I have often written about my eighteen years of teaching youth at Hamlin Church. Before that, I taught fifth and sixth-grade boys there, as well. I have been a children’s church director on two different occasions while at Hamlin. It has been my church home for over forty years.
My reason for this column is to thank all the men and women that I have had the pleasure of serving over the past fifty or more years as a leader in churches. I spent one summer in Pennsylvania and eighteen months in Joplin, MO, and the balance of this time here in Springfield, MO.
I can cite the names of some of the hundreds of kids and young people that I worked with as a leader, teacher, and minister. You are all my kids. I see some of you frequently, and some I have not visited in person for over fifty years. I’ll tell you about the recent ones.
There was Jason, Ryan, Mendy, Jody, Matt, Michael, Kara, Herschell, Kevin, Brandon, Gina, Cara, Stephanie, and others. I am so proud of all these individuals, as well as the ones that I have not seen for too many years. Some of them are doctors, nurses, teachers, ministers, businessmen and women, and in practically every profession you can imagine.
I cannot count the number of men and women that I have had the privilege of serving. I’ve been a teacher, friend, mentor, and supporter as they learned and grew. I’ve worked with their parents, grandparents, and families to encourage them to become the wonderful parents and grandparents they are today.
To say that I am proud of them is an understatement. My part was very minimal in their lives. They were under my tutelage for only a couple of years, but I have followed them as they have grown, been educated, married, and had children. Some are better known to me than others. All of them have made me proud to know them.
We have three daughters, three sons-in-law, and twelve grandchildren that I am also extremely proud of. My love for them is unbounded. My ministry is not over, and it will continue until my health restricts me or Jesus calls me home.
While breaking down some cardboard boxes for recycling just now, I found these words on the sealing tape as I slit it and folded the box up. I thought it was appropriately named. As a purchasing agent for forty years, I have seen products that were called “tamper-proof tape.” They weren’t.
I carry a pocketknife. Where? Duh, in my pocket. I have for years. I also always had box cutters in my desk drawer or workstation. I could open any package or box you gave me. I also removed the tape and replaced it with new tape to reuse the boxes.
An expert eye knew I had done this. I trained others to be as good or better than me at reusing packaging materials. I even sold paint that was specifically designed to cover brown boxes and conceal markings that were printed on them. So, what is the purpose of tamper-evident tape?
When a vendor sends you a package, and you start to open it, if I have slit it and hurriedly retaped it, you can tell. We all know about tamper-proof medicine packaging. When I was little, we did not have that. Then, some guy decided to poison people he did not even know. Now, I sometimes wish I could use explosives to open those boxes and bottles.
These are all signs of the fallen world that we live in. Yes, I said Fallen. We messed it up. If you don’t know this story, it is in the book of beginnings in the Bible. (Genesis 3) You do know that the Hebrew word for beginning is Genesis, and that is where the title of this book comes from, because it starts, “In the beginning God.”
It does not matter if we accept it or not. It is true, and those who deny it are false. There is right and wrong, even if I want to do wrong and call it correct behavior. That is why we need tamper-evident tape. Some want to get into our packages and remove what they want.
I’ve contacted vendors when a box did not have what it was supposed to. The first question is always, “Had the tape been tampered with?” My answer was that I did not believe it had been. It is the same in our lives. Family, friends, and others want to control, use, or abuse us. Don’t let them. There is someone who encourages them to do this. He is our constant adversary. The Bible calls him Satan.
How do you make your life tamper-evident? You will never be tamper-proof. Be honest and forthright with everyone. Stay true to what Jesus and Holy Spirit tell you to do. Avoid the temptations that Satan, the adversary, puts in your way. And pray that He will protect you and your family.
I spend a lot of my columns remembering the good times of my life. This time, I would like to speak to my younger readers. If you are sixteen to twenty-four years old, these should be some great times for you. It is Christmas on top of that. Let’s talk about what is going on right now for you.
You probably still live at home with mom and dad if you are fortunate, as I was. Even if you only live with one parent or some other responsible adult, I hope you are having a great time. You have friends and family around. Enjoy them by going to school or church functions.
Don’t skip the family or work parties. I had a great time with the guys and gals I worked with in high school and college. We had a good time. No one got drunk, or high, or shot, or arrested. That is what I hope for you.
Don’t worry about the bad stuff in the news. Most of us are blessed enough to go through life without being directly involved in situations that make it to the local news. I know you do not think your parents and other adults treat you the way they should. That’s life, get used to it.
