use the bathroom and stretch? What did you think it was, a gasoline stop or something? Really.

And then there was the gas station where men and women had to use the same bathroom. That’s what you get for trying to save a few pennies on your gasoline! And you must admit, Steve was pretty brave going in to see if the coast was clear, but you’re just going to have to learn, Glorie, that going last is not always going best.

Good News: Northeast arriving in Hendersonville at 2 AM. They didn’t mind though, there was a great movie on, "Godzilla meets the computer". They loved it.
That first night away from being under the Texas sky may have been short but, boy, was it nice. Motel 6 it was not! Hello, Johnny Cash!

Sunday School was great, I heard. "Beware of automation. The computer is trying to overtake us. The power of depersonalization is upon us. But don’t worry, as long as we hold out to the end and remain true to the faith, we have nothing to fear." A great lesson.

Overheard conversing during class were Ken Smith and Jim Tucker. "What’s that?" said Ken. "What’s what?" said Jim. "The lights. They just dimmed and then they got brighter again," Ken queried. "Oh, that." said Jim, "That’s how they let you know that class is over. The latest thing in Sunday School technology." "Oh." Mustn’t talk during class, fellows. Shame, shame.

Off again after church for a nice, long drive. Almost there and… oh no, not another one, Kathy? Oh well, praise God everyone made it in one piece. God never made any promises concerning the automobile.

Orientation was super, wasn’t it? Remember the classes, the meetings, the groups, the devos? Remember all the things we talked about? Remember all the things we learned? … Wait a second… what did we talk about down there? It seems like we learned something. H-m-m-m… Let’s see… Oh, yeah… Mark Hilbert left his watch in Abilene.

Seriously though, we were truly blessed by the Lord that week. The classes were all praised. We need more ministers down south with the sensitivity and honesty of Mike Anglin. And didn’t Greg Ross always have a pertinent comment? And who could’ve been a better housewife than Eva? And then, when we all got out of line, there was the ever-present watchful eye of Tom Olbricht, our beloved campaign daddy. And, Wayne [Mathis], we were definitely impressed and encouraged at your interest in the campaign. To see you travel that far for the Lord’s work was a good lesson number one for all of us.

And, to top it all off, how about that good home cookin’? Thank you Juanita Curtis, Anita Denman, Linda Phillips, Ruby Lee Spiegel. Nothing like a mother’s touch!

Well, all good things come to an end and so did the week and, after an enjoyable weekend in Arlington, we were on the road again. Good News: Northeast is set to begin.

Look out Altoona, here we come! It should have been, "Look out campaigners, here we are!" What a welcome! What enthusiasm! There they all were, standing out in front. The Yon family, the Demis, Derry & Dee, Don & Dee, Betty Dare and company, the Bolmans, the McCloskeys, the Cristofics, Pattie, the McKinneys, John Banks, John & BB, and Joel. Wasn’t it fun running around and forgetting everyone’s names?

And, by the way, what’s a YOU’UN?

You know, when you don’t have any elders or preachers, you don’t have to impress anybody with elaborate services. Altoona was cool. Two songs and a prayer and it’s off to the fellowship hall for a meal. And what’s for dinner?… YOU GUESSED IT! HOT DOGS!! Can’t beat those hot dogs, eh Wayne? And could you believe little Billy Bolman? He remembered everyone’s name by 8:30. What appreciation! Remember Ronnie coming up to you and saying, "I WUV YOU"?

We had plenty of things to be thankful for in Altoona. Besides the hospitality, we were blessed with beautiful weather. Then there was peach ice cream, compliments of John Banks. 90 cent milkshakes – thank you Jim Tucker. Chained up dogs and the hills, to prepare us for Monadnock.

We can thank God for sparing Joey Bolman from that dangerous fall. We can praise God for the friends we made over at the projects. For Donna Brombaugh and Carol Smith and Alice Smith and Jan [Parks].

Getting our feet wet at door-knocking was a little scary. KNOCK, KNOCK. Who’s there? Christians wanting to know who you are. Not interested. May I ask you, WHY?’

‘CAUSE IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, THAT’S WHY! Thanks, Wayne.

Altoona sure had hustle, didn’t they? Remember the big events. Remember when the kids put on a play for us about Jesus. "Forgive us, Lord, we didn’t know who you were". That was great. And thank you Landon for setting us straight. For convicting us of our lowly place before the Lord.

And the retreat was definitely nice. Nice and crammed. Sleep? Who needs it? Groups? Everybody needs groups. And the theme song for the weekend had to have been "HOT DOGS, HOT DOGS, hot dogs in the morning…"

All in all, the intra-group relationships during this period were confusing. The lack of solidarity at the local church level put more pressure on us to fulfill more roles. Which meant less time for dating. Being busy sure keeps your mind off the girls.

