New Hope Baptist Church (Oral History)

New Hope Baptist Church

Greater Danbury Intercultural Association

60 minute cassette, recording time: 11 mins side A, 31 mins side B

Discussion of the beginnings of the New Hope Baptist Church in Danbury, CT. with Mildred Jackson: organist; Forista Bowman: soloist. William Cruse, pastor of New Hope is discussed.

1990s

Cruse, William

ms064_01_19

Side A:
Speaker 1 00;00;00;19 00;00;15;12 Anywhere. They ask me, in fact, as opposed to I am working with the Women's Christian ??, you know. You know, ??? She's the president of of the Danbury Chapter.

Speaker 1 00;00;16;12 00;00;25;09 And it's right next Tuesday that we'll have a picnic at her Cousin's house. on Abbot Avenue. And we go to the.

Speaker 1 00;00;25;09 00;00;32;04 Conventions and see things like that. We have workshops and so forth and so on. So I am there ???

Speaker 1 00;00;32;04 00;00;37;01 ??? at their convention that are.

Speaker 1 00;00;38;04 00;00;46;18 I figured that I owe that to it. Janet Darling.

Speaker 1 00;00;46;23 00;00;54;03 You know her. She was president for the years, and then she says.

Speaker 1 00;00;54;20 00;01;09;03 It was it Griffin She just won't give it up. And we have quite difficult time, Cookie, you know, getting members but anywhere at any time.

Speaker 2 00;01;09;03 00;01;13;28 That I'm asked to sing, I do sing. And in fact, when I was.

Speaker 1 00;01;14;06 00;01;29;17 In WestConn, that's what I went there for because I wanted that background. I had no intention of giving up my music. But I thought if I could get the background there at WestConn, that it would help me a lot and so Mr. Craig was.

Speaker 1 00;01;30;00 00;01;40;03 At the head of the music department. There. So I was connected with the with the with the WestConn course. And so.

Speaker 1 00;01;41;20 00;01;49;20 Mr. Craig, he said, you know, Mrs. Bowman is the pleasure working with you. He said. How did you preserve your voice the way you have? And I said, Well, you know, when God.

Speaker 1 00;01;49;20 00;01;56;03 Gives you something, he gave it to you for keeps, and he could never get you.

Speaker 1 00;01;56;15 00;02;12;04 And I sang for Mr. Bill Clinton not long ago, not over a month ago. And I did the Lord's Prayer for their civilization. I don't know. I mean, so I really think my voice is better now than than when I first started, because I know.

Speaker 2 00;02;12;04 00;02;24;25 More about music. I know more about how to handle things. And I've done several kind of shake up sporadically in this country for a long time. Yeah, he was my company. Oh.

Speaker 1 00;02;25;08 00;02;30;15 And he's played several times for me. And like, he went to New Jersey where.

Speaker 2 00;02;30;15 00;02;43;29 He could learn to sing. I mean, to play there I had an appointment naming him the same I communicated. Oh, why would you like that?

Speaker 1 00;02;44;11 00;02;46;23 And I do enjoy doing.

Speaker 2 00;02;47;00 00;02;59;05 And after serving this year, I performed back the church choirs were going to church. To church.

Speaker 1 00;02;59;08 00;03;10;04 I guess you know, sharing and worldwide. And he had a last word on, right? Yes. Do you ever go on on any of those? Yes, we did.

Speaker 2 00;03;10;28 00;03;12;05 If you.

Speaker 2 00;03;15;04 00;03;16;17 I think that's a wonderful.

Speaker 1 00;03;16;22 00;03;29;09 It's just too bad that they split it the way they did. Now, each church does his own copy. It was so much more play here in all of the church in uniting. And I feel like that. Yes.

Speaker 2 00;03;31;04 00;03;35;24 I think the last year we went through the church foundation.

Speaker 1 00;03;37;14 00;03;37;24 Yes.

Speaker 2 00;03;38;15 00;03;45;05 And because I was staying at the I guess it's a.

Speaker 1 00;03;45;05 00;03;46;06 Methodist church, you.

Speaker 2 00;03;46;06 00;03;49;06 Kind of correct it reach that, you know.

Speaker 1 00;03;49;17 00;04;05;28 Now My first debut, in fact, my debut as a prima donna when you called, it was at First Church of Christ when it was kind of interesting, you know, it got burned down. Oh, and a great group.

