By January 1943 Dad had changed jobs from managing Mays Dry Goods Store in Warren to manager of the bigger West Brothers Clothing Store in Camden, Arkansas.
It was here that Mom enrolled me in Cradle Roll at age 2 in First Baptist Church of Camden and here that Mom switched from the Presbyterian Church to Baptist, requiring her to be baptized again by immersion. It was the earliest church that I remember including later being ceremoniously given a Bible at some turning point like age 5 or 6 maybe?
In June that year, just before I turned 3, Uncle Glenn Railsback (Mom’s maternal uncle & my grand uncle) gave Mom this well-illustrated and recently published new Bible Story Book put together by Charles Dickens for his children. It was his special, gentle story of Jesus that Dickens wrote for his own children and required that it not be published until after the death of all of his children, so they would be protected from theological critics. It was my first book of Bible Stories and very special to me. Sunday school stories also have a special place in my memory because of a few particularly good story tellers.
Isn’t it interesting that most of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus are in the form of stories?
All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. ~Matthew 13:34