Enjoy the parades, concerts, parties, and just driving around looking at the decorations and lights. You are young. Someday, you will be old like me, and you want to have those memories. What memories? Read my other columns, and you will learn of my recollections.
If you are in a choir, band, orchestra, or clubs, go to the parties. Stay away from the drugs and drinking and the “friends” that ask you to do things you don’t want to. There are times that you don’t have anything to do so grab a couple of friends and do what you want to do, as long it is legal, mostly.
I lived in a small city where it was safe to walk or drive around town and enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of this time of year. Have a good time with people that you know and care about.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and happiness. Make the most of each moment. Take the time off from school and work, and do what you and your girlfriend or boyfriend enjoy doing. Maybe don’t spend a lot of time alone with them. Enjoy their company and double date or go to parties.
God created us and said that His creation was good. It becomes bad only if people make it bad. Don’t be one of those that spoils the fun, if you can help it. Walk away from fights and arguments. Stay with those who aren’t trying to get themselves arrested or killed. That was easy for me.
There will come a day in thirty or forty years when you will say, “I remember when . . .” Let them have good memories of the music, friends, laughter, and fun. OK, now for the rest of us. I just talked to a friend of mine who celebrated his ninetieth birthday before Christmas. I never heard of a sixteen- or twenty-one-year-old who had more fun. Make this Christmas your best.
“I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.” “I’m afraid my people haven’t. I am very sorry. I wish it were otherwise.” This is a conversation from the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still” released in 1951.
These lines were given by Klaatu, the visitor from outer space, and a representative of the U.S. President who was trying to determine the reason for his arrival on Earth. An otherworldly organization wants to warn all earthlings of their emanate destruction.
The producers of this movie were trying to demonstrate some points about our society at the time. This quotation is indicative of what many thought of the Cold War at that time. If you have not seen this version of this classic, find it on any of the streaming services and view it.
I know you may not remember this movie because it came out before we were born. A few of you may have seen it in the theaters in the early fifties. Most of us only know of it from DVDs, videos, or even VHS tapes.
My first recollection of it was in the early 60s, on NBC Movie of the Week aired on Saturday nights. Mom and Dad were out that night, and my brothers and I watched it after our oldest brother put our younger sister to bed. It began at 8:00 pm at her bedtime.
Another interesting clip from this movie has the visitor from space, who is calling himself Carpenter, being interviewed by a radio reporter. The newscaster asks him, “I suppose you’re just as scared as the rest of us?” “In a different way, perhaps. I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.”
It is here that the reporter decides to move on to someone else. Start a conversation that others do not wish to have, and they always walk or run away. It is a human reaction. We are either afraid to learn new things or worried that we are being talked down to.
How do you feel when a friend tries to point out a flaw in your personality or actions? My reaction is usually a defensive strike or fleeing. We always want to be correct and often refuse to hear that we are not. Especially if you are a politician.
The story of this film is about the lives of humans, and especially Americans. We react with violence at the least provocation, and it is shown on the news every day, even today. Society is not better than it was in the 1950s. We have more toys and time to waste on them, but no more patience and understanding for each other.
The newest version of this film alters the story to make it work with the 2008 view of what it might mean if Earth reaches a technological ability that would endanger other lives in our universe. I hope you realize that this is fiction.
The real worry for all of us is each other. You never know who might be out to destroy you. Keep reading my columns, and I will explain more about how to protect yourself in this dangerous world full of stupidity.
I have a few more stories about fifty years ago that I thought you might enjoy. A few days before Marianne and Phil, and the rest of the family left on their annual vacation to see their other son in Tennessee, he showed me how to light the heater in the house I was staying in.
I thought this was unusual and said as much. This Ozarks boy knew that you did not need a heater in July. Apparently, that is not true in the Allegheny Mountains. The weather forecast predicted a cold front coming to the area during the next week. On the morning of the fourth, the temperature was 32 degrees in Gifford. I lit the gas.
I mentioned in a previous column that I had made two trips to Niagara Falls that summer. The first was on the church bus with the youth from Bolivar Road and Hilltop. A month later, my brother Sam and I went back when he stopped to see me on his way from Chicago to Florida.
We visited some museums and spent a lot of time on the Canadian side. On more than one occasion, a young boy kept crawling under the ropes that were designed to keep tourists from getting too close to the cliff edge. Each time this happened, we remarked that the parents should keep a closer eye on him.
