Throwback Thursday - St Nicholas Orthodox Church

I don't like change much.  If you've followed me for any time or know me, this doesn't come as any surprise.  I especially don't like it when buildings are torn down.

This church in West Springfield was in my stomping grounds when I was a kid.  I always thought it was a Jewish synagogue.  I never saw anyone going in or out of it but the physical building intrigued me, maybe because it looked so different from any churches that I knew.

In later years it had been looking slightly neglected and worn down.  This week when we drove by it, to my total surprise, it was not there.  In its place were houses, new houses!  I made Paul turn around just to make sure that I didn't miss it.  Yep, it was gone!

A little investigation on the Internet and I found out that it was a Russian Orthodox Church and it has been gone since 2014!  Maybe it wasn't torn down right away and that was why it was looking so neglected and overgrown.  

The article didn't say why the church was no longer in West Springfield.  Maybe two congregations merged and they chose the better building, or the building where the major part of the congregation was from.  I just found it so sad that such an interesting building was torn down, and in its place two new houses built.  

Throwback Thursday - Kristen in her Christmas Dress and her first "Piece"

Christmas 1974; Kristen was 2 years old.

Just a little background.  Bethany, our church, in 1974 was not nearly as big as it is now.  It was located on the corner of Springfield and Armory Streets in Springfield.  Every Christmas season back then Bethany had a Children's Christmas Program where the Sunday School kids would say their "piece" up on the pulpit in front of the whole church.  Sometimes there was a little pageant that would go along with it playing out the Christmas story.  Afterwards the kids would all receive Christmas candy in an orange web type stocking or Christmas box.  I remember saying my piece when I was a kid, so this had been going on for a long time.  I'm not sure when they stopped doing this, probably when the church got bigger.

At any rate, back in 1974 they were still doing it.  Kristen came home from Sunday School with a "piece" to say.  She was only 2, so I wasn't sure if she would do it.  Paul's mom, GG, bought her a new dress and when the time came, she got right up  there and said her "piece".  She was the youngest one to do it.

I had written it down in her baby book and this is what it was:

Shining for Jesus - "A little star up in the sky can shine for Jesus, so can I."  I'm not sure if anyone else understood her but I sure did!  Needless to say, we were all so proud of her!

She also sang a song with two other little girls, Pammy Bennett and Heather Sorcinelli.  So cute.

Also, in looking through her baby book I found that in 1975 when she was 3, her piece was called My Wish for You - "A wish for you, it comes from me.  May your Christmas very happy be."

These pictures were given to me by someone from church years later.  I don't remember who.  The one above was from 1975.

The one below was from 1976 but by then I had stopped writing in her baby book and I don't have her "piece".  I do know that all three years she sang a song with these same girls.




PS - In looking through Mark's baby book, I never wrote down any of his Christmas "pieces."  The one thing I do know is that he did not start at 2 years old, lol!

December 2018 Scrapbook Pages

Trying to do a little catch up with Marley's older scrapbook pages. The top one is from 2007.