Friday, November 16, 2012

WCC...Back IN the DAY!!!

On the way home from WCC this year...Us kids were thinking about a previous WCC back in the day!!! So loooooong ago it was STILL called PSR!!! Sooooooo I don't know if I've told all of you all this before buuuuuuut...growing up my family was POOR!!! Annnnnd I mean POOR-POOR!!! I'm not talking about things were tight and we didn't always get EVERYTHING we wanted...I mean like, we were sooooo poor I only had TWO skirts for a good part of my childhood...One was a play skirt and the other was a church skirt...my mom would do laundry EVERY night so that we would have clean clothes the next day!
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Weeeeeelllll... Bishop Abbott was ALWAYS talking to our church about PSR(Now WCC) and he was ALWAYS encouraging the saints in our church to go! Well our family could NEVER go!!! I mean, it was just really NOT even an option at all!!! I mean, my dad was a janitor at a high school, there was FIVE kids...we were POOR!!! However, my MOM got in her mind, she wanted to take her family to PSR!!!
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Now my mom was NOT one to go asking for help! She believed in PRAYING for God to provide for you!!! Soooo some how she raised some money for our motel room...I think she sold some furniture or something! THEN...we went on the trip with $200 spending money...that was to cover gas and food the WHOLE entire week!
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Now we were staying at the La Quinta Inn...They had a continental breakfast so my mom would tell us kids to fill up at breakfast time cuz the rest of the day we would be eating ramen noodles and other kinds of food like that in our hotel room. I remember the rest of our church would be eating at Home Town Buffet...we thought that was like ELITE-HIGH-CLASS dining back then...buuuuuuuuut there was NO way our family would ever be able to afford eating there...we couldn't even afford McDonald's!!!
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Buuuuuuuuut you know what...my mom NEVER blinked an eye about that! Even when people would feel bad for us and offer my mom would say no thank you, we're fine! Its NOT that she had to much pride in her to accept help when we NEEDED it...buuuuuut she ONLY took help when we NEEDED it!!! She said, that Home Town was NOT a NEED...we would be JUST fine with our ramen noodle soup!!!
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Sooooo somehow we made it the whole conference with $200!!! Buuuuuut by Saturday, we were BROKE, out of food and only a little money left for gas! My mom told us kids to go stock up on the free food from our continental breakfast!!! Annnnnd that food was ALL we had to eat for the trip back to AZ!!! To this day, I still won't eat muffin tops!!! LOL
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Weeeeell we made our trek back to AZ and it took like waaaaaaaaaaay longer than the NORMAL 14 hours!!! I mean, whatever vehicle my mom was driving at the time i'm pretty sure was a HUNK OF JUNK!!! Somewhere along the way when we were still pretty far  from home my mom let us know that we were ALMOST out of gas and that there was NO money left to fil up again. My mom wasn't a complainer...she just KEPT DRIVING!!!
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Somewhere along the way my mom saw a young man hitch hiking...now most woman that were all alone would be scared to pick this man up...my mom just saw it as an opportunity! She pulled over to him and said she would take him as far as we could go before we ran out of gas completely...then she asked him if he happened to have any money to help out with for gas? He had $3.80...my mom pulled into the nearest gas station and had him put it in!!!
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AHAHAHAHHAHA!!! That'll teach you NOT to HITCH-HIKE WITH THE GINTY'S!!! You won't get anything from US...we'll get it FROM YOU!!! BAHAHAHA!!! Some people might think wow...I'm SOOOO Pathetic...bummin of some hitch hiker...My mom was just like WELL that was a BLESSING!!! Sooooo we drove as far as we could...eventually the man had us drop him off cuz we were going in different directions...so my mom let him off...BUT not without witnessing to him first!!!
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I know, WHO would feel like witnessing...to a hitch hiker when your ABOUT to run out of gas and NO WHERE near hom??? MY MOM!!!!So we left him off on the side of the road and kept trecking on...it was beginning to be EARLY Sunday morning and the sun was starting to rise...we were just on the outskirts of Avondale AZ when we ran out of gas completely!!!!
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My mom found a gas station or some kind of store that would let my mom use their phone...she called my dad up and told him we needed to get picked up or get gas! So my dad and Bro. Steve Cleveland drove out and found us, put some gas in the van and we headed on home!!!.
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 Now here I am with my iPhone and I don't even want to go with everyone to Home Town cuz its GHETTO...I just don't ever want to forget the way things USED to be!!! Whats a few roaches at Motel 6...AT LEAST I GET TO ALWAYS GO!!! I'm thankful for a MOM...that was always determined!!!
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It may seem like a pretty pathetic trip, buuuuuut we didn't feel that way! My mom was determined to take us...and SOME WAY...SOME HOW...she DID IT...WITH $200 bucks!!! When I look back now, all think is MAN I HAVE AN AWESOME MOM!!!
Good times...GOOD TIMES!!! :)
♥Mary Frances :)