Sunday we found ourselves at the awesome First Baptist Church of Columbia, South Carolina. This isn’t a big deal, of course, as I’ve attended FBC since I was at USC and we’ve been members for years now. For the first time, however, we took all three girls to “Big Church” as my granddaddy and grandmother were recognized for celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary, and my granddaddy turning 92 years young.
Here’s how it went. We were “early” enough for church to look for the family before the worship service began. The congregation is so big, however, that we didn’t have time to sit with the Jones clan. Thank goodness! The girls made it through the music segment just fine, but after about five minutes of Estep preaching I had enough of the bustling around the pew. If you know me I’m easily embarrassed and can’t stand to be a distraction to others. That said, I walked out with two girls and headed straight to the church “parlor.” About five minutes later Jennifer followed suit with Nora and we all sat alone together until Estep finished his sermon.
In all it was a great day. We finished granddaddy’s party at my dads house with all of his kids and most of his grandchildren/great-grandchildren in attendance. It was fun for everyone to get to know each other a little better and for my kids to better understand their lineage in the world.
Thinking I was eating healthy at the birthday party, I chowed down on some broccoli salad. Wondering why a broccoli salad was so addictive I asked the folks at the table where I was sitting, “What is going on with this stuff? Does this have sugar in it or something?” My wife and my uncle Mike Jones answered, “Yeah, dumbass. About a cup.” Feeling like and idiot, I did a fork flip and sat back in my seat as I immediately knew I wouldn’t be worth a crap for the rest of the afternoon. Sure enough, that sugar put me down hard from about 5 to 6:30. Who knew, of all things, that the broccoli would be laced in sugar? More accurately… soaked in sugar. I supposed I should have known better but I’m typing this at 4:14AM Monday morning, so that sugar nap certainly has me out of whack.
A good time was had by the entire family. Congratulations to my granddaddy and grandmother, Leon and Sylvene Jones, on their marital bliss and longevity. It’s impressive and admirable and a model to the rest of us looking up.
Franklin
The pic above is from a few weeks ago… 🙂
Love this lady! Was just thinking of she and Mr. Leon only to find they are together again. Shall never forget my time with them on Warriors Walk. Will always love them. E.Allen.