Straight From The Hart

  How many of you remember the Gold Fire military exercises which took place in Lebanon and surrounding counties in the fall of 1964?  Sometimes vague memories like this just kind of creep out of the mists of my memory from time to time.  I don’t know what triggered it this time, but I was curious enough to follow through with some research. I went to the Facebook group page which houses a lot of school and area memories because it is written by Lebanon school alumni who are close to my age.  I brought up the subject there, and thought I would share some of their memories with you in this column.   Milan and I lived in a little house on North Adams and occasionally would see one of the soldiers running through the yard but apparently they were much more visible out in the county. Gold Fire was a simulated battle exercise between the Ozark and Sioux forces during U.S. Strike Command’s Joint Exercise held in Southern Missouri in November 1964.  It appears from the comments I have receive

Sunday  Morning Musings Of A Meandering Mind. Mornings are my thinking time. Once my daily routines begin, I don’t have time to think. And mental exhaustion sets in close to midnight and I’m too tired to think. So this morning I was thinking about the beginnings of my ministry. Seems so long ago. I was ordained in 1986 while I was working for New York Life and thought I could do both. Wrong!!!! Both are very intensive mentally and time consuming in process. So I eventually resigned from New York Life and took my first full-time pastorate at the First Church of God in Farmington, but I had already become acquainted with the duties which were necessary in addition to teaching and speaking which were my first love. I remember my first wedding. Some insurance clients wanted me to marry them down at their property on the Niangua River. I told them I would have my pastor do it, but when I asked him he reminded me I could do it. I was scared to death, afraid it wouldn’t “take”. A

  SNAPSHOTS IN THE MIND Memory is such a funny thing Those snapshots in the mind Of smells and sounds of childhood scenes Those days long left behind. The dusty walk down the long, long lane The flowers along the way Where daisies and weeds intertwine in the ditch And grasshoppers love to play. The country school where I learned to read And crayons were a good source of art The spelling match, and arithmetic, And poems we learned by heart. Yes, the camera of the mind is a funny thing Those snapshots of the past Captured one day and locked away Where our memory holds them fast. Written by Joan Rowden Hart, 12.17.01 Copyright Joan Hart 2002