Speaker 2 00;04;05;28 00;04;24;20 Of my my teachers in so many.

Speaker 1 00;04;25;22 00;04;26;14 Memories.

Speaker 2 00;04;26;28 00;04;31;09 For. And, you know, I was born in Florida.

Speaker 1 00;04;33;04 00;04;47;10 And whenever I go there, the city fathers and they all ladies there, they knew my mother get together, sponsor the programs at the hotel tourism club.

Speaker 2 00;04;53;13 00;04;54;09 Make your mark.

Speaker 1 00;04;54;22 00;05;04;18 And I mean, I try to keep humble in doing all of this because I think is it true.

Speaker 2 00;05;05;11 00;05;13;03 There's so much to be handed out, so much love and.

Speaker 1 00;05;13;11 00;05;14;24 Beauty to be given out?

Speaker 2 00;05;14;29 00;05;21;12 You know what I mean? To the people that fly everywhere during dream to.

Speaker 1 00;05;21;13 00;05;28;16 Share your gifts. And Jackson here and I, we have we have really been places together.

Speaker 2 00;05;28;16 00;05;39;16 And I would.

Speaker 1 00;05;39;16 00;05;46;11 Like to think so. But the point that I get and a nervous.

Speaker 2 00;05;47;26 00;05;58;28 About it is real breaking me and I ahead.

Speaker 1 00;05;59;13 00;06;05;28 Were you hopeful of getting a degree in music? I guess I didn't like that's why.

Speaker 2 00;06;05;28 00;06;06;24 I went there.

Speaker 2 00;06;09;06 00;06;13;09 I think it's just that background of guilty is whatever I would to do.

Speaker 1 00;06;13;09 00;06;14;19 So I entered there and.

Speaker 2 00;06;14;19 00;06;25;19 The music made you accept and put in that for say that have to be the best I have to do. And you.

Speaker 1 00;06;25;19 00;06;26;11 See, we had been.

Speaker 2 00;06;26;11 00;06;37;06 In this house 52 years and after made so much in it in the meantime at the same time my husband had a stroke and he's now in a wheelchair. So I had to do.

Speaker 1 00;06;37;06 00;06;38;09 All of that myself.

Speaker 2 00;06;38;20 00;06;43;05 Was not able to get back to work and I had uh I.

Speaker 1 00;06;43;05 00;06;52;00 Want to have one more thing to describe how are you? But I haven't, I really, I really cannot. I haven't even wanted to go back.

Speaker 2 00;06;52;07 00;07;12;06 And it took so much out of the merger that I'm going to very it and it really was rewarding the things that I got from being from Wisconsin. I still have stickers on my little shit work.

Speaker 1 00;07;12;08 00;07;14;06 And stuff with right.

Speaker 2 00;07;14;25 00;07;27;11 Now. I'm calling them like they're my friends. Tell me, go on back and finish oh, sure.

Speaker 1 00;07;27;11 00;07;47;26 When you're back, I don't know what I do with, oh, I didn't do anything else. Yeah, but they do. They ain't misbehavin that way in New York. That must be home as I am on my own. And now it's come up last year and you'll be like Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00;07;48;04 00;07;55;05 And he had a meeting, but he he and.

Speaker 1 00;07;55;08 00;08;14;05 I shook his hands and it. Did you feel like a young and you used to making this precious little thing, but I had no official word. He he looked pretty good yeah.

Speaker 2 00;08;17;06 00;08;37;02 Oh, he's still living. Oh, it's 90 years old, it's dark and I feel I can now have a love of his album. Why don't write the.

Speaker 1 00;08;37;02 00;08;40;08 Most favorite spirituals.

Speaker 2 00;08;40;09 00;08;57;21 And things like that that I sing be well, I hope we're giving you some inspiration.

Speaker 1 00;08;58;08 00;08;58;26 Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 00;08;58;26 00;09;15;11 I saw have weird where I only thought about where I started to do things that I've done. But she has some more. She's gone. You know how I started out so humble.

Speaker 1 00;09;17;23 00;09;24;20 And scared and scared. And you start that even before Isaiah.

Speaker 2 00;09;25;27 00;09;30;29 Why do you say scared? And I don't know. You know.

Speaker 1 00;09;30;29 00;09;34;02 When you take a lesson and there's nobody with you and.