But then, some of us weren’t so busy. And those eyes that Landon spoke of were shifting frantically. And the boys met the girls. Ralphael met Pam. John met Ella. Martha met Brian and later Jeff. Bryan Minor wasn’t really sure but he knew he had a preference for strawberry-blondes. (It seems to be a contagious disease.) Jim’s organic peanut-butter factory was pumping out bumper stickers with the slogan, "The couple that prays together should stay together". Mark Hicks wasn’t trusting anyone but Rover at that time. Ken had the hots for Jeanette and Bill Porter was trying to figure out what a woman was.

Well, final days came and we were expected later that night in Chelmsford, MA, so that dismal rainy Monday, we packed up and left.

Nice day for traveling. If Gloria could get her top tied down. And if Mike Merritt wouldn’t always try to play Daniel Boone at gasoline stops and get lost in the woods. And if everybody would quit causing Bill to get an ulcer and just cooperate!

Chelmsford was great, wasn’t it? It was good to see Wayne and Doris [Mathis] and Jo and Steve rejoin us. Welcome back. We had barely been there a day when the local prophet, Jerry Lee, said that we all looked ragged out and we oughta take a rest. We should have listened to him. By the end of the week, it was necessary to take a day of prayer and fasting for our nasty infirmities. Good suggestion, Gloria. You remember the physical and spiritual revival which followed. Praise the Lord and thank you, Jerry.

The retreat was good. Never mind the rain. At least we didn’t have to eat hot dogs! Thank you Islibs, Petersons, Cains and Lees. The lessons were good. Christ’s attitude is our example, we learned from Philippians 2. The retreat plodded on though as Ken Danley excused Ken Smith’s erroneous interpretation of verse 6 and as Bill Porter’s watch stopped right in the middle of his talk. Amazing! He didn’t realize it for 45 minutes. The classes were good too, I heard. Jo did an excellent job with the girl talk while Bill listened in.

Back in Chelmsford, the doors kept being knocked. Response was not the greatest but many firm contacts were left with the church there. Kim Hannifan, Dee Loiselle, David Tubner, Pam Leeman, George Scarmius, Marcy, Linda, Debby and Sue. Landon did another wonderful job in Chelmsford both at Parker Jr High and in his days with us at the building. Wasn’t it great to see New England Christians coming together for the great feast at Parker? It was also there that we met Debby and Sue from Lowell, who had come in response to the newspaper advertisement.

Chelmsford also was our closest point to the No Name Restaurant. Thank you for the suggestion, Tom. By the way, what was that talk about that Wednesday night at Minter Lane when you happened to mention the No Name Restaurant? Anyway, it turned out to be every bit as good as we had heard with some song and dance, Mediterranean style, thrown in for free.

Chelmsford, or should I say "Chinsford", also became the part of our summer where many other interesting things took place. It was here that we learned "Guten Appetite, if you don’t work, neither shall you eat". The girls learned how to quilt here and Jo, Pam, Mike and Jim caught up on their swimming. We learned about commons and Jim learned about dogs. Gotcha! Beth and Kathy had fun at the McBrides as they tied doorknobs of two opposite bedroom doors so that neither would open but a crack. Poor Margie and Rhonda, trapped in their room.

Meanwhile… at other places, Roger had a vision about a girl at the end of his bed. Wayne waited for Ken. Suzy and Martha kept Gloria up all night. Ken and Jeanette had separate beds. Rhonda had a heart. Jim Tucker had a crush and Bill kept having his eternal cow.

Overheard was Tim Stockman saying, "Ellen I have forever but Martha will only be here for three weeks".

Overheard was Wayne saying, "G-R-R-R-R".

Meanwhile, Beth had paired every member of the campaign up with someone else. Thank you, Matchmaker. (And thank you, Rhonda.)

And, while we went to Ganderbrook, John was busy taking Ella to a movie. Nobody seems to remember what the movie was though…

Strawberry blondes were still popular. So were packrats. And Rover had to start sharing his closest friend. The full Moon was out and that meant "Watch out, Ladies".

Well, it’s good-bye again. Good-bye Holmans, Pouliots, Fryers, McBrides, Petersons, Islibs, Cains, Lees and Stockmans. Good-bye Chelmsford. See you guys in three weeks.

After an enjoyable trip from Chelmsford to Liverpool (never mind the flat tire, the 20 times Bill the exits and almost got us killed, the sky-high prices at Howard Johnson’s and the never-ending tolls), we had a good night’s rest and a chance to come in late the next morning. Thanks, Bill!

Where Chelmsford had the TLC group, Liverpool had the bus ministry. Our attitudes became PIT. Liverpool was not Chelmsford and we decided to tell each other this fact "in case they had not heard".

Well, all I can say is thank you, Lord, for Gloria’s suggestion of prayer and fasting and for Allen and Nicki Fuqua and for Greg Ross and for Landon, for the way you put it to us through these people and those events. When we saw that the problem was us, we were humbled and penitent before the Lord. And the Lord used our realizations and renewed commitments. Liverpool turned out to be our most receptive area to date. And why else did we go if it wasn’t for the Sam and Patty Newperts, the Frank Benwares, the Paul Stevens, the Jim Bialibreskys, the Linda Yagers, the Donnas and the Eileens?

