Version 12/12/03 6:11 PM
Celebration November 07, 2003
Unofficial Program
Unofficial Program
And
Lord’s Prayer Merwin
Foard
Of Ministers
and Other Guests;
Announcements
Harriette Thompson and
the Ownbey Singers
A)
Don starts
o
Time to eat, could we have your attention please.
o
We begin serving after the Blessing by our Ownbey Class
president for next year, Rev Bill Pearce, Prayer:
o
And then we pause as the first MUSIC Director for the
Ownbey Class, Merwin Foard, shares the Lord’s Prayer with
us.
o
Serving Stations are on each side of the stage.
o
After you finish, bus your dishes to help the kitchen
staff leave early, not come in Saturday, and cut overtime. Bill :
¨
Almighty
and ever-loving God, 50 years ago you brought into being a class destined to
seek you through fellowship with Jesus Christ, to learn your way and will
through study of the Word, to grow in friendship and fellowship with one
another in sharing life's joys and sorrows, and to serve others in need and to
praise you. In this evening of remembering and celebration, help each of us
find nourishment both for the body and the spirit. We offer our thanks for the
food that nourishes our bodies. Now let us find nourishment for our spirits in
the prayer Jesus shared with his first disciples, that we may be strengthened
for our continuing journeys of faith.
B)
We Eat (TED – Run Picture continuously)
C)
(TED – Stop
Pictures, run “Titles”) Good evening. I am Don Redding. Thanks
for helping celebrate 50 years of Christian fellowship in the Ownbey Sunday
School Class.
D)
Please continue eating as we make some announcements.
o
My
part is to welcome you, ask you to clean your tables after introduction of our guests, and encourage you to gather round the piano for pictures and singing at the end of the
program.
E)
Introductions
1)
Let us introduce our minister guests.
¨ Bishop Tom Stockton and Jean join us from their home in High Point
¨ After introducing the Stocktons
¨ Barbara Barden – is an inspiration to our Sunday school
classes. The Ownbey class appreciates the support you give us, Barbara, including help in
planning our next year curriculum until
9 or 10pm last night on a day off , and on a day when her son had top go
to the hospital. I hope he is ok. Barbara
please stand.
¨ Erman and Jan Bradley make our church their home where he served 1965 -1975 . He
served other churches and came back after retirement in 1999. We enjoy her
Ceramics and his Sunday school and Wonderful Wednesday classes. Erman and Jan
Bradley, please stand
¨ Melvin and Anita McIntosh. Served here 16 years and retired
but as active as ever. I trust our ministers with my spiritual life, but have
trusted the McIntosh’s with my physical life as we enjoyed some exciting twilight
airplane flights across NC – “don’t
worry about that landing gear light” - They are very dear friends.
And Melvin, the reason I have not invited you to UNC football game this year is
that I am just too embarrassed with a 1 and 8 record. Melvin
McIntosh and Anita McIntosh, please stand. Stand. Please.
¨ Bill and Marie Pearce – Bill is a retired minister with
children in Charlotte
2)
Other Guests - we
have over a dozen - please stand until all are mentioned and then we will give
a proper welcome.
¨ Mary Cathey – class member in the 1950’s and
60’s and now a Presbyterian. Heard about our party and wanted to come.
¨ Chip Billings
¨ Merwin and Jan Foard – he was our original Music Director
for the class and heard about our celebration and offered his services. We
thank you for doing the Lord’s Prayer. He is and has been for years the
Choir Director at XXXX_____ Baptist Church in Charlotte
¨ Camille Johnston – a friend of our class for
years. She has a special attachment for Dr
Ownbey as he baptized her and her three children.
¨ Albert and Pat Munn, [(Omit) TV film for various network
news CNN etc.], Church
Member. Class member in the 1960’s
¨ Jane Mealy guest tonight of Betty Campbell
¨ Betty and Ted McLaughlin, church member and class member in
the 70’s.
¨ Edward and Margaret Sale members years ago and come to visit
us from Marietta Ga.
¨ Danny and Julius Walthall, former members, have Charlotte
¨
Yvonne
Widmen – previous
church member moving back to Charlotte
¨
Did
I miss anyone?
¨
Let
us give them a big welcome.
3)
We
want to note the first
president of the
Ownbey Sunday School and current class member, Frank
Gossett and wife Joyce. Please Stand.
4)
And
of course, one other minister to mention is Dr. Richard L. Ownbey, who served here from 1933 through
1941. The Ownbey Class is named after this beloved man. More later on him.
F)
Next.
