Page 26 - MLD Book

worshipping that skimmer, waiting often in vain for it to go down. We often would go off to Europe in early summer, and you could almost always predict that the pool would be an unhealthy green when we returned, despite loving care by our various dog sitters. In many instances of desperation, we would have to resort to calling EDDIE the pool man, an extremely illiterate man whose skin had literally been fried by too much exposure to the sun. One day he arrived (always at his own time frame) and announced That skimmer ain’t got no SUCK! Earth to Eddie – why do you think we called you? In subsequent years shortly before the Bach Haus was built and after the girls had left, Melvin and I looked at each other out by the skimmer and voiced the same idea almost in unison: Would you care if we filled the pool with dirt? And so we did! It had served its purpose and became a garden. That didn’t happen until 2000, however.
A recurring drumbeat throughout 1988 within Calvary was the constant battle of Broadhead versus Bruce. The Broadhead kids were totally undisciplined and since Big David catered the ECW dinners, and Barbara Bruce was treasurer (I think) of ECW, the monthly meetings were very contentious. To complicate matters, Barbara had previously cooked the ECW dinners, and she was not pleased when the Broadheads took that over. They got paid. Besides, Little David was in her scout troop and also an acolyte under her direction, and she couldn’t make him cooperate in those venues either. A three-page letter underlining the pettiness of the whole rivalry exists in my 1988 archives, how ridiculous. But also typical of how small things become large problems when the people involved blow up the proportions.
1989
1989 saw the rejuvination of the Calvary Christmas Pageant and the celebration of 25 years at Calvary for me. Harvey, Dean and Linda French joined the choir, after Harvey’s final fling at cruise ship music making, and Dean and Linda returned from the Middle East. The choir and orchestra did Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Cantata 1, on Christmas Eve to a packed congregation. We went all out on the recreation of historical services, and that was both fun and educational for us all. Weddings continued at a rather steady rate, and the most memorable was the one with 9 bridesmaids and a dog as ring bearer. I was elected during this time period to tape all churchly events, and something went wrong with this bridal tape, something that off and on happened until we finally got a new system: LRS bled through the tape. Playing it would make for good Halloween entertainment, because intermingled into the service were two very intelligible vocal renditions: I’ll do anything to
please you, woman (during the vows) and If you itch, then scratch it! (during the prayers).
1990
Our wonderful, kind, gentle, generous Edgar Allen, who was in charge of Churchill Downs publicity for the years he and Ruth were at Calvary, was Senior Warden in 1990. As his contribution to the summaries that 15 Senior Wardens wrote commemorating 15 years of Ben’s ministry, Edgar wrote I guess the only crisis of the EA regime was the ridiculous amount of time spent trying to get one particular person
straightened out and keep the church standing.
This particular person was Burrel Farnsley, so here come some unbelievable stories about Mayor Charles Farnsley’s brilliant, mentally challenged son: We already heard about his