Speaker 2 00;09;34;02 00;09;48;10 The teacher in the room, you know, and you seem to get it better, but when it comes to enforce it, I must I mean, I shouldn't say scared because I know the afternoon that I was told.

Speaker 1 00;09;48;23 00;09;49;19 The day I was told.

Speaker 2 00;09;49;26 00;09;57;00 I was better than the afternoon of the others, and I didn't know.

Speaker 1 00;09;57;18 00;10;27;18 Need to be you know, I don't they say that, you know, that this does all helps your performance, that every good performer has butterflies in your stomach before they. Yeah, well, I know whenever I'm going to sing, I never try to sing something that if there's a part in that song that I'm not so sure of because I'm thinking about that time, I did.

Speaker 1 00;10;27;18 00;10;28;14 I'm skeptical of.

Speaker 2 00;10;28;14 00;10;34;15 That. So I never tried to sing anything that that I'm really not familiar.

Speaker 1 00;10;34;15 00;11;01;23 With through and through. And in that way, it eliminates a lot of it, that nervousness. Yeah. And I guess that feeling degraded. You just get out. There's no point in doing that. I'm going to do it. And I always try to always say, if you make a mistake, you keep on playing that. You do take a good person to know that you've made a mistake.

Speaker 1 00;11;02;03 00;11;07;23 Exactly. You probably are the only one in the whole place that realizes that.

Speaker 2 00;11;08;17 00;11;09;29 And I have.

Side B:
00;00;00;19 00;00;47;26 I hope Baptist Church Well, just backtrack a minute now. You said that you you miss Jackson. You remember. And then the church on Liberty Street. I don't remember, but I do remember my father telling me that night and day we're going to ask you where to build their ministry and find a group over there. I think it was that place was falling all over in there.

00;00;47;26 00;00;56;21 And have this space at two 64 Main Street at the top of that site.

00;01;00;10 00;01;39;08 And he stayed there and I guess more people began to join in that was sacred to Armory was now down and down on Main Street, you know, where we're living, where it was right across the park. And the next day, just the next here. Okay. And they decided that they didn't like it. I guess the only thing that they were able to get this place in between the ages and that's a steep hill.

00;01;39;09 00;02;16;21 You know who I remember was speaking to me growing up? And what is it that they do and the things that they would love a place to fill in church. And I had always been in them, too. I think it was hello to you that was down there, Reverend James. I mean, you say I don't know this place, a cherry tree.

00;02;17;01 00;03;44;09 And at the same time, I think it was. But it was that. Yeah. I can't really say. If I'm not mistaken, it was, but I don't The Wheeler family and is it Mr. Message for me, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. And then they live in the place after church and fire in the building and I think after 12 or 13 years when they're in their resigned and they turn around and at the end of their time they came back to, Sanders said afterward Everett and the minister and, and what I was trying to get to when I was speaking about the highway, they had a place at Fairfield Beach and so they went there every summer
3:38
00;03;44;10 00;04;49;12 to live down there and at that particular time pastoring the Baptist Church there at their feet. And so I attended church while I was there and he said, mission driven, Harry, that's a really good thing. You look at the church and, and then he says, well, I used to think that pastors I used to that church he said, and then very and then in the meantime, Reverend Harris saw that he wanted to he wanted to build a church and he took it up with the city fathers who were a part Mercier and so many of the civic life is going to hire thing man and the right Mr. Right So they said to him, Oh, I

00;04;49;12 00;05;13;26 don't think that would be necessary. He said, Why that little house that you're worshiping in ought to be ample because you don't have very many colored people around here. That's what I wanted to ask you. How big with the congregation had been? Well, it wasn't very large. Not over 25 so they said the Reverend Henry says, Well, I'm not thinking of now.

00;05;13;26 00;05;41;02 He says, I'm thinking of the future. And he kept people not satisfied. But he kept on completing the committee. And then they decided to get together, make it possible for this new hope baptist church to be build. So then it was taken, though we haven't Harry was a very educated person. He knew exactly what to do. So he took it out with the Connecticut Baptist Convention.

00;05;41;27 00;06;25;18 And one of our most ardent fighters was, rather than elder, engage with Africa in which he saying he's afraid of the New Hope Baptist Church and have those huge numbers. $35,000, it cost us to feel that two and five years we had the church paid for it. So it was interesting. We came by getting by getting church suppers and stuff going back in the early days, Bethel the Bible and listening it with the alphabet business and the part of being the meetings and things he had, like bowling.