1)
Skip
Heintzelman has our Project Committee, Ownbey Helping Hands, off to a roaring
start and he has a special
announcement. Skip.
¨
SKIP
Ţ When I heard the dress was going to
be Eclectic, it scared the devil out of me.
Electric I understood .Eclectic, I just could not handle that. But I wanted to
be dressed appropriately for this occasion so I went to the Morris Costume Shop
and the salesperson came up and I explained that I needed an Eclectic outfit
for the 1950’s. The salesperson stood back and looked me over from top to
bottom and I figured he was trying to figure out what size I would wear. Then he said, “Do you usually dress
this way?” and I said yes, I do and he said, “Well I tell you what,
Wear what you have on now and you will be eclectic as they come. Some here I
am. All right, Helping Hands, it is our caring, our sharing, our serving, and
our giving activities of the Ownbey class. Our focus is on the needs of the
local church and the Charlotte
¨
Don
Ţ
I am just so excited about that. I need to share
with you, it is not even in my script, but the excitement that I feel for what
happened there. For a person to come through and offer a Challenge that way in
addition to what that person gives any way and so you know that there is some
money involved. At the first of the year, we had we had an anonymous donor who
came and said, “Don, I wan t to give to the Sunday School Class $1,500 to
start a project fund. And I shared that with the class at our Christmas
Breakfast at the Thompson’s last December, and got us off dead center as
Skip said, because until then we did
things individually in that class so we said maybe we need to look at it
a little bit differently since we have this money and make sure we spend it the
correct way, so what we did was we looked at it . I was thinki9ng in terms that
when Skip agreed to be Chairman of it that he would come back and tell us how
we could spend the money. Well you know what he came back and said. He said here is the way you can spend the
money, but here is the way you can go out and do something yourself. What a
great idea, that of course is the basis of Christianity, o part of that came
back that was service as well as spending money and as a result of that we have
helped with a number of things. We have helped the youth, Habitat, with Wheel
Chairs so our focus to be on spending and service. I am really proud of that. I
had some other things I wanted to say but that covers it because I am so
appreciative for what the class has done that way. We really tried to help the
church and it is just exciting to me and I am also so thankful for the person
for the family for the couple that gave us the $1,500 at the beginning of the year because that
really got us started. I guess that covers all I wanted to say except we did
hear from the Business Manager and I
will read it to be faster …..
Ţ
(Script as follows, not followed) Around the first
of the year, an anonymous member gave the class $1,500 as seed money, no
strings attached, to get a Project Committee started. At first we thought in
terms of only money, but Skip’s Committee
was formed and came up with the idea to seek also
ways to provide service. We have already seen results in both
areas. Through this committee our class has
helped, not only with the Challenge Skip talked about, but the youth in a
repair project at South Tryon Church
Ţ
You have heard Skip’s Report. Listen to a
message we have from the Business Office o the church. “I know your
class has its special celebration coming on Friday night. Please be sure and thank them immensely on
behalf of the congregation and staff for their leadership in this area. This has been a gracious and generous effort
by the entire class.”
Ţ
To that note we also add thanks to the anonymous
donor at the first of the year.
G) You will
see and hear our Music Committee, Harold Clark and Harriette Thompson, in a
moment. Harold was one of the people to
begin organizing the class. Harriett is a relative newcomer having not been a
member at that time.
1) After Our
Keynoter, we will move around the piano – to sing and take pictures. If
you just want to be entertained, find a chair and listen but it is designed to
let good and bad singers blend into a nice sound.
If you have cameras, we will be glad to snap some group shots for you.
2) We want
to
sing well – and loud – as Ted Bryan is
recording this best seller on audio and for the grand price of $2 you can get a
tape of the evening.
3) That
reminds me, I want to thank Ted Bryan for all the time and patience
he has shown helping us get ready for the night. Also thanks to Ann
Buker and her helpers for the table decorations and flowers. Thanks to our teachers and we would like for them to stand (applause) we do appreciate the job that you
do. More later.
H)
Time to turn
this night over to our Social Chairs - Jim and Nancy Hatfield have done a bang up
job this year with several parties and this celebration, and they plan to end
the year the same way with a Christmas Party at their home and – heck
– I am going to say, you are all
invited., huh Jim and Nancy? Date is 12/05. Any one have any thing else to say.