After we drove back to Gifford, we went to bed, and after seeing him off the next morning, I had my regular Sunday schedule. That evening, I went into the main house with the family to relax and watch television. The broadcast was from a station in Buffalo.
A story was headlined about an accidental death on the previous day in Nagara Falls, Canada. As we watched this story, they showed a photograph of a boy who had fallen off a cliff because he had gone beyond the safety barricades. It was the same boy we had seen the day before.
After returning home, Michelle and I spoke to a few churches about our experiences during the summer. Remember, Michelle was another student from SWBC who was in Bradford. Summer missionaries are out there right now working in churches and ministries all around the world. If you know one, thank them for me.
Yes, I was alive in 1975. If you were not, let me brief you on some things. There were no cell phones, home computers, or personal video games. There was college, and I had just finished my junior year at Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, MO. In the fall of the previous year, I transferred there.
As I walked around my new campus, I saw signs requesting interested students to apply to be summer missionaries. I did just that and received my assignment in the spring. I would be going to Bradford, PA, for ten weeks starting in June.
When I applied, I had not met Cindy. By early June, we had been dating about eight months, and I was dreading being away from her for the summer. She went with Dad, Mom, and my sister to take me to the Continental Trailways Bus Station. You may have been there also. It is now the Discovery Center on St. Louis St.
I chose the bus to view some of America for the next twenty-four hours. We took I-44 to St. Louis, MO and then I-70 through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and into Pennsylvania. We stopped a few times en route, and the last one was for breakfast in Pittsburgh. I decided to find a café and went exploring outside the station. Smoke and the smell of the city drove me back inside and I grabbed something at the snack bar.
When we arrived at Harrisburg, I waited for my ride. I was on time and, after an hour, called the Baptist building to check. They told me that they wondered why I had not been at the airport like others. I waited another thirty minutes for a ride. We checked into a hotel, and I shared a room with another guy.
We spent two days training. There were over fifty students that would scatter across PA and North Jersey. I met Charlie Brown that summer. He was a seminary student who drove in. He had a VW with a CB radio that resembled a car phone. Remember this was the seventies and the CB craze was on.
When we left the state capital for Bradford, there were four of us with our driver from Bolivar Road Baptist Church. Michelle was from SWBC and lived in Bolivar, MO. Rhonda was from Texas, and I remember the other as Kentuck. Guess where she was from? Michelle and I had not met back home before that summer.
When we arrived at the church in Bradford, we split into four different homes. We had a brief meeting with the pastor, and I got in a car with Phil. We drove up the mountain to Gifford where I would be the summer pastor for Hilltop Baptist Chapel. I met the rest of the family and stowed my gear in the house that Phil grew up in.
Marianne was Phil’s wife, and Mary Anne, his daughter. That night I shared about Springfield. How big was it? I told them it was a small town. Only a population of 135 thousand. They looked at me strangely because the signs said Bradford had 23,000 and Gifford 65.
I met the rest of the family in the next few days. This is just the start of the story. The next column will be “Gifford”. Looking forward to it. See you then.
It seems like an easily determined idea, doesn’t it? Parents, teachers, and employers all fail to recognize this one fact. A father or mother attempts to teach a child how to use a spoon, a fork, or the potty chair before they want to. And it is always a struggle. I know. We tried that with Heather.
She would sit on the pot and not do anything. Then she decided she wanted to use the chair because she was tired of diapers. Why do training diapers help so many kids? They don’t want to lose the security of the protection from accidents, but they want freedom in the bathroom. They also wish for Mom and Dad’s approval.
Effective teachers find ways to encourage their students to learn, but may use games, toys or other activities that catch the attention and are interesting. This type of learning must be customized for every student. If you are fortunate, more than one person is captured by the same activity. Others require a different approach. Learning centers in classrooms take advantage of this principle.
Although I have never carried the title of “trainer” as a supervisor, manager, or an employee hoping to help someone else get ahead, I have trained hundreds of people in dozens of areas. Often, the lessons I taught to others were taught the hard way by trial and error for me. The desire to make learning easier for someone else makes me want to discover how to help them catch what I am throwing at them. This is how it should be done in the workplace.
The truth is that many are afraid to instruct others in what they know. They believe their job security depends on no one else knowing as much about their job.
On other occasions, we want to pass on knowledge, but do not know how because our school was hard knocks. We learned by doing and believe others will also. On-the-job training is good, but why shouldn’t those with more experience guide the newbies? Show them the things you tried first that did not work. Tell them why you do it the way you do and all the other methods that are not as good. These stop wasting time and effort.
