Old Guy's Memories

 We traveled to the 1953 Convention via auto, an old 1939 Packard that got us there and back, but died the day we returned home. We stayed in the "Tent City" for two days. One of the sisters who traveled with us had an allergic reaction to the farm environment. (Several others did too. One young girl and her brothers crawled into a forested area on the fringe of the trailer park and  discovered she had crawled through a mass of poison ivy. To her embarrassment, her mother treated her with calamine and some medication in a rather public place.)

We let an unprepared family use our tent, finding a hotel room through the rooming department. We stayed one night. During that night a sister was raped in a hallway. Other badness happened too. So off to rooming again. A new hotel, rather old but clean and well kept. The owner was very welcoming, and I placed booklets with him, leaving enough for all the hotel's staff. The only problem was an adventure in the elevator. Understand that this was not driven by buttons, but required an elevator operator. He pushed the control level forward but the elevator went down. Eventually, he forced the door open and a chair was lowered into the car so we could climb out. This adventure was caused by a loose connection.

The program was recorded on tape; still worth listening to. I won't elaborate, but you can find youtube videos from that convention. We met several of the Bethel brothers: Knorr, Franz, Covington, Macmillan, and some of the new missionaries whose names escape me now.

Below is a newspaper cutting showing the Trailer City. This is courtesy of Tom S.