Jim has said it is ok during his act to take the dishes back.
o
Now for the remainder of the evening, Heeeeeeer’s
Jimmie ….TED
– Run pictures during singing)
I) Jim does his act
o Thank you, Thank you. Thank you Don, I just got in from Check Point Chicky so I am little bit sweaty right now. I would like to recognize Don Redding, before he leaves here. Our President this year, has raised the bar for the office and rally done a lot to help put this thing together and I would like to personally thank him for him for all his time and effort. Thank you very much, Don.
o
I think the food was great, good enough to make
a hound dog hug a rabbit. Did you ever hear that before? My grandfather used to
tell me that. He used to like my grandmothers cooking so much. If it was really
good, he would say it is good enough to make a hound dog hug a rabbit. And then
sometimes with the biscuit and gravy it was larruping good. Did you ever hear
that? Hold up hand if you have ever heard that. A couple of people. When I gets
amongst learned folk like I am here tonight, I like to check on my grandfather
because he used to tell me he was the quintessential SOUNTHERN Gentlemen but
everyone else I knew said that he was just weird so when he would tell me these
things that were truisms, there was no way for me to check it cause I was a
little kid and he was my idol. But I grew up in very small town. I know you
think I grew up in Mayberry, well I din not. I grew up in a small town, a
really small town. (How small?) Thank you very much. Our town was so small that
the zip code was a fraction; it was so small we did not have a phone book,
actually a pamphlet and only had one yellow page. It was really small.
o
The Welcome to our
o I want to tell you something about the 50’s, particularly 1953. I looked this stuff up so; I got of internet so you know it is true. I have some factoids I am going to give you and I want you to listen up because after I am done …. I looked these up, these are 1953 factoids, and Movie from ’53 included the Quite Man, Come Back Little Sheba, Viva Zapata, and From Here to Eternity, Stalag 17, and Greatest Show on Earth.
o 50% of the homes in ’53 had televisions. How many today? 98/99%. TV Guide was first published in ’53. Here are some of the popular TV Shows of that era: Howdy Doody, Jackie Gleeson, Beat the Clock, Your Show of Shows, Your Hit Parade (I think Elvis put them out of business later), What’s My Line, Mr. Peepers, Paul Wintchell, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Gene Autry, I Love Lucy, Burns and Allen, (These are good shows, aren’t they), Hopalong Cassidy (one of my favorites), Ozzie and Harriette, You Bet your Life, Stu Ervin, I Remember Mama, Life of Riley,
o Some of the songs: Unforgettable, Singing in the Rain, We …., How High the Moon,
o
Some Sports events from ’53: first live
baseball game telecast,
o
Here are some costs from ’53. Chevy
introduced the Corvette for $3,498 for a Corvette and sold 300 that year.
Average car costs $1,850, the average house $17,500, loaf of bread 16 cents,
milk $.94, NY Stock Exchange (DJ average)was at 281. Postage stamp was $ .03,
and a pack of cigarettes was $ .12 and the Ownbey Class was formed at the
o Ok, I gave you a taste of ’53, now if my lovely assistant, Vanna, and her lovely assistant Bob, will help me out. What I want you to do is raise your hand if you know the answer. We have whetted your’53 trivia appetite. Start off easy so expect lots of hands raised. Who was inaugurated President? In Jan ’53, Eisenhower. Sydnor knew that we spared no expense on the gifts as everyone laughs at the funny lips or whatever). Secretary of State? Nobody, John Foster Dulles. Secretary of UN? Dag Hammer..., you got it. (A kazoo given out for incentive). Rat pack leader? , etc John Rasberry got that one. Who were in Sammy Davis and Sinatra and Lewis? Peter Lawford. Joey Bishop. Who starred in Stalag 17? Bill Holden, Reatha got it. (ants lips or Kazoo)
o First 3D movie released in’53, what was that? House of Wax. Very good, excellent. (I want some artificial lips) Who starred in that? Vincent Price. What film won Oscar for the best movie of ’53 – Greatest Show on Earth, How could it have not won if greatest show…? Mr. Television premiered in’53. Joe E brown. No one gets lips for that, everyone knows that. Who played Mr. Peepers? Wally Cox. Everyone knew that, no award. Long Rangers Horse was Silver, Tonto’s Horse was? Scout (Willard’s table got that). Clayton Moore played Lone Ranger but do you remember the Lone Rangers name? Before became L R when he was just a Ranger? They were chasing the Cavendish gang in the first episode, come on folks – John Reed.
