|
Jan Jordan Zehr
Saturdays, 1955-1959
Saturday was the day I looked
forward to the most and the day I miss the most when I think of
growing up at Koinonia.
Saturday was community day. It started with a community
breakfast and work meeting. We kids had various chores assigned.
Some of us baby-sat, some worked in the kitchen, and some in the
fields. One job we all did was to walk across the yard in a line
and pick up trash. We complained, but on Saturday morning we worked
with the adults in community work assignments.
On Saturday, work was usually done by noon or
early afternoon. Lunch was all together in the dining room. After
lunch, there was often an outing planned for the kids and/or adults.
Sometimes we'd gather up all the bikes and ride to John Wall's
Mill Pond. There we'd swim, slide down the slime of the dam walls,
and spend an hour figuring out what was the best candy deal in
the mill store for the nickel we'd been given. Sometimes we'd
pile onto the back of the stake truck and ride over to Lumpkin,
to spend the day hiking in the Little Grand Canyon. John Eustice
would help us with our Indian projects. Lee Perry showed us how
to wire a lamp. His wife, Ann, sponsored a plate of fudge for
the kid who could bring in the most tomato worms (organic gardening
at its best). If nothing was planned, we might spend the day playing
pirates on ships drawn in the sand of the driveway. We worked
on our "blunderbuses" (soapbox cars) then dragged them
out to Fescue Hill to ride down the rutted lane to the bottom.
We hiked through the swamp along cow paths. We pulled our toy
cars and trucks behind us on safari across the fields and woods,
making up the story as we walked along.
Saturday evening brought the community all back
together again for a picnic on Picnic Hill. We rode out on the
wagon, everyone sitting on the outside with legs dangling off
while the food rode in the middle of the wagon. Sometimes we'd
play softball in the hilltop field before or after supper. Supper
was served buffet style from the edge of the wagon and we sat
on the ground under the pines, no benches or tables. After supper,
there would be a worship service. By that time the sun was starting
to set. We'd load the wagon back up and head home singing "Day
is dying in the west; Heaven is touching earth with rest: Wait
and worship while the night Sets her evening lamps alight Through
all the sky." Life just doesn't get any better than that.
In the winter, picnics were replaced with Florence's
pizza. Actually, it was terrible pizza by Shakey's standards.
It wasn't much more than a little tomato sauce and hamburger baked
on homemade crust. It was very dry eating but hey, what did we
know? After supper, sometimes there would be community sings,
an evening of skits, or square dancing. Anyone who had heard Koinonia
sing and dance knows that collectively we were about as bad as
you can get but we did it with gusto to make up for lack of talent.
Saturday was the essence of community life --a
large group of diverse people living as one family, sharing in
the work and the play.
(Jan grew up at Koinonia from 1946-1966)
NEXT CHAPTER >>
|
