January 27, 1970, ordained by the Grand River Presbytery (now, Lake Michigan), in the First Presbyterian Church of Holland, MI ... and from there, back to the West Virginia Mountain Project and two of its churches, Camp Creek and Ridgeview, where I had begun January 1.
My wife and I ... newly minted.
With a choice to make,
A choice granted to the newly minted,
Ministers of the Gospel, or something like that.
To continue in SS, if already in.
Or, if already in, resign.
If not, sign up.
A choice.
That could not be undone.
We choose Social Security.
I received my first SS Card when I was 14, working for my father, at the Milwaukee Cheese Company, where else, Milwaukee.
D (she was already in SS, too) and we thought:
"On our meager salary, how would we invest?"
"Given what we didn't know, about just about everything money-wise, how would we decide?"
Neither of our families were wealthy.
Nor invested.
Just hard working. Comfortable, but that's all.
So, we decided, on SS.
"It was the American thing to do," we thought. To play our part, stand with working Americans, and assure ourselves something for retirement. For us, it was the right thing, something good for the country, even patriotic. We felt good about it. We felt right.
And so it was ... for the rest of our working lives.
That's how I came to be in SS.
I have only gratitude about it ... it was right then, and it's still right.
Thank God for SS, and FDR who put it together, before we showed up.
Amen.
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