While still just a little feller, though transitioning to young manhood, I was what we referred to in those days as a, “Blazer.” That is to say, an eleven year old boy who would soon see the end of his time as a part of the Primary. The Primary being the Sunday School program for children age two to eleven at church.
I was a serious lad, thoughtful, and one who never enjoyed Primary. To say I was eager to move on is an understatement. I wasn’t, “too cool for school” like some eleven year old boys and girls can be. Rather, I never liked Primary, not ever. Oh, my individual classes were sometimes good. For example, I loved Sister South’s Primary class. That sweet woman loved us kids and it showed.
I also loved Sister Juanita’s class. She was delightfully funny and a good friend to my mother. Sister Juanita was the wife of the Branch President who baptized me. She knew all the best and most interesting gossip and was glad to share it with you if you showed the least interest and sometimes, even if you didn’t!
Our little church house, The Beautiful, East Texas Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a tiny building. Even for our extremely small congregation, it was just too small. When we bought the chapel from The Church of Christ after they’d outgrown it, the men and older boys worked hard to remodel it to make it as useful as possible.
The chapel was made smaller than it originally was in order to wall off space for a Branch President’s office, a Priesthood room, and a Relief Society room. There were to unfinished rooms behind the stage and adjacent to the bathrooms. These were used by the Young Men on one side and the Young Women on the other. This arrangement left no dedicated space for the Primary or Nursery to meet. We all found a corner or space along a wall to try to have our classes. There was nothing like calm, quiet, or any ability to have a lesson that was free from interruption, nevertheless, that is how we did it.
Well, that is except for Sister Juanita. She was having none of that. When we were blessed to have Sister Juanita for our teacher, and it really was a blessing, we loaded up in her Cadillac after our Sunday Service, drove to her nearby home, and there had our Primary lesson. Oh, you could never do it today but that was a freer time, a better time, a time when we were both able and continued to be permitted to govern ourselves.
Frankly, I miss the days before everything was centrally controlled as it is today.
In Masonry, for example, we continue with the worthwhile tradition of individual free will and thought as beautifully evidenced in the often used statement, “Take due notice thereof and govern yourselves accordingly.” I regret that there are few, if any, other settings in the world wherein the average individual is taught best principles and then actually trusted to govern him or herself.
When we met at Sister Juanita’s home, our lesson was had in splendid comfort. The treats were memorable for being a cut above the usual. And the Spirit could be easily felt, heard, and appreciated for want of noisy distraction. Sister Juanita was the coolest Blazer teacher ever.
Did I mention that she was my Blazer teacher? She was my second Blazer teacher. She took over after Brother Overstreet was um… well, after Brother Overstreet moved on to other things…
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Much Love,HankYou’ve Been Hanked!