00;06;26;06 00;06;54;20 All right. Then they could see next week and somebody would see them. So that's how we gave them different parties and different things like that and fundraisers yes. Rummage sale. They used to go to the stores to get the Apple stores to give us different things and to raise money toward you know, we had a bonding quality inside of it.

00;06;54;20 00;07;41;08 If I had it now, and then they have to shake up because I think the principle that in the unity of the church in name and so that the way that the fish is did the bridge building that we have you know, you have a a college town which made 1923 and 1925 they get it. Then after the church was built, um, Adam Clayton Powell father.

00;07;42;22 00;08;07;10 Oh was with us who we dedicated to church and self-improvement and Harry say how Reverend Powell tried to get him to become associate minister in New York, the ABC, a Baptist church conservatory. So if you think that you think about it and then finally the wooden ribbon panel what if the last word he says, I'm sorry, I can't do it right.

00;08;07;10 00;08;59;17 I think they need one more here is dedicated. Yeah. And that's the paper you and then did you begin to pray at the organ and I used to pray for this little high school in years what do you know? Eight years. And if we're in your musical training and this is just this you know, to thinking only by name, you know, we did is we didn't even have a good name.

00;08;59;18 00;09;13;11 And yet they said they learned from the children's choir we have these girls and we have to blast it and say, I put it out there and I do like it.

00;09;15;22 00;09;49;09 A And so I practice every day and it's not till you're able to afford it. And they get before then they and a series of different people coming in, but they never seem to stay. And I am with my father but we can't keep the pianist or musician and we'll have one of my own anyway. Yeah.

00;09;54;19 00;10;21;12 You know what I did? Well, anyhow, I did my best follow all the years she's been serving the equipment to oh certainly is. Smart kids should hear that you have a chance to take piano lessons and don't make me use to give it to my grandson. For instance, you can tell the youngsters to to train themselves and play with it.

00;10;21;14 00;11;02;18 Used to come in and I look out have and maybe just have a chance and very privileged piece and pay him well he's playing she'll be playing it for I did it because she was the last one that I can remember she had me she did it and that's what you think. I think your self taught a great deal you probably.

00;11;02;24 00;11;36;17 How long did you take lessons I learned of 19 and damn first in 1925. Then I went to Brooklyn and the people in Brooklyn, the captain organist he was Jewish synagogue and I think the name of it, I just remember that we had no idea or an argument yeah.

00;11;40;25 00;12;18;17 That they there to see the people that I went to the settlement homes here and there and you know where the catalog is yes. That's right. And, and the people read it. But I was with the family, they used to go and we used to come on the boardwalk and bingo back, back. So that way I was able to write and content with them.

00;12;18;17 00;13;06;21 And your, your connection then started in 1921 when the you were here with the hand as you say, and then you went to New Jersey and Mary and came back to dance there. I think she used to take singing lessons from this where yes, we were there was the young man here died Camille and so beautiful and so when I came here I joined the side, it was forget joined the Sunday school and the Reverend Harris Whitbeck told me it was great to finally meet you in such cases beautiful boys.

00;13;06;21 00;13;37;04 And at that time in large I was one of the strongest school teachers. And whenever they got ready to sing in the paint there came a high note or look back at first seven. And so she said, don't look at the recent school Manning thing. But anyway, he told me a great thing about this young lady and he said, Now I see how we can look at my wife.

00;13;38;14 00;14;16;19 And they anyway will say, You have a loaded boy to do so. Why did you hit the cutting board? And in the meantime, she was studying until we could do anything. So I went to have an interview with Jenny Gregory, and that's how I could be as a famous guy. That kind of getting paid professional. Yes. And so I said to her finally, we went to New York and studied on the seventh of every tour there, and until I could meet the concert standard.

00;14;16;19 00;15;12;18 And then I came back to being very but all of my memory will be with the same people who stood by me when I first came to Banbury and just the young girl and how they encouraged me. One was in the and George Frank, the scene of the Amy Zion Church. And so I had so many encouragement. The people and of course, and I'm really thankful for the people, just like people who encouraged to let you sing it, other than church when Jenny when I was under Jenny Gregory, there was a broadcast station in Bridgeport, WCW, where she used to take me down there to work.

