Just As We Were

Rating:
Summary: Wow What memories
Review: I laughed and cried as I read this book. I could see myself and my family in so many of the stories and pictures. Eras long gone but some very happy meomories.

Rating:
Summary: nutty, but true
Review: This book brought back such a flood of memories of my own born-again upbringing. The great gift of this book is that it made me laugh hard and out loud, after all these years of hiding out from the memories. It captures just about every oddball, earnest angle to the whole experience, from what a teenager should do to pass the time in church (do make important sermon notes in the margin of your Bible, don't clean out your purse) to what you're supposed to say when someone asks you to dance ("I don't dance, I'm a Christian.") to why you felt so smug when you won a Sword Drill. The book doesn't make me want to relive it (once was enough!) or inflict it on my own child (though I did make him memorize the books of the Bible, just so he wouldn't be Biblically illiterate). But it does make me think, well, okay, it was weird but it was also funny (in retrospect) and I'm mighty grateful someone else who lived it got it down on paper before we all forgot what happened to us. I've ordered copies for all my brothers and sisters, who will also see themselves on every page. Great job.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book about great memories
Review: This is a very sweet book that will make you laugh if you grew up with only a few of these memories. Not irreverent or blasphemous, it is a true but humorous look at how we grew up in religious families and communities. So many things that I had forgotten from my childhood were brought to mind again while reading this scrap book of growing up spiritual. It was surprising that the authors left out Davey and Goliath as proper TV fare though, maybe because it usually aired on Sunday morning before we left for Church. And it is funny to remember what we thought about those "other Churches". I thank the authors for putting this memory album together for us. So buy, enjoy, and share this book with others who will relate, before this gentle way of life is forgotten altogether in some parts of this country.