My First Memory of Jenny

So I was just thinking about this day 27 years ago and I thought I would share...  Because it just made me laugh...

It was a Sunday morning.  I was 5.  Susan and I were bunched up on the very back pew of Westwood Baptist Church's sanctuary.  Susan was squirming around in Mamaw's lap and I was fighting my almost-two-year-old sister for a place in the lap as well.  There was no one else in the pew but the three of us, but we were sitting as close to the end of the pew as possible so that Mamaw could make the quickest get-away when the time came for the big "announcement."  Papaw was still sitting in his regular spot...right in the front of the church.  Even the big announcement couldn't pry him away from his seat.  ha.  (No offense, Jen!)

(****I must insert a note to my readers who aren't familiar with the church I grew up in at home...  it was TINY and there were probably all of 20-30 people in attendance on a given Sunday morning!)

Okay, back to the story...

On most regular Sunday mornings, I was doing my "usual" in the pew...playing with paperdolls, going through Mamaw's sack of a purse, "writing" on steno pads with Mamaw's pens,...anything but listening of course!

But THIS was not a regular Sunday morning.  It was a big day!  I was not allowed to have paper dolls out.  The purse was off limits.  No pens.  Susan and I were both very squirmy. 

The preacher was in the middle of his sermon when he was interrupted by the loud ringing of a telephone.

(***Another note to the readers who need extra details...  Westwood's church "office" was right behind the pew we were sitting on.  It housed the only telephone in the building.)

What followed the loud ringing (I am MOST certain) was far worse of a commotion than the actual ringing of the phone...  I can just hear Mamaw's voice, "Come ON, girls!!!!!" as we scrambled out of our seats noisily and made haste for the office and the ringing of the loud telephone, slamming the office door shut behind us.

Now of course I wasn't there to see what actually happened during all of this commotion as I was jerked out of the sanctuary by my extremely-exicted grandmother, but my guess is that Papaw kept on looking straight ahead at the preacher, never moving a muscle, and the majority of the rest of the congregation turned to face the door to the church office as they listened intently to hear Mamaw's conversation with my dad on the telephone.

While my grandmother oohed and aahed (loudly, of course) on the phone to my dad, Susan and I jumped up and down, squealing with delight to find out the big news that we now were the proud big sisters of a new baby girl! (Well, I take that back...I jumped up and down with delight over the news, and Susan just jumped up and down because I was doing the same...  she really had no clue what she was excited about.  ha!)

After hanging up the phone, Mamaw made no qualms about it,..she just BURST back through the doors to the sanctuary, loudly announcing to the congregation who was all silent and staring at HER and not the preacher, that Jerry and Delores had welcomed their THIRD little girl into the world!

I do not remember much of anything else about church that day.  That poor preacher!  But this is my very first memory of Jenny!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEN!
I love you!

~Jules