If they listen. That leads us back to the title of this article. No one can teach you what you do not wish to learn. If you are stubborn and will not take instruction, you are doomed to repeat other mistakes and be thought less of.
When your trainer takes the time to show you their errors, you don’t have to repeat them. Hopefully, you will not be greeted with the worst of all educational philosophies, “Because I said so.”
It is time to take your company to the 21st century. Write a procedures manual that includes every process in your business. This is one of the requirements for all major companies. Certifications that multinational companies must maintain to bid on government contracts require this manual. Start with this item and see where it takes you.
When I was growing up my favorite radio station was KICK which was 1260 on the AM dial. They played the top forty hits that I enjoy. There were so many funny disc jockeys. I hoped to be one. Let’s talk about them.
One morning when I was in college my clock radio came on and after he gave the news Bob Bright started to read the weather. “The National Weather Service predicts a thirty percent chance of rain today.” He paused and continued off script. “I’m going to update that after looking out my window. I give it a one hundred percent probability.”
I admire a man who could step out on his own senses and tell the truth. I used this line more than once when I did radio reporting in high school speech tournaments. Then there was Dan Coulter. His brother was in one of my classes in junior high. Dan had a unique style that was not fake. I laughed a great deal.
Jay Stevens was popular in Springfield for a few years and then we heard he had moved away. Years later he had a song published and it was a minor hit. In 1975 his song “Rocky” recorded by Dickie Lee made it to No. 1 on the charts. You know him today as Woody P. Snow.
Another was the husband of the drama teacher at Hillcrest while I was there. I met him while in college when I saw Sandy and Cliff at Little Theatre. We chatted and I asked her to say hello to my sister in class on Monday because I knew Vanessa would not believe me if I told her.
Not one of my favorites but one of my Dad’s was Barefoot Bob. After KTTS radio was purchased and became the Radio Ranch he joined the staff. He was a long-time country DJ as well as an entertainer. He played at least one of his own recordings on his program.
While in college I took the test and received my license to become legitimate as an on-air talent for radio. My theme song would be “I’m a Girl Watcher.” I had no luck in Springfield and then I tried to get a job after moving to school in Bolivar, MO. I would have decided how to be a personality on whichever station might hire me.
In the 1980s I began listening to Wayne Glenn, the old record collector on KTXR FM radio. Wayne is a historian. He has written books about the Ozarks musicians and towns. He calls himself the old record collector because when he started, he played music that had been recorded at least thirty years before. That meant from the fifties and before.
Each year more music is opened under these guidelines. By the early two thousand the format moved into the seventies and eighties. He did interviews and gave the history of the music and the entertainers. I learned more from him than any other radio announcer.
I might go on air on-line with my own broadcast someday. I have a style I would like to use and a format that would allow me to do interviews and discuss songs, writers, and artists. My choice of theme song would be “I’m a God Watcher.”
Do you have favorite radio personalities of your own? What type of music do you listen to? Would you rather listen to talk radio, podcasts, or do you stream your music? I’d like to hear about them in the comments.
Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Mom sang all the time as we were growing up. We never had a piano in our home, because Mom and Dad did not play any musical instruments. They bought me a cheap guitar one year for Christmas and we discussed my taking lessons. That never happened. There just wasn’t enough money in the budget.
My cousin Russ came over with his guitar from time to time and would regale us with tunes like Running Bear. But in his version, Running Bear didn’t love Little White Dove. He ran through the bushes. Russ even brought Jimmie Gately over at least once to play and sing with him. He also brought an album one time by a new comedian, Bob Newhart. The Button-Down Humor of Bob Newhart was the title. We kids were sent to bed early that night.
That was Dad’s instrument of choice, the record player. My talent ran along the same lines as his, but I had to be different from him. I played the radio. Yes, my drug of choice at first was the 9-volt AM model. It was a gift. It went everywhere with me. I did not limit myself to just one flavor on the radio. I was eclectic. KICK was the top 40 station in Springfield, but late at night, I would tune in to WLS from Chicago and other stations from all over the country. KGBX, KWTO, KTTS, and KWFC in Springfield were not enough for me.
Then my brother bought an AM/FM/SW receiver. We listened to broadcasts from all over the world. Springfield even had FM stations, KTTS, KGBX, and KWTO. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? KICK was still the predominant influence in my life. That spawned another childhood desire. To be on the radio as a Disc Jockey or DJ. They were so cool.