Liverpool turned out to be an interesting three weeks. It was here that we learned what a real roller skating rink was like. We learned how nice a "run-down" trailer park could be. We learned about dogs and dogs and more dogs at the trailer park. We learned about security apartments. We learned about Loren and Public Relations and pamphlets and flyers and 50,000 houses a week.

It was here that 4 campaign members, all sleeping in the same house, managed to sleep through 4 separate alarm clocks. Good job, you guys. And, down the road, Wayne kept complaining about the way Mark Hicks would put his hairy legs all over him while he was sleeping.

A few days later, Glenda Cunningham awoke an oversleeping Jim Tucker at 6:30. Now Jim, why did you go and embarrass her? You should have put your pants on before you jumped out of bed. A few nights later, Jim heard a scream during a thunderstorm. He quickly bounded upstairs only to find himself in the presence of a not so fully dressed female. Jim had all kinds of problems at the Cunninghams. So did Glenda!

Speaking of embarrassing. It was here that Bryan Minor had to strip before a lady nurse at the hospital. Bryan was quoted as saying, "Gee, this is the first time this has happened since Motherdom." We all lose it sooner or later, Bryan.

It was here that Mark Hicks met a lady at the door who responded to him saying, "Church? No." To which Mark later replied, "Hell?" Yes." He even got a streak of creativity as he later quipped "TURN OR BURN" and "USE IT OR LOSE IT".

Meanwhile, Suzy told Rhonda she had Mono and Rhonda told Suzy that, if she did, she was going to sit on her. To which Suzy replied, "Oh no, Squashed Mono!"… Suzy, Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.

Martha nearly got engaged to Eric. And as Mark seethed, Debra and Rhonda were nearby to comfort but did Bill like all this attention going in the wrong direction? And what did Margie think? Ken Smith, Jim, and Roger were saying, "What about me?" Were Beth’s predictions coming true? What about those for herself? What about the All American boy from Schertz? Who is he going to nail? Steve Harty liked everybody. Mike Merritt liked those who were more his age. Mike Scruggs and Kathy were getting to know the mailman real well. John and Ella were still trying to figure each other out. Jo was looking forward to Mass. (and I don’t think she fancies the Boston Red Sox). Gloria was too big for all this foolishness. Ken and Jeanette were too. And Ralphael and Pam weren’t even going to get involved in this whole mess. You see, they just went to sleep while we were awake and vice versa!

Well, good-bye Liverpool. Good-bye Perkins and Bastins. We’re praying for you, Darlene. You too, Bryan. Thank you Don and Jean Neill. God bless you Mays, Hubbards, Cunninghams, Scorzellis, Williams, Churchills, Bryants, Martellaros, McWains, and Kemps. We love you.

Well, next it was Gardner, MA. Chair City, USA. What a welcome! Hugs and smiles as if they were coming from old friends. And, you know, there was something nice and familiar about that first evening and meal. The HOT DOGS! What a beautiful group of the Lord’s people. The Shays and the Carters. The Hesses and the Kellys. The Mathises and the Draleaus. The Balsingers and the Charests.

By the time we hit Gardner, we could tell that experience was a blessing. What can you say to a close-minded Catholic? Well, by this time, we knew what to say. The same thing you say to an open-minded one. God loves you.

Thank you, Mark Hilbert, for the fantastic job in preparing the soil through mail-outs and radio and for you and Wayne preparing the church for our coming. For reaching and teaching and motivating this super group of kids.

Praise the Lord for the friends we’ve made so far. For Mary Grenier, Scott Davidson & Elizabeth Comier, for Dennis & Kay Richards and for Shelly and Fran and Darlene. And for all the rest yet to be harvested.

We won’t forget Gardner anytime soon. Gardner, we’ll remember you for big families and small churches. For hospitality unmatched. For multi-family dwellings and for many receptive hearts. It was here that we got a chance to go back to Chelmsford. It was here that Roger Moon thought about giving up singing for the harmonica. Fat chance! We climbed Monadnock and enjoyed a beautiful devotional at the top. Wayne wants to marry someone with a plastic ice-cream freezer, but Beth doesn’t have one, and Mark Hilbert sure isn’t going to send one as a gift.

By this time, Bill Porter has figured out what a woman is. He even directed a forum on the subject. Also, when discussing the awards for tonight, Bill suggested that there be a Perfect Woman category. So why did he suggest Debra Watson?

Steve Harty, while kissing Deb Draleau goodnight, accidentally sliced her with a loose brace. Ralphael spent $16 on Pam at the Old Mill. Mark Hilbert only spent $6 on Beth at a greasy spoon here in Gardner. And someone else spent the whole night crying.

Here in Gardner, the men don’t know it but, guys, we’re crushing hearts all over the place. Seriously, this is the finest group of dedicated Christian women that I’ve ever seen. Hard-working, loyal, loving and thoughtful. Guys, you’re great too.

It’s been a good summer. In the next few days we will go our separate ways but we will always, always be together in the Lord.

Remember – the Southwest Corner.