Lifetime Legacies & Lunch I
Rae Gravley introduces a series of stories from the North Park neighborhood.
I was recently invited to lunch at the North Park Friendship House on Hickory Street, after the groundbreaking ceremony for Connecting Caring Communities’ newest project—a new Friendship House, a neighborhood park and playground and a community of ten houses, all on the old site of the North Park County School, later renamed Ben Milam Elementary School. The cool breezy weather and sweetly singing birds provided a perfect morning for honoring the hard work of so many. Just down the street at the current North Park Friendship House more than fifty friends and neighbors gathered to enjoy way too much home-cooked and baked food and to reminisce by telling stories about life in the old neighborhood.
Many of those in attendance had lived all or most of their lives in the very same neighborhood. Many inherited homes from parents or returned to take care of elderly parents and loved the quiet, yet open neighborhood just north of Hardin-Simmons University. Many of those present were connected in some way with the HSU Cowboy Band, the old Olsen House now being repurposed, and with former and present students of HSU. Many had wonderful memories of the old days when North Park County School and later Milam Elementary School was the hub of the neighborhood. Sitting quietly, writing as fast as I could, I listened to the stories of the lives of the people present and realized I was in a special place, an almost sacred setting. They talked of baptism and Bible studies, but I wasn’t thinking about that at all. I was thinking that where two or more are gathered, there will be stories to tell!
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Rae Gravley volunteers as the CCC Story Chronicler. The Lifetime Legacies & Lunch series will add a new story each week telling the stories of the North Park neighborhood and its residents.