By Walter Thomas (Tom) Scates

Featured photo is 5 Scates Boys in 1950: Tim on David’s shoulders, Harry in the middle and Tom on Junior’s shoulders.

1948/49: At the age of 6 or 7 I recall a Sunday evening church service. Tim and I were sitting next to other children in about the second row from the front of the Clifton Christian Church. Tim and I were squabbling with each other and causing enough of a disturbance to catch my dad’s attention. He was in the middle of his sermon, but being a person of decisive actions, he left the pulpit, walked down the steps of the platform, and came directly to our row. He picked Tim and I up with one hand and swatted us soundly on the behind with the other hand. He turned around, walked back up to the pulpit, and resumed his sermon. Ruth Gardner Creager told me, when Ann and I visited her in 2014, that the whole row of kids was silent after that.