Reverend Hicks

Now who in good conscience would name a baby boy Laverne? No matter, Reverend Hicks was a man's man. He loved hunting and fishing! He had one of the first fine Dumphy boats, molded of beautifully varnished mahogany plywood, in this area. The Medicine Creek Dam had just been constructed and Strunk Lake was filling. Trenton and the Willow were in the future. Until then about the only bodies of water nearby were the sand pits along the Republican. I still cringe to remember ladies wearing hard soled shoes walking across that beautiful plywood deck as they boarded off a sandy shore to get a boat ride.

It was hunting though that Reverend Hicks loved, all kinds but especially pheasant hunting. Now to be a first class hunter he thought it necessary to own a bird dog. It had to be purebred no less. I remember it was scrawny, he didn't want her fed too much, mainly white with splotchy black spots, probably an English setter. At the time the parsonage was one of the big beautiful houses located across the street east of Norris Park. I don't know whether it was against city ordinance or most likely Edith wouldn't allow the dog to live at the parsonage. Reverend Hicks came in search of a farmstead for his female retriever pup to grow up and be ready for hunting season.

Evidently Uncle Rollin was an easy touch and the Reverend's dog came to live on the farm with him. Great place, located on the crick, kids to play with, rabbits to chase, no cage, simply dog heaven. Now a bird dog needs to be trained to hunt a small detail that was never attended to. No matter the Reverend had his bird dog, with papers no less.

Another small detail came up when the Reverend's dog decided it was time to start a family. Aunt Elynnor, I suppose it was, detected the dog's immoral way and tied her to a tree close to the house. It happened to be summer and Buster, a shepherd cross typical farm dog, lived about a quarter mile away. His farmer, a good German named Heine, was over to help my uncle work pigs surgically converting them from little boars into shoats. Buster of course came along and in short order decided that he should help "Preacher Hicks" scratch her itch.

Uncle Rollin didn't think that marriage of convenience would work out and Heine suggested that they also convert Buster. He was a little hard to catch but they finally held him by his hind legs over the Dutch door on the hog shed and in a few seconds Buster became a capon/steer/gelding/eunuch -- what do you call it? Problem solved!

Well not quite. The men finished their job with the pigs and headed to the house to wash up. To their great surprise there was Buster and "Preacher Hicks" all hung up consummating their natural marriage. No sense wasting one last good shot!

It was easy to find Reverend Hicks every morning a little after nine. He was down the street at the Keystone coffee shop. Little happened in McCook that he didn't know about. He was also proselytizing a little and all sorts of men, from the tired and lonely to the rich and affluent would show up in church.

He knew no strangers. Reverend Hicks would talk to them all and next thing you knew they and their families would be welcomed into our congregation to hear him preach on Sunday.

Reverend Hicks left McCook sometime after I departed to the military. Years later I caught one of his church services at Maywood. He had to tell me how proud he was to have written a letter of recommendation to get me into the Academy and how he had watched my career progress over the years. He is long deceased now but good guys like that deserve to go to happy hunting grounds in heaven!

Somewhere it must be written, at least in the playbook that Edith used, that the Preacher's wife has to direct the choir. Now when Reverend Prouty left we had a sweet young choir director, a school teacher named Marie Coffey, from good Chehey stock up by Curtis. Marie was doing a great job of leading our choir but graciously stepped temporarily into the background when in short order Edith held sway. She didn't much take no for an answer either so she even had me singing in her chancel choir. I did draw the line at singing solo although she offered!

Edith's crowning glory though was her "White Christmas" musical production. She had a call out for white bed sheets and the whole front of the church from the altar rail to the organ pipes was draped in white.

Someone constructed platforms up high where angels appeared. One of those angels chosen was my sister, the pretty one the cheerleader.

I knew that was a mistake because I also knew how messy she kept her room at home -- no angel would live like that! But then what does a junior high age younger brother know about angels?

Wise men, shepherds, Mother Mary with Babe in the manger, Joseph, we had them all, alive and in living color! I can still picture that silent night scene along with all the wonderful Christmas music from a heavenly choir off in the wings somewhere.

Oh it was an awesome production! Of such are precious memories made.

That is the way I saw it.