(This article is a Catch Up. It was originally scheduled to post shortly after Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022, but I didn't get it done in time.Then I had gastric surgery April 28th. All went well but I was worn out and struggled getting around for a couple of weeks. Today I am nearly recovered and trying to draw and write -- again.)
Was it spring or was it summer of 1966?
I can't recall. But I have a brief, vivid memory of standing in the living room of our family’s trailer home in St. Clairsville, Ohio. My grandfather and his wife had come to visit. Grandpa and Marie (as we called them) were always fun and full of laughter and I loved it when they dropped in.
Grandpa and Marie lived in Akron, Ohio. That’s a pretty good distance from St. C. and there’s no direct highway between the two places. Taking the long, winding drive through coal country was a car-sick “over the river and through the woods” experience. Consequently, neither they nor us made it very often.
Still, they had come, and in this particular memory Mom and Grandpa and Marie are engaged in earnest conversation about my sister and me. I distinctly recall walking in from my bedroom just in time to hear Grandpa ask, “Do they have a Bible?”
The thoughtful look on Grandpa’s face caught my attention and I stopped to listen to the grown-ups. At that time in my life I really didn't know what a Bible was or anything about it. I was curious and I started to open my mouth. But before I could ask I was kindly shooed outside to play.
Fast forward several months. That fall our family moved north and west to a new home in Canton, Ohio. The former working farm house sat just thirty feet back from State Route 30 (the old Lincoln Highway) on the busy eastern edge of Canton Township. It had been a very cold, snowy December. In the opening of presents that year, either on Christmas Day or in the first few days after (again, I can’t exactly recall), my sister and I received an unusual but very special gift: The Children’s Bible (Golden Press 1965). The dedication on the flyleaf read:
Beautifully illustrated, this story-form version of the Old and New Testament was something new to us. We were totally unfamiliar with the Bible. This book became a foundation for two of my lifelong interests. First, it was the beginning of my earliest Biblical learning. Second, it fostered my interest in religious art.
I still have that Bible. I’d hoped to include here a photo from The Resurrection of Jesus chapter. However, the 1965 Golden Press Children’s Bible did not include an illustration of the empty tomb. Instead, I have attached a sketch of my own from what I believe is the most important event in history:
(NOTE: The photo above is a bit wispy and grainy. My wife normally does the photo work when I post images. But she is changing camera processes and so I took this shot. Wrong distance, wrong lighting, and maybe the wrong lens! Ugh. Lots to learn.)
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