Before Yoc-Town There Was West-Sac (Part X of X)

Okay, now it’s time for a few church memories to end this thing.

Memory #1- Maggie Smith. When I was little I don’t think I actually knew her name, because my four/five year-old friends and I always just referred to her as “the gum lady”. Every Sunday she would bring gum for us. She would usually bring our favorite, the fruity kind; the days when she only had Trident were disappointing, and the days when she had no gum at all were depressing. I remember spending a good deal of time running through the halls during or after church in search of her. Sometimes she was hard to find; after all, she was much bigger than Waldo, but she wasn’t inclined to remain stationary. But just as success has a way of finding the diligent, so Eric had a way of finding Maggie Smith.

Memory #2- Candy With Bishop Goddard. After church, Bishop Goddard would go to his office. He had a jar of candy, and all the primary kids would go stand in a line outside his office to claim the candy that he was willing to give away. The only catch was that you had to say one of the articles of faith in order reap your reward. I think the point was to encourage the primary kids to memorize all the articles of faith, but I found that if I just repeated the first one week after week I could get candy just the same. So that’s what I did. My friend Bryan once suggested I memorize the second, but my theory was ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’

So that rounds out my childhood. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.