February 25, 1945 (Sunday)
- Jill Johnson Tewsley
- Feb 25, 2024
- 2 min read
WARD BOULARD GIVES THE SERMON. HANK GOES FLYING.
Cold snappy wind.
I went to church.
This was layman's day
and Warren Bergy had
charge of service.
Ward Boulard gave the
talk, very good.
Minister + wife were
absent.
Jack, Lucille + Mary
here this evening.
Hank went to Air Port.
Did some flying.
Today, Laity Sunday (Laymen's Day) is celebrated the third Sunday in October. According to a United Methodist Church website umcdiscipleship.org the "first recorded observance of "Laymen's Day" was in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1929." But it wasn't an officially designated day across the entire United Methodist Church until 1941.
When Ward Boulard and Warren Bergy led the service at the Methodist Church in Bowne Center in 1945, Laymen's Day was still a fairly new tradition. A brief note in the February 22, 1945 edition of the Lowell Ledger made mention of Laymen's Day with Warren Bergy presiding.
Edna makes note in journal on this day that Jack (Edna's son-in-law), Lucille (Edna's daughter) and Mary (Jack and Lucille's daughter) pay a visit. Seeing names of all of the frequently mentioned names in Edna's journal makes me realize that I should create a "Character Key" or something of the like to make it easier for people reading along to know who people are and how they fit in. Stay tuned. That is coming soon.
This is the first time I have seen Edna reference Hank's flying. Perhaps she mentions it in earlier journals but I have skipped over a couple of years. The last journal I worked on of hers was from 1941.
Hank was just learning to fly in 1945 but it wasn't a passing fancy. He would continue to fly for decades after that. And, at least two of his children, Steve and David would also learn to fly.
One of the things I remember most about the farm from when I was a kid in the 1970s were airplanes. Well, airplanes and cows.
The house where my father grew up and where my grandfather still resided at the time was adjacent to the farm where Edna and Henry lived and raised their family. One of the fields extended from Johnson homestead to the west, running behind my grandpa's house. When I was kid, a portion of that field contained a runway and landing strip. There was an out building / hangar that housed, as I recall, one (possibly two) red and white airplanes. I am not sure if they were existing farm buildings that were converted to house the planes or if they were built purposely for the planes. I am sure one of my cousins (Hank's kids) might be able to say for sure.
Sometime in the early 1970s, my cousin Steve (Hank's oldest son) took my brother and I, along with my parents, for our first plane ride. In my memory, my grandpa was along for the ride as well. I was probably only 5 or so at the time. It is an experience that, over 50 years later, remains one of my earliest childhood memories.
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