o Now we have amateur shows like American Idol... Where Ben S gives every one stars we had two talent shows in ’53? Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts and, no, no, Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour, Reatha gets that, Reatha knows some stuff. Life of Reilly, remember William Bendix (out of prizes) Real address, famous, what, 11313 Mockingbird Lane , Rocky Marciano became Heavyweight champ in ’53, who did he beat? O told you they get tougher Jersey Joe Walcott, very good Chick. Who scored 116 in a college basketball game, Wilt, no it was Bevo Francis. Remember that, oh you don’t.
o
J Fred Mugs, who was that a chimpanzee, good. In
40’s Chuck Yeager broke sound barrier. In ’53 someone went over
Mach 2, twice the speed of sound, who did that? Chuck Yeager! Ob\encore. Ernest
Hemingway won Pulitzer Prize for? Old Man and the Sea, very good. In ’53
there was a show called “where’s Raymond?” and nor Ray M...
Who starred (john’s playing with his yo yo that’s great) Ray
Bolger. Ok this is an easy one seen on the Highways and Byways of America in
the ‘50’s (
Living History of the Ownbey Sunday School Class
o
Now I will introduce SYDNOR. This guy is
amazing. I knew he was amazing but I did not know he was this amazing. Getting
serious now. Was Valedictorian of his High School Class, E C Glass High School
in
K) The Honorable Sydnor Thompson:
o Well, why am I up here? Maybe because I am the oldest one in the class. Certainly because you have great confidence in my having a long term memory. Some of us have short term memory losses and my long memory is a lot better than my short term. And that is what we are going to do tonight – we are going to test my long term memory starting about 1950 because that is where I want to begin tonight with the history of the Ownbey Class.
o I do not know what they had in mind when they said I was going to make a keynote speech. At first I thought it was to be political but then I remembered there are a lot more Republicans in the class than Democrats and they would not have picked me to give a keynote speech. So whatever this is it is not a keynote speech. Let us call it “Reminiscences,” and I am going to begin in a very personal way. I think that is my privilege because that is how I came to know this church and this class and wouldn’t you be interested in knowing how I happened to be making this talk tonight. That is because I came to know this church and this class. Is that all right Lou? (OK!). Ok I am going to tell you.
o
Harriette and I had moved here from
One day she came home and said
“Sydnor, I think I found our church.”
“How is that?”
“Well I went to this church called Myers Park Methodist and they have a preacher named Ches Herbert and he is wonderful.”
“Wonderful?”
“Well his sermons were wonderful and then I talked to him afterwards.”
Well I said “I am not sure I want you to see that fellow again” (no I did not say that). But anyhow I said I will go and I heard Ches Herbert and I met him and I was impressed too, so I said “ok honey, if that is the church we are going to that is where we will go.”
And then I begin to think it had been some years since I had been a member of a church. What it is? At 12 years old at Fort Hill they had me come in the church. Well there had been a lot of water over the dam since I was 12 years old and I begin to think what is it I have to do if I go to that church and what do I have to believe if I go to that church.
Harriette said, “I don’t know, but why don’t you go to talk to Ches Herbert about it.”
Well I said “all right” and I went up to his office and I said, “Dr. Herbert, I have not been going to church regularly for some time. And when I was in college I used to go see the dean at the Chapel and every time I went it looked like I lost more of my religion as far as he was concerned. My father thought I was going to be a communist – now you Republicans forget that – and I said I just do not know if I can believe all the things I have to believe to be a member of the church.”
Ches said “do not worry, I have it right here. You need to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour,” “well I think I can do that.” And he said “you need to come to the church and give it your service and your time and your money.” And I said “I guess I can do that to some extent.” I said, “Is that all?” and he said, “Yes, you are in.”
So I came up here and joined the church and became a member and I will tell you in a minute something that happened that day.
But I also heard about this brand new Sunday School Class
– it had been only organized for a couple of years – there is a
little ambiguity about that we can get into in a minute. This was 1955 so you
can see the ambiguity. So we went to the Sunday School Class and there was a
couple named Carl and Cathy Hubbard. Anyone remember Carl and Cathy? They came
to see us over on
Incidentally, let me say the fact that Ches Herbert set that bar so low for me to get in this church is something that I count as a blessing of my life. Just think if I had been unable to come here to this church. It has been the greatest blessing of my life virtually. I meant to give Ches credit for that.
o
All right let us get to the question of who are
the charter members of the class. Now some of them are present. Is Harold (
Joyce said they got married in April of ’51 and I knew then I was making some headway because it had to be after April of ’51 and then Harold said that he left town in ’52 and he had already been to the Sunday School Class so it had to start between April of ’51, and what month did you leave town Harold? “September.” So we identified that it is between April of ’51 and September of ’52. That is about as close as we can come because they all insist they went to a class in Brown Chisholm’s office. Anyone remember Brown Chism? Dear Brown Chism, God bless her.