Bob Bright woke us every morning with not just music. He also read the news every hour on the hour and added a twenty-second weather report. One morning he was reading the weather, “Thirty percent chance of precipitation throughout the day.” And he went off script to ad-lib. “I just looked out the window here at KICK radio and I want to step out on a limb. I give it a 100% chance of rain.” Out our window, it was storming and dropping the proverbial cats and dogs.
Bob wasn’t the only radio personality in my memory. There was Bill Ring, Bare-foot Bob, Lloyd Evans, and Dan Coulter. I remember Dan because he was on the air on KICK before Bob Bright. He had the privilege of being the overnight guy on the “twenty-four-hour hit after hit after hit” station.
And I knew his brother. We were in school together in junior high and my freshman year of high school. That was about the only fascinating thing about Bruce. He had a brother that everyone listened to. Heads tucked under the covers at two in the morning with the volume so low you had to put your ear to the speaker to hear. That was to keep Mom and Dad from telling you to turn it off and go to sleep.
But then there was Cliff House. He was the husband of the Drama teacher at Hillcrest where we went to high school. Did I mention that his wife was beautiful? How many of your schoolteachers were you in love with? I think Sandy was one of only two in my life.
With all these wonderful DJs of course I wanted to be one myself. Steve Grant also inspired me. And frustrated me. He was a classmate and would join the Speech and Debate team on occasion when Radio Broadcasting was one of the events at a tournament.
There were three of us for these events. Steve, Richard, my debate colleague, and myself. Richard and I never stood a chance. Steve had that voice, even in high school, that made him the perfect announcer. Was it against the rules that he worked at KTXR in the evenings and weekends? I don’t think there were any rules for student broadcasters at that time.
While in college, Bill and I decided to drive to Kansas City to take the test for our radio broadcaster’s license. I only qualified for my third class, restricted license. When I transferred to college in Bolivar, MO, I even applied at their station. I kept it active for about ten years and then let it lapse because no one would hire me.
I did make it on the radio once. I received an award from the Northside Optimists Club and was asked to do an interview on KGBX AM. I don’t remember the interviewer’s name. I think my speech and journalism teachers had the radio on in their rooms that afternoon.
Not all classic music is palatable in every aspect of consideration. “Young girl” is one of those. Gary Puckett and the Union Gap was a pop music group in the 1960s and 70s. I enjoy their music. There is a problem with this song, though.
It could sound like a dirty old man who is chasing a young lady. When I was in college I had this problem as well. However, I was only nineteen. She was fifteen. According to Missouri State laws I could be prosecuted for having sex with her until she turned eighteen.
Listen to the lines of the song. He thought she was old enough. I knew that Cindy was not. I did not tell her to hurry home to her mother. I did not need to change my mind. I could not get her out of my mind even if I wanted to. I wanted to spend time with her. I wanted to get to know her better. This is the normal course of dating.
Our culture has changed since my days. Young people were taught to wait until they were married to have sex. It is better to concentrate on other things as your relationship grows. My love for this girl was not out of line. My desire to just have sex with her would have been.
When we got married, she was seventeen. Her Mother signed our marriage license. She was still in High School. I was twenty-one and had graduated from college two weeks before. The previous summer I spent ten weeks away in Pennsylvania working as a student pastor for a church through the summer missionary program of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board.
Upon returning, I decided that we needed to be married as soon as I graduated. I did not know where God would lead me. I did not want to have to leave her behind again. We were already engaged before I had left for the summer. I knew after a few months of dating her that I wanted to spend my life with her. Not just one night.
We planned the wedding for May. I began working at a part-time job. We decided where we would live. We purchased a car of our own. Our families helped with expenses and preparations. We planned for a minister, church, flowers, cake, maid-of-honor, best man, and everything else. We even decided to go to Branson for our two-day honeymoon.
Right after graduation, my part-time job became a full-time position in a management program. Two weeks after the wedding I was told that next Monday I would be in Joplin and would serve as a manager at a new location. I was reminded of why we needed to get married when we did.
This year we will be married for forty-nine years. If anyone said it would not last, I think we have proved them incorrect. All our kids got married while still in college. When I told them they should wait like I did, they reminded me that Cindy finished high school as a married woman. Now you know why I always said they could start dating when they were thirty.
Charles (Chuck) Kensinger 