00;15;14;08 00;15;39;25 And since I'm in New York every night, the broadcast I broadcast here in Danbury Be a lady every Sunday morning, about the day was 50 And was that directly from the church that you went in Studio 98 and you would accompany it? She was a little girl kind of thing.

00;15;41;26 00;16;10;05 And Little Crisis came. And then we used to always get the feeling, rush to and pinch hit for us and if she wanted to and it would, this would be like a religious hour. And Sunday morning I saw it, what they call it, but I do have, I do have a clipping of of the broadcast that you wish to have there.

00;16;10;05 00;16;40;22 And Jenny Gregory after she passed, then Marie Gregory, her daughter who was still living in her farm. So this Sunday morning she heard in the broadcast, she said she said, Dad, that sounds like Christian. And so when they announced that you had been listening to the community chorus under the direction of this woman, she said, my God, Daddy, that is for me.

00;16;40;28 00;17;11;19 So he wrote me a letter and I had the clipping in my scrapbook where the Denver news time said that we will be reunited through this church Well, then you sort to organize the choir then, is that right? No, I didn't organize it, Reverend, at that particular time. Reverend Harris, got so different children together. I think the play of the book, I think well conducted in the beginning.

00;17;11;23 00;17;37;01 Oh, I see. And you conducted around it. And let me see now the member from New York and you know, she had one of those what do you call flip flop organs when they do peddle all of that and Reverend Harris, you know, he was quite musical himself and I records. And so he I forget the name of that thing.

00;17;37;09 00;18;13;22 You don't have to have that the end of the book of anything because I never forget how he how he used to take the time o pick up that way. And that was one of the interesting things. So Reverend had really directed that well he chose the material and oh, that must have been thrilling. Well, they say it's the highest form of praise song.

00;18;13;23 00;18;14;05 Yeah.

00;18;17;05 00;19;00;11 Isn't it? To be a bit different. Takes them so that you could have been able to play yourselves back I think the main thing, afternoon music. And it was great. We had a program and that was up. It maps range in the name of the university's church, which you know, the actual use in our data. We're out here like this still in the afternoon.

00;19;02;02 00;19;34;05 Oh, was that the same one that they have, the high school library teacher? Well, I don't know. I mean, I can't remember the Jane the president of the band now because I buy a ticket every season. Oh, I guess I know what you can do at the Concert Association. Yes, I think do that. I doubt it. I don't think of that, you know, because the campaign association is visitors who are on tour.

00;19;34;12 00;20;08;07 And that's I mean, you remember, I think Mrs. Jones in Dallas was impressed at the time, Mary Ellen, Harry and I never forget that Bill. It was supposed to play something the a gentleman it I guess it happens to everybody. Yeah. Okay. You just draw a blank. Yeah. Yeah.

00;20;11;06 00;20;45;06 Well, I don't regret my time spent over there. Well, you have really you have really serve the community well, and there's so much among, you know, the country people, especially this one, miss the Mavericks, which she had she was going to. So much for the dance for the Denver you, the campfire girls. She had three horns and she had tourists.

00;20;46;01 00;21;39;20 But one example, the Rainbow Family. And I just think it's terrible for a person like that just to go unnoticed, not being rich or anything. And I did have pictures of the different things. Yeah. You're of the choir and that was that. I must have been in New York at the time because the Reverend Jerry Lee ridiculed the guitar Hill oh, about six or seven in the corner so that he could in the picture of the I have a picture of buildings, the different things where they're singing the Denver News Time ran an article of the churches in different and the pictures of the church been how they were decorating and that's one thing I don't

00;21;39;23 00;22;17;12 know. He used to bring if you had an affair because you've been here and there at the had a flower and you bet and all that decorating. Yeah well the the was just pioneering and then flowering lily everybody would bring flowers and as soon as the choir would start singing hold on and get away it you there's so much to have read it with these young children that just can't resist it.

00;22;17;12 00;22;48;26 Just too bad they're not able to. Yes. Yes, Do you think that the church had an influence, too, in in children's lives, you know, formerly more than today? You know, your whole life was wrapped up with your church. Yeah. Is that true? And why do you think that has changed now, do you think? Well, no, I think I really think Reverend Samuel has done a lot for the young people here.

