From the Home Place

September 6, 2026

Good morning. It’s 5 a.m. here and I just finished an amazing prayer time. It is such a blessing to get to praise God with song and to join the Holy Spirit in rejoicing! Wow, we get to serve such an awesome God!!!

Early this morning I started thanking our Lord for all that He has done within and through our lives as His servants. Quite often, I make comment to Miss Deb, “We have had a great run!” When I think back to so many times when my life, or the life of someone dear to me, could have ended at a much younger stage, I marvel that I’m still here. I never have lived a life of caution, yet my loving Heavenly Father has kept me around thus far. I guess we still have things to accomplish for His kingdom.

If I might, I would like to walk you down a portion of my memory lane this morning. I think the year must have been 1971. Deb and I were dating. For whatever reason, my folks had agreed to allow me and Deb, along with my two younger sisters to take our old Chevy pickup, dad’s hunting tent and enough groceries for two days on the mountain. We were to travel to the east side of Laramie Peak, pitch our tent on Horseshoe Creek and go dancing that evening!

As we traveled through Glendo, we ran into a great friend who was the same age as Deb and we invited him to join us for the dance and camping. He thought that sounded like a great idea and would plan to join us there later in the day. We made our journey on up the mountain, sat up camp, and loaded into the pickup to go on up the mountain for a night of great dancing and fun!

When we arrived at the dance, there was our friend Joe, just like we had planned. The only catch was that he had brought Casey, Rockey and Mark with him. But hey, the more the merrier, right? We danced until early the next morning. If I remember correctly, the eight of us never missed one dance all night! The amazing thing was that we weren’t full of Rocky Mountain Kool-Aid in the process.

We danced, we laughed, we behaved ourselves, which was rather unusual for Joe and I. Everyone had much fun. The band decided that it was going to be daylight before long and that we should all go home and get some rest. So, we loaded our crew up into two vehicles and headed down the mountain for our camp. Once again, amazingly enough, we all arrived safely.

Fortunately, the crew had brought extra sleeping bags and most everyone had remembered a pillow. A pair of jeans folded up fixed that problem for those who need a place to lay their head. It wasn’t very long at all, and everyone was sound asleep, scattered across the floor of a hunting tent.

Way too soon, daylight slid up the side of the mountain, and it was time to rustle up some breakfast for everyone. I got up and started a fire. I found a couple of cast iron frying pans, bacon, eggs and pancake batter. Within a few minutes my youngest sister was up and helped me get some grub ready. When we hollered, “Breakfast!” the walls of the ‘ol tent came alive and blood-shot eyes started to roll out, looking for coffee and food. That is everyone except Mark; he had learned to like his sleep.

By the time breakfast was over, dishes were done and the coffee was gone, the sun was cooking at full blast, so the swimming suits came out and presto-change-o, we all headed for a nearby swimming hole. That is everyone except Mark, who was still in his sleeping bag. Well, us guys couldn’t allow him to miss out on the fun we were about to have, so we went into the tent and quickly drug his lazy carcass outside. After the last two pieces of bacon and a pull of good creek water, all eight of us headed for the swimming hole.

Man, was that water COLD! There were a couple of springs that fed the pond, along with the rest of the mountain creek water. The hole was deep enough that it would sure enough swim a horse, so we started jumping of a rock ledge on the North side of the pond. Up and down, up and down we ran like a bunch of monkeys, laughing, challenging; as we continued the fun that we had started the night before. But man, was that water was cold! Did you know that you won’t shiver if you totally relax?

Well, we finally all played out and decided that we had better break camp and get headed home before our dads formed a search party. As we walked back toward the tent, I noticed that there was something seriously wrong with the tent. Upon further inspection, we found that the ridge pole (a 12″ 2 X 4) had broken. The amazing thing was that the extremely sharp end of that pole had rammed all the way thorough Mark’s sleeping bag right where his heart would have been had we left him there.

That put a real damper on our party, thinking that one of us had come that close to death. We rather quietly rolled-up camp, loaded up into our vehicles and all of us returned to our homes, thankful that all of us were still alive.

Today, after church, Miss Deb and I will attend the funeral of our dear friend Mark. He is the first of that crew to pass-on. This day, I remember a group of teens laughing, playing and bonding. Nearly sixty years later, I anticipate seeing several of those folks at Mark’s memorial.

Friends, one day, life is just a precious memory. Perhaps today, you should reconnect with one of those friends from you past, before someone else leaves this ‘ol ball of dirt behind.

Remembering days gone by with you, Neal