Special events

Susan Easton Black

Occasionally there is a "sociable", the Pioneer counterpart to our firesides. Last Sunday we heard Susan Easton Black and George Durrant. She is a widow Aunt Gail's age, petite and glamorous. I'm sure she's had something done to do away with wrinkles and gray hair. She owns a home here and often visits. George Durrant stayed in the GA cottage on our street. He's in his 80th year and the mother of his nine children died not too long ago. Evidently they are "dating."

 They each spoke for a half hour with no notes at all.

Sister Black taught us about the beginnings of baptisms for the dead here in Nauvoo. In the early years there were so many deaths they held mass funerals on Mondays and Thursdays. Joseph would often go out to the old burial grounds up Parley Street to speak at these funerals. On one occasion he was speaking at Seymore Bronson's funeral and introduced the doctrine of baptisms for the dead. The Saints were amazed. One woman immediately grabbed a Priesthood holder and went down to the river and was baptized for her dead son. Later they worked out witnesses and recorders and actually doing it in a wooden font in the unfinished temple. It was built after the pattern of the one in Solomon's Temple. Later that font started to leak and they built a stone one which they never had time to use as they had to leave. A very interesting lecture.

Solomon's temple with baptismal font

Present day baptismal font in Nauvoo in exactly the same place as the original (the largest font in the church)

George Durrant

George Durrant reminded me of Garrison Keillor the way he talked. He said he used to be called "Garge" back when he lived in American "Fark" but then a teacher from out of town came and set them straight. He said he sometimes gets discouraged. But when he goes to the temple he gets ENcouraged. He likes to paint and one time he took a class where they all did a painting and then were critiqued. He said one girl said, "I like his sky!" And then another student said, "But the foreground is all wrong." He said we should look at the sky. He said the best thing our kids can write is, "We've been to the temple."

We have P-day groups who go on an excursion about once a month. There are 8 couples in our group and today we had our first excursion. We went to three little towns in Iowa about an hour west of Nauvoo. First was Bentonsport where we watched a woman throw pots and her husband demonstrate his blacksmithing abilities. She puts Queen Anne's lace (the flower) on each of her pots and it leaves an imprint when she fires it. We bought a pretty blue bowl she made.

There was an inn there the sign says was built by Mormon craftsmen on their way west. It looks like the places in Nauvoo.

Evidently the Des Moines River has flooded several times and was marked on the building!

Then we went to Bonaparte and had lunch at a quaint restaurant. Our waitress (and cashier) was an 84 year old woman who treated us like friends. Then we drove to Cantril to a store called The Dutchman which is run by Mennonites. There we bought nuts and honey and such. It was a fun outing. The Ekins rode with us. They're from Delta where they ran a dairy farm.