00;22;49;05 00;23;12;15 Yeah, because with the type of music that they are playing now that they the children are just getting into it. And I just wish you could hear the living at the same time one Sunday morning. You can't leave. Those young people are going saying, I wish you could hear, oh, I would like to. So that they just put their soul into it.

00;23;13;06 00;23;40;18 They're so into this thing. So I don't think I don't think what the young people are doing the day that we were coming home, did surpass what they're really doing now. You you of course, it's a more modern and trendy and yeah, they're moving every time I see it in those days leading here at a church, you know.

00;23;40;18 00;24;17;25 Yeah, yeah. And and I had I've been want to keep a bambino, but they just don't seem to and the same attitude towards the church we in in our day here, you know, I don't think well it doesn't feel that much of their lives, you know probably now I had heard and a Baptist choir seeing it ripped apart but you told me it's not from the new pope.

00;24;17;25 00;24;53;08 Well we sang once and twice a year when they first started on there. And I did hear it when they first heard you were you singing that there? I think it was twice we sang out there at the that's been singing then. It's just like it's been under a lovely young man. He's been playing George. He's been but he doesn't read.

00;24;54;12 00;25;28;10 You see, the the but in a way, it really is interesting what the New Hope Baptist has done under the review, under the what would you call it? The difference is it shows because they don't read and they are just beginning to know that the young man is playing now, don't read, but he takes the chord and improvise chords and things like that.

00;25;28;20 00;26;20;14 And make up the play and teach them to the players in that way they they can way get away with it and then you have you heard they broken them, but I'm sure I will I will listen later over there on deaf ear I am a at eight 30 anymore and it didn't really have anything to do. And this will be I think this will be the last Sunday like this is now the last Sunday will be the last Sunday due to the fact of signing you see when we broadcast we didn't charge it we get the community feature I see we had a community court and of course we got everyone in the community to

00;26;20;14 00;26;55;06 participate and that's the way we here we had ours but this is a different type of a thing altogether because each one had to contribute so much towards the financing of this book. Yeah, reading it all with the little joker in there and this woman you never sang with the music center and chorus it. You're doing the time that the ribbon with me.

00;26;55;26 00;27;27;28 John Walker. Yeah, yeah. Jessie Walker. I started in that. Oh did you and that here in the time that developed Frank Yeah yeah yeah. She and Mr. Mr. Walker had charge of it and but it didn't work out very well because they put me in the group with the heavy voices like the Beatles and they did that. I just couldn't do all that you know what you're being from.

00;27;28;01 00;28;01;24 They took me out of the part of the team with them and so I had to give it up it was a wonderful group. Yeah, yeah. These things because I was like, I need your neat stuff. Yeah. Who would that be calling? Smith. They call Peggy and she it's. Yeah, she's at the King Street School now. She was finally at my restaurant, but after they ran away.

00;28;03;10 00;28;51;16 Thanks in the street who could and this was great talking about that. They elected a new, some new man. And Mr. Walker, that well, I wonder if it would be James Humphrey there. Who is. Yeah, I know, I know. And they get to him. It sounds like it was. And they remember. It was. Yeah, in fact, I didn't think that they let me take you know, I think he had two or three concerts a year.

00;28;51;16 00;29;21;18 And you get a job tonight. Yeah. We heard and it's a long way to you musically in every way. And it's just too bad that more of the younger people were interested because in a way, it was such a handicap at the time that and she said raising her family and there were times that she couldn't be there.

00;29;21;18 00;29;52;08 And that means we'd get the scene without the music or get the impression, something like that. And I so often used to tell the young people, get into music because we we would always deal with I never I put the cart before the horse and I am always singing. Then I took up singing. I didn't pick up instrumentals and, and now I, I really am at the you center now, so I, I felt encouraged there.

00;29;52;08 00;30;27;02 One under Mr. Sullivan system more you said. Yeah. So people feel that he used to be there. It used to be of but now Mary is very accepting that. Oh, and so will my being stuck in there with Bill Clinton. He comes United States more in mine just just because you love music or. Well, I just can't give it up.

00;30;27;11 00;33;25;27 That's right. And then I see the need of helping in the churches. I mean, now that I don't try to become involved in so many things socially, and I just decided that I would just stick to my church was really silly, and otherwise it would get away. They need anywhere. They ask me, in fact, as opposed to I am working with their women's Christian, you know, I think with the president all that sort of Dan very and it's right next to the here because in town they are on appetizers and we go to the conventions and different things like that.