Judy Jetton, Bill Jetton, Mary Gans, Richard Gans
Mom and Dad always had good friends. These close friends became our second family. These experiences led me to understand that living close to your family is a blessing. When you need help moving something, you call family. When you need a babysitter, you call family. When you are sick, you call family. When your car breaks down, you call family. When your wife has a baby, you call family. On holidays you get together with family. Living in New Mexico and Texas made calling on our family impossible for those things. Even a telephone call was expensive back then, and people only called on holidays or with emergencies. Like most families today, we lived a long way from our family while growing up. Since Dad was a preacher, we were always involved in a church, and Mom and Dad always ended up making friends with other families.
I want to list for you a few of the friends that I remember considering “family” in the different places that we lived. They each had an influence in raising us kids, and an impact on our lives.
- Richard and Mary Gans – Mom and Dad’s high school friends,DeSoto, MO
Joe Wigley, Bill Jetton, Nancy Wigley and Judy Jetton
- Roger and Cindy Pickard – Sedalia, MO
- Priscilla Davis – Artesia, New Mexico
- Joe and Nancy Wigley – Roswell, New Mexico
- Larry and Rachel Aguilar – Roswell, New Mexico
- Gary and Susie Hill – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Jim and Vertus Duckworth – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Del and Bev Garland – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Elias and Fran Rodriguez – Cape Girardeau, MO
- Dr. Marshall and Betty Jung – Scott City, MO
- Jim and Betty Abner – Charleston, MO
The lesson to be learned here is that it is important to find good friends. When you live far away from family, joining and getting involved in a church is very important. Good friends make life enjoyable, plus being able to help each other out in tough times can be a difference maker. Mom and Dad always found good friends to do things with. It made being away from Grandpa and Grandma a lot easier.
Family is the best. Family is great, and I never appreciated all of my family like I should have. But friends are important, too, and wherever you go in life be sure to put effort into making good friends. It can be so rewarding, and I would argue that the best place to find good friends is at church.
Bev Garland, Judy Jetton, Susie Hill
Bill Jetton, Gary Hill, Del Garland
The Wigley’s
Del Garland, Mark Garland, Bev Garland, Jana Garland
The Pickard’s from Sedalia