Click to see a slide show of the time capsule opening
Sylvia Guerra did a great job making a video recording of our speakers at the grand opening of the Harlandale Presbyterian Time Capsule. Thank you, Sylvia!
Another HPC wedding photo. My father, Lloyd McGall, died in 1968. The church got busy with the cupid project that brought Sally and Harley together in 1971. They were sponsors for the HPC Senior High Fellowship - who planned the whole wedding- music, flowers, banner and multiple groomsmen. I recognize Dwayne Salman and Bobby Gurley in the photo. J. Kelly Neal and Dick Poteet served as wedding ministers.
Stories from the Nov. 4, 2023 Opening of the Harlandale Presbyterian Church Time Capsule
Beverly Benick Ewald started us off on memories of HPC by recalling the summer Vacation Bible School. Every summer we made a map of the Holy Land in the large sandpile that was just outside the back door to Fellowship Hall. Herman laid out the countries that bordered the Jordan River, and the kids in the classroom made pipe cleaner shepherds, camels, donkeys, and palm trees. Herman would place all the characters in their place in our sand map and then send me back to the classroom where I would shout, "Herman needs 4 more donkeys and 2 more camels. Herman says make more palm trees."
On the last night of VBS the parents came to see our 2 weeks of work at VBS and then there was a worship service in the sanctuary. The last thing was when everybody came to fellowship hall for punch and cookies and to see the map of the Holy Land in the sandpile out the back door. When the worship service was over, Herman had a bucket of water ready and I would run ahead of the crowd coming from the sanctuary to signal Herman that it was time to pour the water into the trench he had made to form the Jordan River. Everybody was thrilled to see our map of the Holy Land with real water in the Jordan River. I think we knew more about the geography of the Holy Land than we did about a map of Texas. I don't know Herman's last name. Herman just showed up every summer for Vacation Bible School so he could make the Holy Land map.
Clifford Johnson told about helping out at his family’s Red & White Grocery Store at the corner of South Cross and Pleasanton Rd., just down the street from the church. Clifford’s hard work, while standing on a box so he could reach the shelves, was rewarded with a quarter from his dad. Clifford took off for the Harlandale picture show with a carefully planned budget to get the most out of his quarter - a ticket to the movie + candy, drink, popcorn and gum. Patsye Medford Johnson grew up on Hart Ave. and attended the Four Square Gospel Church. And that’s how Patsye met Clifford, so many years ago. Patsye and Clifford have been married well over 60 yrs.
Dianne Benick Landrum remembered the Saturdays when her family walked from their house on Burcham to the Johnson’s Red & White store to get the week’s supply of groceries, Clifford’s dad would find an employee, the kid who had a drivers license, to drive the Benick clan back home and unload the groceries for them. Mr. Johnson knew the Benicks loved to have liver for supper, so he put a pound of liver in the grocery sack - gratis.
Dianne recalled the Fall Roundup when we had a comic talent show, with Jackie Peters and her peanut butter skit and the 3 deacons with their singing bellies.
Lots of memories of the Christmas pageant. The Benick kids, Beverly, Clyde, and Dianne wore satin pajamas made by their grandmother for the pageant. Those 3 kids loved sleeping in satin pajamas, long after Christmas was over.
Corlie Smith Handley remembered how impressed she was when that handsome oldest Handley Boy Russell, we called him Butch, drove himself to Sunday school and Senior High Fellowship. Russell invited Corlie and her girlfriends to play miniature golf after they graciously attended his HHS graduation.
Betty Tate Tuten told the reason her husband Tuttie gave Pastor Wilkinson when our preacher asked Tuttie why he wanted to join Harlandale Presbyterian Church. Tuttie wanted to be a member because we had the best baseball team. When Tuttie finished his time with the Marine Corps he decided it was time for him and Betty to get married, after being apart for two years. They talked with our pastor, Mr. Wilkinson, and learned that Norann Meliff and Don Marshall were scheduled to be married at HPC in May, 1960. Corlie (Faye) Smith and Russell Handley were set for July, and Beverly Wilkinson and Jack Freeman set their date for August. Tuttie was convinced that Betty always had wanted to be a June bride, so he said to sign them up for June. Four weddings in four months!
Lucie Holder Overfelt recalled sitting in church with her four chaperones - the Gragg Brothers - Jess, Perry, Bobby, and Richard. When Lucie’s mom, Dixie, had to work she knew she could trust the Gragg Boys to look after Lucie, so that she never had to sit alone in church. Lucie was all decked out in her Sunday dress and Mary Jane patent leather sippers, which stuck out from the pew since she was such a wee lassie. Remember when the seminary students from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary would visit our church for Sunday services, and then sometimes even preach? Lucy’s mom Dixie invited a seminary student to Sunday dinner after church. Years later Lucie wound up volunteering with that same seminary student at John Knox Camp, they married and had a son. Lucie attended the church when it was located on Hart Ave., down the street from her grandmother’s house. Lucie remembered cautiously walking past the neighborhood “mean boys” to finally feel safe and welcome at the church.
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Joanne Jordon Rigdon recalled the time she was serving in the US Army in the Desert Storm War in Iraq. Joanne was wounded in her shoulder and found herself in a huge hospital, where she didn’t know a soul and was scared to death. A handsome Marine came running toward her calling her name. That Marine was Jay Brewer, star HPC baseball player. Joanne asked how in the world Jay recognized her, in the middle of a war in Iraq. Jay replied, “I thought that might be you, because you are wearing a Mo- Ranch t-shirt.
Speaking of Mo-Ranch - Jay Brewer told the story of the time he was at Mo, trying to impress a girl by bravely sliding into the Guadalupe River on the Mo slide, skipping across the water and end with a big dramatic splash that would impress anyone. Jay went hurling down the slide and suddenly realized he had put the sled on the tracks backwards. So the slide dumped Jay off the end of the rail, no splash, just sinking deeper and deeper into the Guadalupe. Jay thought he was going to drown and he hoped he would drown, so that he would not have to face the girl he was trying so hard to impress.
Bunny and Terry Williams and Lucie Holder
