Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Yes, I am referring to Pennsylvania as the home of the Yankees, not the Phillies. I am from southwest Missouri. Sometimes referred to as the Ozarks. We are hillbillies and definite southerners. Travel another hour or two north in our state, and that statement is not true.

When Marianne asked me for my favorite foods, I shared that they were brown beans and cornbread. The ladies of the churches had no problem with the beans. Cornbread threw them, though. This was before Paula Dean and other southern chefs were all over the cable networks.

There was a white bread that had whole kernel corn floating in the loaf at most dinners I was invited to attend. Apparently, only one woman in the church had a recipe called Corn Bread, and that was it. When I enquired about this dish, I was told this. I explained the recipe for our cornbread, and it was told to me that it was called Johnny Cake. That is a Yankee name for sure.

During the summer, a church from North Carolina came to help us with backyard Bible clubs and a revival. When they arrived on their bus, I found out that I would have to translate for the students. The girls had the same challenge. Fortunately, we were all schooled in both southern and northern dialects.

Bradford is five miles from the New York State line, and Buffalo, New York, is one hundred miles north. I was able to travel to Buffalo and Niagara Falls twice during the summer. In one of the museums, I read about the last person to survive going over the falls. He was a young boy at that time, and I realized that we were the same age.

When it was time to return home, I was taken to Bradford airport and boarded a plane for Pittsburgh. I chose to fly home because I wanted to return as soon as possible. From Pittsburgh, we went to St. Louis, and I was supposed to have a one-hour layover. Once inside the terminal, I looked at my watch and I had five minutes to go halfway across the facility.

When I arrived at the gate five minutes late, I saw a clock on the wall. My watch was set to Eastern Time, and I was now in the Central Time zone. I still had my hour. This was my first time flying, and I loved all three legs of the trip to Springfield.

We celebrated my birthday that first night back. I was twenty when I boarded the bus and twenty-one when I boarded the plane in Bradford. I opened my presents, and Cindy and I went out to a movie. Don’t ask me what we saw. All I saw was her.

I’ve spent the last fifty years enjoying looking at her every day. Those ten weeks apart from her made me push to plan our wedding after I had graduated the next spring. Two weeks after the wedding, my job moved us. I knew that it could happen, and that was why we had to get married. I never wanted to be away from her again.

This was my first and only opportunity to be a church pastor. My ministry has been working as a workplace minister. My congregation was the people I encountered at my job. This wasn’t always just fellow employees. It was customers, vendors, and management at all the companies I worked for and visited.

Today, you are the ones that I want to benefit from everything I have learned during my lifetime. Fifty years of business experience, church membership, and Bible study are at your disposal. Thanks for logging in.

©Copyright 2025 by Charles Kensinger