In Philadelphia RH one time I was assigned to wander the distribution center with our son Jim and his buddy Mark, both young teens. It happened to be a Fast Day for the House, so of course when we were given all sorts of fabulous goodies from the generous folk at the Center ( Sexton Foods being only one of them), we arrived home with food on the laps of the boys including frozen shrimp, gooey cakes, lots of rolls etc and Linda Alton declared a GIANT FEAST that night at midnight! How we all loved her for that. Ah, the stories we have tucked in our hearts! Ellen On Aug 26, 2013, at 9:22 AM, Judy Lindblad wrote:
Dear Lynda,
What a great and well told story!
As you have noted "Guardians" had a chance to get in on the "fun" produced by missional thriftiness. I remember many in-kind excursions to local businesses in Schenectady and Cincinnati as I was assigned to help provide for food and even construction needs. I can still remember Marian Karpoff's term for some vegetables and fruit we received...."Just this side of rotten".
Being thrifty and stretching our sense of still useable items was a gift we have received from the Order.
Thanks, Judy and Norm Lindblad
On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 5:07 PM, Lynda Cock <llc860@triad.rr.com> wrote:
Subject: Story of Denver Religious House
We learned to live simply in Religious Houses. We needed people out on the road recruiting courses, raising money, setting up programs, and working with communities, so as few people as possible were assigned to get real jobs to pay the bills. Sometimes that meant that our food budget provided only rather basic foods. We worked hard, but there was also a dynamic of celebration that seemed to magically appear from time to time.
Dear Guardian Lee Sugg was helping watch over us when he won a $1000 grocery buying spree in a local store contest and presented it to the Denver House. Some of us old skinflints thought of a whole year's worth of oatmeal or grits, but our always-hungry-youth saw this as a special gift that should be honored by also getting special treats. With a little help, they cased the grocery store to find out some key luxury items that would add a little zip to the daily fare. Special requests were for good cuts of meat and seafood that we could freeze.
I can't recall the exact details, but I think we could have four persons with a cart or carts going in different directions in a maybe 20 minute time span. Whatever we could get in those carts up to $1000 was our take-home prize. I recall that it was after the store had closed so the aisles were all ours to race in without interference. Our fastest runners (Larry Hamje was one) were the designated shoppers with the rest of us cheering from the sidelines and pointing the way to things we thought should be in the carts. The store manager was the announcer over the speaker system giving us the On Your Mark, Get Set, and GO signals, as well as calling out the remaining time. I don't recall how we came out money wise, but I recall it was close and we were breathing deeply as the cash register rang up sub-totals. What a grand time we had loading up Lee's pick-up and heading back to the house to sort through those bags and bags of groceries. What a great party we had with some of the special cheeses and meats and fruits that we picked up. I think Martha Lee Sugg also bought some good wine soda to go with our goodies. What wonderful food we enjoyed from the pantry and freezer for many months.
Thank you to all the magicians in our corporate lives who knew the needed dynamics of a winning team.
This memory was sparked by finding a photo of Lee Sugg being presented the winning ticket for the shopping spree which I am passing on to Martha Lee. Someone probably has a photo of the truck load of groceries and may have corrections or additions to this story.
Lynda Cock
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