Denton Jubilee
The first Latter-Day Saint meetings in Denton, Texas were held in November 1959. Before that they went to meetings in Fort Worth every Sunday! This is the 50 anniversary, the Jubilee year. So the Denton Saints celebrated.
It started off with a barbecue dinner on Friday night, followed by a speaker and entertainment. The speaker was Roger Merrill who served his mission in Texas and then went on to serve as the General President of the Sunday School. The program featured some traditional Denton acts, including country singing, the Great Portoni, the Brown family singing "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission", and the Stake President reminding us of other things that were 50 years old, like Jiffy Pop, Barbie, panty hose and aluminum cans. The program ended with the choir singing "When the Saints Come Marching In". IT WAS SO FUN to sing in that choir. Brother Harlos arranged the music so we sang the same verse over and over 1) with "Elvis" 2) Motown style 3) hard rock style - well, we didn't really sing that one 4) disco style 5) techno style 6) "Hallelujah" style and 7) Dixieland style. I sure hope someone will post the performance on YouTube! (I just looked, no luck yet).
On Saturday morning we celebrated by doing a service project at Hills and Hollows Scout Camp. Our ward cleared brush along a road and a couple of trails and put up a shelter over a picnic table. I didn't see what everyone else was doing, but I did see at least two other picnic table shelters going up, and I heard that an ampitheater was being constructed, too.
Saturday afternoon was Roadshows. One of my favorite moments was when three guys dressed as black beetles were attacking an oak tree and they performed a haka!! Made me sit up and take notice! Another Roadshow had a nice touch while spoofing a scene from "The Princess Bride", the bishop dressed as the medieval bishop started "Deawy Bewoved...". As usual there were a few almost painfully awkward parts, but most was just fun.
Saturday evening, the stake rented the whole Denton Water Park. Rob and Kyrie came, too. We did a lot of floating on the lazy river and a little water sliding. It was the first time I'd been there. Next time I'll need to bring my grandson so I can play in the kids part. While everyone else was at the water park, the teens were having a fireside with Elaine Dalton (General Young Women's President) whose husband was another Texas missionary. After the fireside they had a dance with 14 other stakes invited. I heard that they planned on 1200 kids coming, but they had 2000 show up!!! It was held at Guyer High School.
Today we had a stake-wide sacrament meeting (not a stake conference). One of the best things about the Jubilee was the many people we saw that we hadn't seen in decades, Ellen Bentley, Roger Merrill, David Richards, the Nielsens, Karen Simpson.......
I guess the saddest part of the Jubilee (besides saying good bye to everyone) was that Margaret Porter was too frail to participate (she's still recovering from a broken hip).
It started off with a barbecue dinner on Friday night, followed by a speaker and entertainment. The speaker was Roger Merrill who served his mission in Texas and then went on to serve as the General President of the Sunday School. The program featured some traditional Denton acts, including country singing, the Great Portoni, the Brown family singing "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission", and the Stake President reminding us of other things that were 50 years old, like Jiffy Pop, Barbie, panty hose and aluminum cans. The program ended with the choir singing "When the Saints Come Marching In". IT WAS SO FUN to sing in that choir. Brother Harlos arranged the music so we sang the same verse over and over 1) with "Elvis" 2) Motown style 3) hard rock style - well, we didn't really sing that one 4) disco style 5) techno style 6) "Hallelujah" style and 7) Dixieland style. I sure hope someone will post the performance on YouTube! (I just looked, no luck yet).
On Saturday morning we celebrated by doing a service project at Hills and Hollows Scout Camp. Our ward cleared brush along a road and a couple of trails and put up a shelter over a picnic table. I didn't see what everyone else was doing, but I did see at least two other picnic table shelters going up, and I heard that an ampitheater was being constructed, too.
Saturday afternoon was Roadshows. One of my favorite moments was when three guys dressed as black beetles were attacking an oak tree and they performed a haka!! Made me sit up and take notice! Another Roadshow had a nice touch while spoofing a scene from "The Princess Bride", the bishop dressed as the medieval bishop started "Deawy Bewoved...". As usual there were a few almost painfully awkward parts, but most was just fun.
Saturday evening, the stake rented the whole Denton Water Park. Rob and Kyrie came, too. We did a lot of floating on the lazy river and a little water sliding. It was the first time I'd been there. Next time I'll need to bring my grandson so I can play in the kids part. While everyone else was at the water park, the teens were having a fireside with Elaine Dalton (General Young Women's President) whose husband was another Texas missionary. After the fireside they had a dance with 14 other stakes invited. I heard that they planned on 1200 kids coming, but they had 2000 show up!!! It was held at Guyer High School.
Today we had a stake-wide sacrament meeting (not a stake conference). One of the best things about the Jubilee was the many people we saw that we hadn't seen in decades, Ellen Bentley, Roger Merrill, David Richards, the Nielsens, Karen Simpson.......
I guess the saddest part of the Jubilee (besides saying good bye to everyone) was that Margaret Porter was too frail to participate (she's still recovering from a broken hip).