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Friday, July 13, 2012

REUNION TOUR - STAGE THREE - part three - DORCHESTER & LONDON

Breakfast on Monday with Neale and Kathy and Amy and Christopher was at Cora’s Restaurant in London. I have never seen a menu with as many selections of fruit filled dishes together with crepes and meats. Delicious and enjoyable.  From there we toured Neale’s and Kathy’s Cross Stitch store called Thread & Eye which they have operated for twelve years.  As we proceeded to Amy & Chris’ home we noticed I had a front passenger side tire issue in the rental vehicle – a nail causing a slow air leak.  Finding an Avis outlet we learned that the company would give us a car exchange and we would be charged for the tire repair or even a new tire which might range from $45-$250 depending on how it was reported. We decided instead to take it to a local repair shop and they did the fix in 5 minutes for $15.

Christine and I were pleased to drive along Queens Ave to see the building that once was the main facility of the Bible College in which we were enrolled in undergraduate years.  The Ladies dorm and the Men’s’ dorm were on adjacent corners. It was quite nostalgic. This was where I met Christine when we were in our early twenties and I loved her almost from first sight. We would become engaged and married before she graduated and I graduated.  

On Monday afternoon we drove to Kathy’s family farm, the Smale farm where her brother Bob works. There Christine and I were introduced to the values and potential of a plantation of a tree specie which could become a cash crop in a relatively short time. The tree is called Royal Empress.

LCBM now named Queen's Village is a Seniors Retirement home now
After another good night’s rest, on Tuesday morning we drove into London to visit with Dave and Sharon Gast, college students with us fifty years ago. Our school was known as London College of Bible and Missions. We cannot fathom the passage of time. Since this was a Bible College, singing was a significant ingredient of social and worship life. The four of us sang in a mixed quartet and did so long after graduation. When I was pastoring a church and Dave was directing music in another church we occasionally provided nightly music concert s at summer Conferences. After a lovely news catchup visit with them, they led us to a restaurant where several other good friends from college days were present. What a joyous and revelatory experience to meet people whose names have not changed but whose faces and stature have. Each time I experience a reunion of this nature, I am reminded that regardless of my youthful state of mind, my physical appearance to others is a bit of a shock, and that is life as it happens to us all.  On this occasion, Christine and I were thrilled to enjoy the company of Eleanor (Ellie) and George McCullough, Dave and Sharon Gast, Barry and Helen Buder, Tempe and Mary Jean Templehoff (visiting from South Africa), Ralph and Jan Thornton. 

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