So that was the first Ownbey Class that
anybody attended and Harriette and I of course were up in
o And now I am going to tell you another personal aspect of this. This for me is the opportunity of a lifetime to talk about Dr. Ownbey. I told you some parts of this were going to be personal. Well this is a personal part. Dr Ownbey had his portrait painted. It was arranged by the then President of the class, Frank Gossett. I have seen a picture, maybe you have seen it, of Frank standing next to Dr. Ownbey’s picture in 1953.
I do not know who it was who first suggested Dr. Ownbey’s name for our class, but I do know that Elizabeth Jarrett was the Education Director and it was Joyce who told me that they all got together at a dinner at a table at the church with Elizabeth Jarrett and she organized the class, right Joyce? Elizabeth Jarrett, incidentally, was a wonderful person and a strong individual. Anyone here remember Elizabeth Jarrett?
Elizabeth Jarrett had a rule that nobody
could bring any children to this church until they were two years old. Well I
had a baby at home that was one year old and Harriette was expecting another in
a few months so at an Education Commission about 1957 or so, I said, “if
I get a doctor to certify that it is all right to bring a baby that is one year old to church is that all
right?” And Elizabeth Jarrett said she’d rather not. I think the
Education Commission overrode her decision by majority vote and I brought
Sydnor the next week. We had a doctor, named Bob.
But about Dr. Ownbey. You preachers think
you are going to be immortal. Do not ask me how I know. But I have met a lot of
you. I called up the church where Dr. Ownbey first served in 1904 . I found out
where he had served. I will tell you later how I found out. But I called up the
church in Wilkesboro and I asked the secretary that answered the phone,
“Could you tell me when Dr. Ownbey was the pastor at
When I was being admitted to the church I had to come down front and I as I was standing there in front of the bar, we call it the bar at the law, what do you call it Tom? The altar, and a little lady came up to me and she said “did they say your name was Sydnor, well I am a Sydnor.”
“Oh are you?” “ Yes, I am
Mrs. Richard Ownbey and I was born in
One thing I want to tell you that you preachers will especially enjoy. One day he was in a real good mood. He was a gentleman from beginning to end and was a loving, compassionate good person and I am sure he would turn over in his grave if he knew I was going to tell this on him. It is so good and it might prevent some body here from making a mistake.
I said, “what were some of the problems you had when you were here in the Depression from ’33 to ’41.” He said, “ Well we did not have any real problems. I will tell you we had a Sunday School Class that wanted to have the teachers’ lessons published. The Sunday School wanted the Church to have the teachers lessons published. It was very difficult for me not to try to do it. (Chuckles). I will not tell you anymore than that. He was so sweet that he did not tell me any name, any proper name or anything of that kind or any Sunday School Class name. But if anyone teaching this class is thinking about asking the church to publish your Sunday school lessons, you better have second thoughts about it, right James?
o
Mrs. Ownbey met Dr. Ownbey in
o
By the way, her first cousins’ father was
a Confederate soldier named
o Who were the teachers that the class developed over a period of years? Harry Jones was our first teacher. He was Director of the local Council on Human Relations. The Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in his yard one night after we joined the class. After Harry, we had four regular teachers who taught one Sunday a month for twenty five years.
o One of them is not here. Where is Ace Walker? Ace is not here. (comment from audience) That is right, that is it, he did not have to teach, boy am I going to pull that on him, and I will tell him I did not say it. Ace has a reputation for coming only when he is teaching, but thank goodness he comes then. Bill Webb was one of our regular teachers for 25 years, Lou Bledsoe was one of our regular teachers, I was one of our regular teachers, and Paul Guthery taught the fifth Sunday in the month. We called ourselves the “Pharisees” and we probably deserved that name. We had begun to have a high enough opinion of ourselves. Then almost 20 years ago we began passing that assignment around because we realized we had many more potential teachers in the class. Now we have about a dozen who take turns. They are selected by the Curriculum Committee. (Interruption from the STAGE!)
J)
K)
Sing a Long
L)
BENEDICTION:
Genesis 31:49 – And Mizpah; for he said, The
Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from the other.
M)
SOMETIME (Might
scratch as worry about smudges) we
would like to get you to sign our 50th Celebration banner if you are
a guest. We want all to sign but we will get the members to sign later on a
Sunday if there is a crowd.