Throwback Thursday - Salem, NJ

On the way home from my uncle's funeral in Delaware, we took a side trip to Salem, New Jersey. This was Uncle Bob's second pastorate, and then, again, his last pastorate at the same church, First Assembly of God.

Last year, Paul and I took rides by three out of his four churches. I blogged about Norwich, CT here; Ossining, NY here; and Abington, MA here. The only one I haven't blogged about is Salem, which is probably my favorite.

This is the first church he had in Salem, NJ.



Of course, the front wasn't purple when he had it; it was white. They moved there around in March,  1958. I remember my cousin Lynda saying the first time she stayed at my house for part of the summer was when she was 7, which would have been 1961. We would split the summer up, staying at each other's house. I have so many good memories of that church. We used to walk up the street to where the main street of Salem was and go to the 5 and 10 cent store and come home with all sorts of girl stuff, nail polish, etc. and also paper dolls. I loved the people of the church and they all seemed to love me.

When I was a teenager (1963), they built this church which was a little ways out of the city, in Mannington Township, which was mostly farm country.



By then we were noticing boys. They had a boy's/men's softball team that had their games right behind the parsonage. Those were fun times!

I was really sad when they moved from Salem and every time I visit my cousin where she lives now in Delaware, I try to go into Salem on the way home. This time when we drove by, I was so surprised to see that the first church was basically demolished except for the front and back ends of the building. I couldn't believe it!



When I got home, I found an article on the Internet that said in September 2011 one of the walls caved in so they had to knock down the other wall. They weren't sure if the wind and rain from Hurricane Irene played a role in causing part of the church to collapse.

These are two pictures taken in front of the old parsonage. I think they were both taken on Easter.

This was in 1958, left to right me, my cousin Bobby, and my cousin Lynda.



This was in 1961, left to right, Lynda, Bobby, Donny, and my Aunt Ettie.



Such good memories!